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It was a little over 40 years ago when Steve Young first joined what would become Duke Energy, the giant electric power holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

\\u201cNot only has it been a long tenure, but also it is the only post-college job that I\\u2019ve ever had,\\u201d says Young, who first roamed the energy giant\\u2019s corridors as a finance assistant.

In the years that followed, Young says, he became involved in various finance-related projects as different executives sought him out because he had become recognized as a hard worker. One such senior executive, who sat inside Duke\\u2019s rates and regulatory affairs realm, approached Young about a staff position in the department.

\\u201cIt was a smaller group and outside of finance, but from what I could see, the group intersected with the lifeblood of the company\\u2019s profitability and revenue streams and pricing,\\u201d explains Young, who accepted the position and in short order acquired the regulatory executive as a dedicated mentor.

Says Young: \\u201cThis person was a tough, hardnosed executive who had a reputation for being that way.\\u201d

Years later, when the executive retired, Young advanced to his mentor\\u2019s position, a promotion that firmly planted him inside Duke\\u2019s executive ranks.

Along the way, Young\\u2019s regulatory focus and experience afforded him a keen sense of how the changing legal landscape would alter the industry in the years ahead.

\\u201cI was pulled into that process,\\u201d recalls Young, who says that back in the mid-1990s, he enjoyed a ringside seat as Duke pursued and acquired one of its early M&A targets, PanEnergy.

\\u201cMergers were rare in the utility industry back then, and certain laws had to be repealed\\u2014they were, and other mergers have since occurred,\\u201d explains Young, who in the decades that followed influenced and championed a string of transactions that would reshape Duke\\u2019s business over time.

\\u201cI found it a fascinating challenge to pull the pieces apart, put the new pieces back together, and come up with a cohesive business plan that was understandable to the SEC, regulators, and shareholders,\\u201d remarks Young, who would find himself at the center of Duke\\u2019s M&A activities in the mid-2000s, a period during which Duke sold off its international and merchant businesses and merged with energy company Cinergy of Cincinnati, OH.

\\u201cAll of this happened within 2 years,\\u201d says Young, who advanced into a number of organizational CFO roles during that period and was named senior vice president and controller for Duke Energy in 2006. He would be named CFO and executive vice president in 2013, following the energy company\\u2019s 2012 merger with Progress Energy\\u2014yet one more transaction along Young\\u2019s career path.\\xa0\\u2013 Jack Sweeney

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