Charles A. Berardesco was named interim president and chief executive officer of NERC in November 2017. Berardesco joined NERC in July 2012 as senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary. He is a member of NERC’s Board of Trustees and leads the executive management team.

Prior to joining NERC, Mr. Berardesco was senior vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary, and chief compliance officer of Constellation Energy, a Fortune 200 energy company, where he had primary responsibility for the company’s legal strategies and policies, including corporate governance, legal compliance and ethics, regulatory activities, corporate finance activities, mergers and acquisitions and litigation, along with executive management responsibility for corporate and information security. Mr. Berardesco served as a member of Constellation’s management committee, reported directly to the company’s chief executive officer, and was the chief legal advisor to Constellation’s Board of Directors.

Mr. Berardesco served as a member of the Board of Directors of the joint ventures between Constellation and Electricite de France to operate and construct nuclear power plants in the United States. He also served as a member of Constellation’s Investment Committee for its pension and employee savings plans and nuclear decommissioning trusts and its diversity council (including serving as its chair) and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Constellation Energy Group Foundation.

Prior to joining Constellation, Mr. Berardesco practiced law for nearly 20 years, both in-house and with law firms. He served as vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Fusura, a consortium of AIG, Prudential and Kemper, and senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of HCIA, a publicly held health care information company. He was counsel with the national law firm of Piper Rudnick (now DLA Piper), where he focused on corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions, and a partner in the law firm of Whiteford, Taylor, and Preston, where he chaired the firm’s corporate department and served as a member of its executive committee.

He is active in a number of charitable and membership organizations, including serving as the chair of the board of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, chair of the board of advisors of the Duke University Chapel, a member of the board of directors of Chorus America, a member of the board of governors of the University Club of Washington, D.C., and a member of the board of advisors of The George Washington University Law School. He also served as a member of the Business Council of the Human Rights Campaign.

Mr. Berardesco has been named as one of the top 10 “GC’s to Watch” by Corporate Board Magazine and while he was general counsel Constellation Energy was named as having the corporate governance team of the year by Corporate Secretary Magazine. He has been awarded the Out and Proud Corporate Counsel award by the National LGBT Bar Association and was named a Leader in the Law by the Maryland Daily Record.
Mr. Berardesco received a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in 1980 from Duke University and his juris doctorate with high honors in 1983 from The George Washington University, where he was the managing editor of The George Washington Law Review.