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I am deeply honored by the trust the board has placed in me to lead Duke Energy. I have a high degree of confidence in the strength of our company's leadership and dedicated employees.

I am honored to be named chairman of Duke Energy's board and privileged to lead our company forward for our customers, employees, and shareholders.

Through Duke Energy's strong balance sheet and electric generation expertise, and Piedmont's understanding of natural gas markets and proficient operations, the combined company will be well-positioned for a future that may require additional natural gas infrastructure and services to meet the needs of our customers.

For 2015, Duke Energy's employees safety record received the top rank among large utilities as recognize by EEI.

As we look ahead, we see increasing opportunities for Duke in natural gas - not just for producing electricity, but in providing gas for our customers. We have been investing in renewables as well throughout the U.S.

Duke came to us. They volunteered to come to us and made a number of suggestions to some people on my staff. I don't know how I would characterize them, but there have been some discussions going back and forth between Duke and members of my staff.

I had the opportunity at Duke to start doing things in the community, and it's something I continue to do even 20 years later.

I have been working for years to promote a responsible energy policy that works to increase energy efficiency and invest in alternative and renewable energy sources.

I will continue to advocate for a strong federal government role to establish the production, storage and distribution networks needed to support a hydrogen economy.

The way we grow is, we make investments. We've been building a natural-gas platform within Duke that started with the pipelines.