Duke CFO sees light at end of the tunnel.

• Author: Covington, Owen
• Position: People

After 31 years with Duke Energy Corp., David Hauser says his travels with the company have given him some of the most rewarding experiences of his career. The High Point native has been to Peru, Brazil, Indonesia and Australia and has chatted with a nomad in the man's tent in a Saudi Arabian desert. "He even had a falcon sitting next to him. I looked around and thought, 'I never thought this would happen.'"

Hauser, 52, was named chief financial officer in February. He says without hesitation that the last few years there have been the toughest in the company's history. In his message to shareholders this year, new CEO Paul Anderson described the thriving energy industry of the 1990s as now looking "like a bombed-out village." With overly enthusiastic investment in commodities trading clobbered by the sagging economy, many energy companies posted substantial losses, while others have been forced to merge. Some sank into bankruptcy.

Though Duke wasn't hit as hard as many, it went from a profit of $1.8 billion in 2001 to a loss of $1.3 billion in 2003. For a man who deals with balance sheets, this has been a painful period. "I think we've certainly had some challenging days at the office," Hauser says. "But we're working to get the company back on rock-solid footing."

When Hauser joined what was then Duke Power as an accountant in 1973, he had just graduated with a bachelor's in business from Furman University in Greenville, S.C. He worked his way up through the accounting department and was named controller in 1987.

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Hauser was promoted to vice president of procurement, services and materials in 1994...