Senior Vice President, Enterprise Security, Resilience and National Security Policy
Puesh Kumar is senior vice president, Enterprise Security, Resilience, and National Security Policy, for American Electric Power and is responsible for cybersecurity and physical security and leads AEP’s efforts to shape national energy security policy for the industry.
Most recently, he was vice president, National Security and Resilience. Prior to joining AEP, Kumar was the director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER). In this role, he led a team focused on the security and resilience of electricity, oil, and natural gas systems across the United States. He represented DOE on National Security Council interagency policy committees focused on cybersecurity and critical infrastructure resilience, worked with states on energy security planning, led research and development efforts, managed the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and directed emergency response efforts for cyber, physical and natural hazards impacting the energy system.
He has briefed Congressional committees and staff on threats to electricity, oil, and natural gas systems, led and engaged in technical conferences with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and worked with public utility commissions on strengthening the reliability, security and resilience of the U.S. electricity sector. Kumar also has represented DOE and the U.S. government in bilateral and multilateral engagements with allies across the globe.
Kumar has more than 20 years of experience in the energy sector. Prior to his role at DOE, he worked at Southern California Edison, the American Public Power Association and Memphis Light, Gas, and Water working on topics spanning grid modernization, reliability, cybersecurity, resource adequacy, artificial intelligence and supply chain security. He has a degree in electric engineering with a focus on power systems.