Karen Hyde

Karen Hyde is currently the senior vice president, chief risk, audit and compliance officer for Xcel Energy. In this role, Karen is responsible for internal audit, corporate compliance and business conduct, enterprise risk management, risk management of trading operations, and risk analytics.

In her 30 years with Xcel Energy, Karen has also been vice president, rates and regulatory affairs and vice president, resource planning and acquisition. Karen spent about ten years negotiating structured power purchase arrangements including the Company’s initial renewable energy contracts and was responsible for renewable energy compliance. Karen has worked hard to change the Company’s environmental profile, especially in Colorado. She has also held positions in forecasting and production cost and expansion plan modeling.

Before Xcel Energy, Karen was a lead nuclear engineer as a civilian employee of the department of defense overhauling submarine reactors.

Karen has a Bachelor of Science in Metallurgical Engineering from Lafayette College and a Master of Science in Mineral Economics from the Colorado School of Mines.