Ray Palmieri, ReliabilityFirst (RF) senior vice president and treasurer, announced his retirement, effective June 1, 2020. In addition to serving as treasurer since 2012, Palmieri was a member of the team who established ReliabilityFirst Corporation in 2006, and he was the organization’s sole vice president for many years before being promoted to senior vice president. He was responsible for the leadership and implementation of the Reliability Engineering, IT and Finance functions, and he continued to support RF’s efforts to ensure the NERC and RF policies, procedures and standards were adhered to such that reliability of the Bulk Power System was advanced.

“It would be difficult, if not impossible, to sum up Ray’s immeasurable contributions to the industry and tireless efforts to advance RF,” said Tim Gallagher, RF president and CEO. “I’m grateful to Ray for his partnership over the last 15 years in developing RF since its infancy to become the strong Region it is today, as well as for his friendship, leadership, comradery and passion for this industry. There are so many of us throughout the ERO who know Ray and have been touched by our interactions with him, and his legacy in our industry is one that will last for many years to come.”

Palmieri’s leadership elevated the importance of industry performance monitoring, and he championed enhanced performance and reliability management through feedback and a drive toward continuous improvement.

“Throughout my career, I’m fortunate to have connected and engaged with such talented and dedicated professionals, and I’m especially proud of the strides we made to advance the compliance aspects of the industry,” said Palmieri. “The success of the utility industry is paramount to the advancement of society, and I wish the industry and all the people in it nothing but success in carrying out the mission I’ve enjoyed working toward together for the past 47 years.”

Prior to the establishment of RF, Palmieri worked in the ECAR region, starting up the compliance program for one of the three predecessor reliability regions that formed RF. He has worked with and chaired a number of NERC teams, including compliance, standards, registration, organization certification and reliability coordination. He held various senior leadership positions in Operations, Engineering and support functions for 24 years at the Nuclear Generation Facilities for Northeast Utilities and Exelon, as well as maintaining a Senior Reactor Operators license for 15 years.

Palmieri is a Professional Engineer in New York and Connecticut; a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; a past chairman and member of various Nuclear Industry Owners Groups; and served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He graduated from New York Maritime College with a Bachelor of Engineering in Marine/Mechanical Engineering and holds an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.