Patti Poppe

Patti Poppe became CEO of PG&E Corporation in January 2021, taking on one of the most challenging turnaround jobs in American corporate history. PG&E, California's largest utility serving approximately 16 million people, had filed for bankruptcy in January 2019 after its equipment was found to have caused catastrophic wildfires — including the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2020 with approximately $25 billion in wildfire liabilities settled. Poppe, who previously led CMS Energy in Michigan and is an engineer by training, brought a disciplined operational approach to PG&E's enormous challenges. Her signature initiative is the massive undergrounding program — burying approximately 10,000 miles of power lines in high fire-risk areas to eliminate the ignition risk from overhead lines during extreme wind events. This multi-billion-dollar, multi-year program is the largest infrastructure project of its kind in the utility industry. Additionally, Poppe implemented Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings (EPSS), which automatically de-energize lines when wildfire conditions are detected. Under Poppe's leadership, PG&E's safety record has improved dramatically, with ignition-related incidents dropping significantly. The company has also restored its investment-grade credit rating and resumed paying dividends. Key stock drivers include wildfire season outcomes, regulatory decisions by the California Public Utilities Commission on rate increases and cost recovery, the progress and cost efficiency of the undergrounding program, customer rate affordability, and the growing electricity demand from data centers and EV adoption in PG&E's service territory.