CHARLOTTE, NC: Former General Motors communications leader Selim Bingol will join Duke Energy as SVP and CCO next month.
Bingol will succeed Tim Pettit, who has been handling the role in the interim since Ginny Mackin departed in August 2013 to serve as VP of corporate comms at Ingersoll Rand. Pettit will remain at the company as director of regulated utility communications, Duke’s lead comms consultant, Scott Sutton, told PRWeek.
Reporting to Jennifer Weber, EVP of external affairs and strategic policy, Bingol will direct Duke Energy's communications strategy and services, such as internal and external communications support for business units, media relations, and executive communications.
He will oversee 135 staffers in the role, Sutton said.
Bingol stepped down as GM’s SVP of global comms and public policy in April. The automaker said then that he left the company to "pursue other interests." When he departed, the car manufacturer was in the midst of dealing with a public outcry over its ten-year delay in recalling Chevrolet Cobalts with malfunctioning ignition systems. Tony Cervone replaced him in May.
Bingol joined GM in 2010 as SVP of global communications. The public policy portion of his role was added two years later. He oversaw GM’s corporate, global products, and brand communications in his most recent job, as well as its federal, state, and international government relations and public policy work. Bingol was also chairman of the GM Foundation.
Prior to GM, he served as a corporate communications SVP at AT&T from 2004 through 2007, when the company went through $200 billion in mergers and acquisitions.
Bingol also previously served as an SVP and senior partner at FleishmanHillard in one of various positions he held at the Omnicom Group firm.
Bingol was not immediately available for comment.
