General Counsel
Sonia Rocha is General Counsel at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, better known as NERC, held its Trades Meeting and Executive Committee Meeting in mid-October in Washington, D.C. NERC’s mission is to assure the effective and efficient reduction of risks to the reliability and security of the grid. PUF Executive Editor Steve Mitnick discussed achieving that with NERC CEO Jim Robb, Chief Engineer Mark Lauby, General Counsel Sonia Rocha, Senior Vice President of Strategy and External Engagement Camilo Serna, and Senior Vice President of Regulatory Oversight Howard Gugel.
PUF’s Steve Mitnick: What do you do on a typical day?
Sonia Rocha: I wear a couple of different hats at NERC. I am responsible for providing all the legal advice to the organization with my general counsel hat. I am responsible for all the corporate governance requirements under my corporate secretary hat.
I also have responsibility for our assurance team, which includes internal audit and corporate risk management. From a substantive point of view, internal audit reports to the chair of the finance and audit committee of the Board of Trustees and from an administrative point of view, reports to the general counsel’s office within the organization, so there is a level of autonomy that other departments don’t have.