Dionne Hamilton was not looking to leave Honeywell Smart Energy and Thermal Solutions where she has served as general counsel for the past five years. In fact, the Houston corporate legal veteran had rejected several recruiting efforts over the years.
But GE Vernova’s executive talent acquisition director, Jennifer Galeo, presented a vision of the company’s vision that Hamilton found enticing.
“They are leading a new era of energy — electrifying the world while simultaneously working to decarbonize it,” Hamilton, who is in her second week as GE Vernova’s GC of Wind Energy, told The Texas Lawbook. “They are accelerating the path to more reliable, affordable and sustainable energy, while helping customers power economies and deliver the electricity that is vital to health, safety, security and improved quality of life.”
“They had me at decarbonize,” she said. “Twenty-five percent of the world’s electricity is generated through GE Vernova equipment. Additionally, GE Vernova is a part of the 130-year-old GE legacy but has been a standalone publicly traded company for less than two years.”
“It’s old and new, and I wanted to be part of that,” she said.
Hamilton is the GC of GE Vernova’s $9 billion wind business, which has an installed base of approximately 57,000 turbines and nearly 120 GW of installed capacity worldwide. She will lead a global team of legal and compliance professionals of about 25, which support the company’s 18,000 wind sector employees
“We’re not just a leader in balancing reliability, affordability and sustainability, we’re working to make the world a better place, for today and for generations to come,” she said. “As demand for energy increases globally, all types of energy will be needed to power the world. Wind will be a critical part of the solution.”
Born in Barbados in the Caribbean, Hamilton’s family moved to Brooklyn when she was 5 and then Houston when she was 12. Her mother worked in the housekeeping department of a major hotel chain. Her dad was a chef for most of her childhood, but he also became a taxi driver, started an office cleaning business and was a landlord.
The high school student newspaper asked Hamilton where she thought she would be in 10 years.
“I said I would be a lawyer working in a firm, married with one child,” Hamilton told The Lawbook in a 2023 interview. “The only thing incorrect in that statement was the law firm part. I didn’t know about in-house counsel at that time.”
She earned her law degree from the University of Texas in 1995.
“During law school I worked in every possible sector — the attorney general’s office tax division, as a clerk for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, for a solo practitioner whose checks did not always clear [and for] a large law firm in Indianapolis,” she said.
One of the summer internships was with United Technologies Corporation.
“I really liked the in-house experience,” she said. “You’re given meaningful work early and often.”
United Technologies offered Hamilton a position upon graduation.
“Just six months after graduating law school, I was on a plane to Beijing to negotiate a R&D agreement with an aerospace-related entity in China,” she said. “Also early on in my career, I formed the first [wholly foreign owned enterprise] in China for UTC, a Fortune 100 conglomerate.”
Hamilton spent 16 years in the legal department at UTC and then six years as general counsel of United Space Alliance, a Houston-based joint venture of The Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin. The company managed and conducted human space flight operations for NASA under the space shuttle program.
From 2016 to 2020, she was senior counsel at Boeing, handling the legal work for its human space exploration business units, including its legal needs as a contractor for NASA’s International Space Station.
Hamilton joined Honeywell in 2020, where she scored huge successes, including leading the legal department’s role in the company’s launch of revolutionary gas meter technology that monitors residential and commercial activities in real time that can stop incidents before they occur.
“I built a great team at Honeywell, and that was the hardest part about leaving,” she said. “We closed deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, made process improvements, settled and resolved some major litigation, avoided any significant regulatory attention and made decisions to reduce the churn on the legal team. I sincerely believe that my work at Honeywell improved lives and increased safety.”
Citing her professional successes, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook awarded Hamilton the 2023 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel of the Year for a Large Legal Department.
Hamilton said GE Vernova has led the evolution of the wind industry over the past two decades.
“To lead this energy transition will require innovative solutions in product configuration, supply chain and operations — solutions that GE Vernova is leading,” she said.
Hamilton said the wind business is facing some significant legal issues.
“I will be navigating the rapidly evolving and uncertain policy environment affecting the offshore and onshore wind industry in the U.S., together with our customers and suppliers,” she said. “We have concerns around phase-out of government incentives, tariffs, government permitting timing and supply chain challenges. Additionally, as with other wind turbine OEMs [original equipment manufacturers], we must execute on our backlog and address any quality issues with legacy products. This is a global business, and each jurisdiction will have their own challenges. There’s also the issue of good wind and not so good wind. We prefer good wind.”
Hamilton said she is excited about her new position.
“With any new role, one has to understand the culture and dynamics of the company and leadership, learn the correct contacts for questions and answers, and bond with your new employees, teammates, peers and leaders,” she said. “There are several of us starting around the same time in the legal department, and I’m really looking forward to getting to know everyone. I’m definitely a people person and can’t wait to make some of what I am sure will be lifelong connections.”