Cooper Monroe.

PositionDuke Energy Corp. director - Interview

At Duke Energy Corporation, Director of State Tax Cooper Monroe keeps state and local tax (SALT) an essential ingredient in his corporate tax law diet. But instead of causing hypertension and increased use of a sphygmomanometer, commonly known as a blood pressure gauge, Monroe's SALT experience moves the needle in another direction--toward job-satisfaction.

"Almost anything you do that changes state tax is a permanent change to the bottom line. You spend a lot of time in the federal tax area chasing temporary differences for the time value of money. The challenge, of course, with a large, multistate corporation is keeping up with so many state jurisdictions," he explains.

Monroe, who has been in his position at Duke Energy since January 2007, is responsible for state income tax planning, tax policy, and compliance, as well as audit and tax controversy work for the corporation.

Duke Energy, the largest electric power company in the United States, supplies and delivers electricity to approximately seven million customers in the Southeast and Midwest. The company also distributes natural gas in Ohio and Kentucky. Its commercial power and international businesses operate diverse power generation assets in North America and Latin America, including a growing renewable energy portfolio. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is a Fortune 250 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK.

"I sort of stumbled inadvertently into the tax area," Monroe says. Monroe began his career in the controllers area working on GAAP fixed-asset issues. "The big plus of that work was that you became very familiar with the fundamental operational aspects of a capital intensive business like a public utility. It's a great base to grow a career, because many other areas of the business use that knowledge as a starting point," he says.

Monroe was then recruited into the tax department to work on a tax fixed-asset implementation system--basically an automation effort. As Monroe puts it, "In the tax department, I've worked through a series of jobs that included income tax accounting, federal compliance, developing and implementing federal tax-planning initiatives, advising business units on tax-efficient structuring of business transactions, and performing tax controversy work at both the federal and state levels."

In addition to SALT issues, Monroe finds tax policy work extremely interesting. "The complexity of the legislative process is...

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