Kenneth Cory

With nearly 30 years of C-suite executive, Wall Street, engineering, consulting, and Board of Director experience, Dr. Cory is a recognized leader and innovator in the power, energy, and infrastructure sectors of North America. Subsequent to tenures as a professor (Ph.D. in Business Strategy, spec. Finance) and as a strategy consultant with Deloitte in the North American Energy Group, Dr. Cory served as the head of global strategy (incl. strategy, financial planning, corporate development, new technologies, restructuring, risk, new business development) for two Fortune 300 companies (TXU and Calpine) before serving as Executive Vice President for EPCOR Utilities, a $7 billion power and water utility in Edmonton, Canada, where his direct reports included the CFO, SVP Strategy, CIO, VP Supply Chain, VP Risk / Internal Audit, and the VP Environment, Health, & Safety. While at EPCOR, Dr. Cory crafted and led the execution of a restructuring plan that included the IPO spin-off of a $4 billion power company - the first major North American IPO following the financial market crisis of 2008-2009. Dr. Cory then transitioned his career to be a Wall Street executive and board of director’s member working for Apollo Global Management and then as an independent adviser / principal for large-scale power and utility transactions.

More recently, Dr. Cory returned to academia at UNT in 2020 and has subsequently been named teacher of the year in the Management Department in 2021, 2022, and 2024, and he received the prestigious President's Council Teacher of the Year Award at the entire university level for 2026. He has also served as Chair of the Professional Service Faculty Personnel Affairs Committee (PSPAC) for the Department of Management and was recently named by President Keller to the committee helping to design a Civil Discourse Initiative for the university. Ken’s primary areas of focus include business strategy, international business, management consulting, and applied finance/economics at the undergraduate, MBA, and executive-levels. During his time back in academia, he continued to stay involved in the industry serving as the chief strategy and commercial advisor to Shell's global Marine Renewable Energy Group and to Shell's Natural Business Solutions group, while continuing to develop his own renewable wind and marine power technology for which he is the sole inventor and has been awarded seven patents with one more pending.

Dr. Cory has taught university-level strategy, consulting, and applied finance/economics as well as consulted to, managed, led, financed, and governed both multi-billion dollar and entrepreneurial power, energy, water, and infrastructure companies at the highest levels across a diverse set of geographies and regulatory environments.