Director
Puesh M. Kumar leads the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER). The office is focused on strengthening the security and resilience of U.S. energy infrastructure from cyber, physical, and natural hazard risks and disruptions.
Puesh manages over 300 federal employees and contractors who lead efforts spanning national and state level policy development, executing technical assistance, conducting research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) projects, managing the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and responding to energy disruptions such as the Colonial Pipeline cyber-attack, physical attacks on electric substations, or natural hazards such as hurricanes and wildfires.
Puesh represents the Department at National Security Council (NSC) meetings on cybersecurity and resilience, leads executive-level engagement with the private sector including the CEO-led Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC) and senior executive-led Oil and Natural Gas Subsector Coordinating Council (ONG SCC) on security and resilience, and partners with federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the intelligence community, and others.
Puesh has over 20 years of experience spanning grid modernization, security, and resilience efforts within the energy sector. He engages on topics such as resource adequacy, cloud security, artificial intelligence, reliability, electrification, supply chain security, and emergency response.
Previously, Puesh was the principal manager for cybersecurity engineering and risk management at Southern California Edison, which is the largest electric utility serving the Los Angeles area. There, he led a team that addressed cyber risks to electricity infrastructure, including emerging technologies such as battery storage, renewable energy, and operational technologies. Puesh previously served as director of preparedness and exercises for DOE’s Infrastructure Security and Energy Restoration division and as senior advisor for policy and strategy at CESER.
Puesh has also held industry positions at the American Public Power Association as director of engineering and operations and at Memphis Light, Gas, and Water as a power systems electrical engineer. In 2020, Puesh received the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s Exceptional Service Award.
