Charles King is the Vice-President, & Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L), an investor-owned electric utility headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. He is responsible for all of KCP&L’s IT functions including corporate applications, infrastructure including network, data centers, telephony, and field radio services, and centralized support functions including business alignment, enterprise architecture, project management, testing, information security, help desk, and desktop support.
KCP&L has been executing a multi-year Roadmap replacing all core legacy corporate and operational systems with off-the-shelf software, transforming business processes, infrastructure, roles, staffing models, and skillsets. KCP&L is now also planning a large integration effort with Westar Energy as part of an acquisition expecting approval in April of 2017. Charles has over 26 years of experience spanning applications, architecture, and large project delivery across IT organizations in consulting, telecom, media, and utilities. Prior to joining KCP&L in 2011, Charles was Director of IT Shared Services with Dish Network in Denver. Prior to Dish, he held numerous Director positions at CenturyLink, Embarq and Sprint. Prior to joining Sprint, Charles began his professional career with Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and worked in the utility and telecom industries.
Charles received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Arkansas and a Bachelor’s in mathematics from Harding University.