Session: Influencing from the top

Carla J. Peterman is Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer for PG&E Corporation. 

 Peterman has spent her career focused on California’s energy policy and regulatory landscape. At PG&E, she oversees the company’s regulatory, legislative, sustainability, and charitable strategies. 

 Prior to joining PG&E in 2021, Peterman served as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Regulatory Affairs at Southern California Edison. Before that she served a six-year term as a Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). 

 At the CPUC Peterman led the adoption of the first utility energy storage mandate in the country, adoption of utility investments in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, the adoption of utility energy efficiency goals and business plans, and the implementation of California's Renewable Portfolio Standard. 

 Before her CPUC appointment, Peterman served on the California Energy Commission. She also is a former board member of The Utility Reform Network, an organization that represents consumers before the CPUC and California Legislature.

 In 2019, Governor Newsom appointed her to chair the Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery. She currently serves on the external advisory board for Sandia National Laboratories’ Energy and Homeland Security Portfolio, and as a member of the Federal Reserve of San Francisco Economic Advisory Council. 

 Peterman holds a BA from Howard University, a PhD in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkeley, and MS and MBA degrees from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.