Pedro J. Pizarro & Maria M. Pope Elected Chair & Vice Chair of EEI Board of Directors

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Jun 12, 2023, 20:05 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, June 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pedro J. Pizarro, president and CEO of Rosemead, Calif.-based Edison International, today was elected chair of the board of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the national association of investor-owned electric companies. Maria M. Pope, president and CEO of Portland, Ore.-based Portland General Electric, was elected vice chair.

EEI's Board elected Pizarro and Pope during the institute's annual meeting in Austin, Texas. EEI's chairmanship rotates on an annual basis, and Pizarro succeeds Warner Baxter, executive chairman of St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation.

"On behalf of EEI and our member companies, I extend our sincerest thanks to Warner Baxter for his tremendous leadership as EEI chair this past year," said EEI President and CEO Tom Kuhn. "Warner's sustained engagement and clear commitment to deliver resilient clean energy to customers were instrumental as we worked with leaders in Congress and the Administration to ensure that industry priorities were included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and in the robust clean energy tax package that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act. These historic laws are driving significant investments in critical energy infrastructure and represent an unprecedented commitment to addressing climate change and to deploying more clean energy affordably and in ways that directly benefit our customers."

"We also are pleased to welcome Pedro as EEI chair for the 2023-2024 cycle," added Kuhn. "Pedro previously served as an EEI vice chair and is a key leader in our efforts to address climate change and to transform our economy using resilient clean electricity. I look forward to continuing our work together to advance public policies that benefit the customers and communities we so proudly serve."

"There is incredible work underway to implement the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the new clean energy tax credits in ways that enable deep carbon emissions reductions across our economy," said Pizarro. "It is an exciting time to be in energy, and I am confident that America's electric companies are well-positioned to drive the innovation and investments that are needed to deliver an affordable and resilient clean energy future to customers."

Kuhn also applauded Pope's election as vice chair.

"Maria Pope is a champion for innovation in the energy sector where she is balancing investments in renewable energy, improving grid resilience, and ensuring customer prices remain affordable. She also provides exceptional leadership collaborating with our federal agencies on resiliency and wildfire mitigation. We are extremely fortunate for her continued service on the EEI leadership team."

Pedro J. Pizarro is president and CEO of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the nation's largest electric companies. Edison International also is the parent company of Edison Energy, a portfolio of competitive businesses providing commercial and industrial customers with energy management and procurement services. He is a member of Edison International's board of directors.

Pizarro served as president of SCE from October 2014 through May 2016, when he was elected president of Edison International. He was elected CEO in October 2016. Previously, Pizarro was president of Edison Mission Energy and chaired its board of directors from 2011 until the sale of its assets to NRG Energy in April 2014.

Pizarro earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and held National Science Foundation and Department of Defense graduate fellowships. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard University.

Pizarro first was elected an EEI vice chair in June 2020. He serves on the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC), which is the principal liaison between the federal government and the electric power industry to prepare for and respond to national-level disasters or threats to critical infrastructure. Pizarro also serves on the boards of the Electric Power Research Institute, Caltech, and 3M.

Maria M. Pope is president and CEO of Portland General Electric (PGE), a fully integrated energy company that generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to roughly half of Oregon's population and has the largest voluntary renewable energy program in the country. Pope joined PGE in 2009 as chief financial officer. She went on to serve as senior vice president of Power Supply, Operations, and Resource Strategy.

Pope represents the electric power industry on the U.S. Department of Energy's Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and serves as co-chair of EEI's Wildfire CEO Taskforce and the ESCC's Wildfire Working Group. Her other board work includes Chair of the Electric Power Research Institute, Columbia Banking System, Inc., the Oregon Business Council, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Portland Branch.

Pope is an alumna of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and she earned a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University.

EEI is the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies. Our members provide electricity for nearly 250 million Americans, and operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. As a whole, the electric power industry supports more than 7 million jobs in communities across the United States. In addition to our U.S. members, EEI has more than 65 international electric companies, with operations in more than 90 countries, as International Members, and hundreds of industry suppliers and related organizations as Associate Members.

SOURCE Edison Electric Institute