My Life at Palmetto: Neil Chatterjee

Neil Chatterjee is Palmetto's Chief Governmental Affairs Officer. He sat down with the Communications team to talk about his life with Palmetto.

How long have you been at Palmetto? What's your role?

I’ve been at Palmetto officially for about eight months so far. But I've been working with Palmetto going back to the fall of 2021. I had worked as a consultant to Palmetto, and Chris Kemper [Palmetto’s CEO] asked me to come in-house. I made the move internally about eight months ago, but I've been working on the same portfolio of issues for about four years now. Now I’m just doing it internally rather than externally.

What excited you to join Palmetto?

I think it was a combination of factors. The mission is one that's very appealing to me. I'm someone — despite the fact that I'm a Republican from Kentucky — I care about climate change and want to mitigate emissions, but I want to do it in a smart, market focused way. And Palmetto's mission, structure, and business plan are, in my view, just an optimal way to navigate the energy transition. That's good for consumers, that's good for the economy, and that's good for the planet. 

Why I made the decision to come in house is that I really did get to know the people well over the three years that I worked externally. I got to know the CEO, the general counsel, the capital markets folks, the LightReach team, the policy team, some of the folks on the comms team. I did a year on the board, so I knew and was comfortable with folks on the board. I was really excited to come in internally, because I not only believed in the mission and focus of the company, but also the people. And my relationships extended beyond the leadership team. I got to know a lot of people throughout the company.

What keeps you here and excited day to day?

Yeah. The last six, seven months have been turbulent ones. There was a lot of policy uncertainty, and I felt a lot of pressure to navigate that uncertainty. I think we came out of this pretty well. And I now feel like the next few years, we're going to be on a rocket ship, and I'm really, really honored and excited to be here for the ride.

Neil and his family.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I'm the liaison between the company and our partners and government officials at the federal level, at the state level, in Congress. No two days are identical, but it's a combination of me, really learning the business and learning the fundamentals of the business from various key players throughout the company, and having that understanding so that I can try and shape policy where there are opportunities or where we have to play defense. And it takes an understanding of the company to really do that. 

And then there are just a lot of questions about policy from within the company, from investors, from outside stakeholders, from potential new investors. And so in order for me to succeed in my role, I not only need to know the policy, but I need to understand the business well enough so that I understand the implications of the policy matters that are front and center. So a lot of it is just acting as that middleman between the company and policymakers.

What excites you most about the impact Palmetto might have on the world?

Look. We have a real opportunity in the coming years to not just lead to a cleaner, better planet, but also to help bring down costs for consumers. 

We're coming up on an unprecedented surge in demand for energy in this country and, in order to meet that demand, I think we can play a key role. But if [electricity] prices continue to increase, then we're not only helping consumers and the environment, but we're also helping keep energy affordable.

What outside of work keeps you fueled and ready to go?

I've got three kids, 18, 16, and 13 years old. I've got one ready to go off to college. 

My family is really my priority, and they keep me plenty busy. All three kids are very active and they're also old enough now that they're fun to engage with. So I'd say time with family is definitely my number one. 

And then outside of that, I'm a very poor golfer, but I enjoy it. The dream scenario is the day when I can actually golf with my family.