Vice President, Communications

Mr. Peterson was elected vice president by the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Executive Committee in 2001 after having served as senior director for NEI’s Communications Division. Mr. Peterson directs the Institute’s activities in media relations, advertising, editorial and creative services, public opinion research and industry communications.

At NEI, Mr. Peterson also has served as senior director for external communications and led the activities of three major communications groups at NEI: media relations and advertising; coalition and outreach; and government communications.

Mr. Peterson has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and many industry publications, and has appeared on CNN, ABC News, CNBC, CSPAN’s Washington Journal, FOX News, National Public Radio and World Business Review. He has presented speeches on energy, environmental and communications issues at several business and communications forums.

Before joining NEI, Mr. Peterson was director of communications for the American Nuclear Energy Council, a government relations organization for the nuclear energy industry and one of three groups merged in 1994 to form NEI. He also served as a senior media relations representative at Illinois Power and was a reporter and columnist at newspapers in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Mr. Peterson received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has completed the Reactor Technology Program for Utility Executives at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.