Bernerd Da Santos

Bernerd joined AES in 2000 through the acquisition of La Electricidad de Caracas. Prior to serving as Executive Vice President and COIO, he served as CFO for AES’ Global Finance Operations and CFO for the Utilities group and for the Latin America and Africa group.

Since 2015, Bernerd has overseen the transformation of AES’ operations to accelerate the delivery of greener, smarter energy solutions in a safe and reliable manner to the customers. Working in collaboration with AES’ people and contractors around the world, Bernerd has enhanced the organization’s culture of safety, efficiency, innovation, and operational excellence to provide competitive advantages to the customers and positively impact the communities he serve. This global optimization and standardization has resulted in the leveraging of the synergies and economies of scale, monetizing $750M in value for the company.

Through his leadership, AES has adopted new safety and environmental analysis systems and standards. The AES people, operations, and construction contractors have achieved global lost time incident rates that rank in the top 10% based on US benchmarks. Bernerd led the end-to-end transformation of the supply chain organization and accelerated a companywide digitization of all information technology processes and applications, focusing on achieving machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities in the operations. He successfully launched four Smart Centers at AES and scaled the use of robotics and drones to employ this data for predictive analytics for renewable and conventional generation, smart grid, and customer experience to maximize efficiency with innovative solutions and minimal necessary infrastructure.

Bernerd has proven global experience in international corporate finance and business transformation for generation, transmission, and distribution companies in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. He is a member of the boards of AES Brasil Energia S.A., AES Mong Duong Power Co. Ltd., AES Andes, IPALCO, Son My LNG Terminal LLC, and AES Renewable Holdings, LLC. He also serves on advisory boards which enable utilities to accelerate the future of energy. Bernerd is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Universidad José Maria Vargas. He earned bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration and Public Administration, Business Management, and Finance, in addition to an MBA.