Corporate Governance

PGE is committed to conducting business in conformance with the highest behavioral standards and in compliance with all relevant legal and regulatory requirements.

Board of Directors

Maria Pope

Maria Pope is president, chief executive officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Portland General Electric.

As CEO, Pope leads PGE in delivering safe, affordable, and clean energy for Oregonians.  Under her leadership, PGE is accelerating the transition to a clean energy future by adding significant amounts of renewable energy, hardening the grid through investments in transmission and distribution assets and technology, as well as collaborating with customers and policy makers to advance supportive energy policy.   

Pope joined PGE in 2009 as chief financial officer and treasurer.  She went on to oversee the company’s power generation facilities, wholesale power marketing and long-term resource strategy as senior vice president of Power Supply, Operations and Resource Strategy.

Prior to PGE, Pope was CFO of Mentor Graphics Corporation.  She has also held senior operating and finance positions within the forest products and consumer products industries.  Pope began her career in banking with Morgan Stanley.

Pope represents the electric industry on the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board.  Her other board work includes the Edison Electric Institute, Electric Power Research Institute, the Oregon Business Council, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Portland branch.

Pope is an alumna of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. 

Photo of Dawn Farrell

Dawn Farrell is a member of PGE’s Finance Committee and Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee. She has been an independent director since 2022.

Farrell has more than 37 years of energy experience. She is the current CEO and President of Trans Mountain Corporation and was most recently the President and CEO of TransAlta Corporation since 2012, before retiring in March 2021. Prior to her role as President and CEO, she held a variety of executive leadership positions in TransAlta and British Columbia Hydro & Power Authority (BC Hydro) including leading the commercial operations and development at TransAlta and generation and engineering at BC Hydro.

Farrell holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Arts in Economics, both from the University of Calgary. She attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.

Farrell serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of The Chemours Company. She also serves as a member of the Trilateral Commission and is the Chancellor of Mount Royal University. Ms. Farrell has held past board positions including the Business Council of Canada, the Alberta Business Council and CNRL.

Member of the Finance Committee
Member of the Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee
Mark

Mark Ganz is a member of PGE's Audit and Risk Committee and the Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee. He has been an independent director since 2006.

Ganz is the founder and managing principal of Lion Creek Partners, LLC. He served from 2003 until his retirement in 2020 as president and CEO of Cambia Health Solutions, Inc., a parent corporation of several companies offering healthcare products and services. Previously, Mr. Ganz held a number of positions with Cambia, including president and CEO of Regence BlueCross of Oregon, chief legal officer, corporate secretary, and chief ethics and compliance officer; he also had responsibility for federal public policy.

Mr. Ganz was a member of Cambia’s board of directors until his retirement in 2020. He is currently on the Board of Regents at University of Portland and at Georgetown University; he is Immediate Past Chair of Cascade Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and he is a member of the board at Coalition to Transform Advanced Illness Care. He is also a member of the fiduciary board of Digbi Health and on the advisory boards of Innoneo, a Boston-based healthcare company, and Innovaccer, a San Francisco-based digital healthcare company.

He earned his bachelor’s degrees in history and theology and his J.D. degree from Georgetown University.

Member of the Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee
Member of the Audit and Risk Committee
Marie Oh Huber

Marie Oh Huber is a member of PGE’s Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee and Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee. She has been an independent director since 2019.

Huber has over 25 years of experience of strategic business, legal and public policy experience in global Fortune 500 companies. She heads the global legal and government relations and public policy functions for eBay, Inc., where she serves as senior vice president, chief legal officer, general counsel and secretary.

Previously, Ms. Huber was responsible for communications, regulatory affairs and quality assurance, government affairs and philanthropy at Agilent Technologies. She joined eBay in 2015 from Agilent, where she served as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary since 2009. For the previous ten years, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Agilent and prior to that, at HP. Her career started at large law firms in New York and San Francisco.

Huber is currently on the board of Adevinta. She serves on the University Council of Yale University and is on the Law Board at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University and J.D. degree from Northwestern Pritzker University School of Law.

Member of the Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee
Member of the Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee
Kathryn Jackson

Dr. Kathryn Jackson is the chair of PGE’s Audit and Risk Committee and a member of the Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee. She has been an independent director since 2014.

Jackson is a senior advisor at Energy Impact Partners. From 2016 – 2021 she served as the director of Energy and Technology Consulting at KeySource, Inc., where she provided strategic consulting services to clients in business growth, technology development and energy services. From 2014 to 2015, Dr. Jackson was chief technology officer and senior vice president at RTI International Metals, Inc., a leading U.S. producer of titanium mill products. She served as chief technology officer and senior vice president of Research and Technology at Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC, from 2009 to 2014; she served as vice president of Strategy, Research and Technology from 2008 to 2009. Prior to joining Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC, Dr. Jackson served for 17 years at the Tennessee Valley Authority, where she held various executive positions including executive vice president of River System Operations and Environment, and was the corporate environmental officer.

Dr. Jackson is currently a member of the board of Cameco Corporation and the EQT Corporation. She also serves on advisory boards at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

She holds a doctorate and masters in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, a master’s in industrial engineering management from the University of Pittsburgh, and a bachelor’s degree in physics from Grove City College.

Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee
Member of the Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee
Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis is a member of PGE’s Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee and Chair of the Finance Committee. He has been an independent director since 2021.

Lewis is a retired senior executive with more than 35 years of experience in electric utility operations. Lewis served as interim president of Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) from August to December 2020. During that time, he oversaw PG&E’s gas and electric operations including wildfire prevention and response efforts, grid resiliency initiatives, vegetation management programs and emergency preparedness. Prior to that, Lewis served as PG&E’s senior vice president of Electric Operations and vice president of Electric Distribution.

Before joining PG&E in 2018, Mr. Lewis held a number of senior executive positions at Duke Energy, including senior vice president and chief distribution officer from 2016 to 2018, with responsibility for distribution operations across six states, and senior vice president and chief transmission officer from 2015 to 2016. Before the Duke Energy and Progress Energy merger in 2012, Lewis was senior vice president of energy delivery for Progress Energy Florida, where he was responsible for hurricane preparedness and grid hardening initiatives.

Lewis is currently on the boards of Newpark Resources, Inc., Osmose Utilities Services, and serves as senior advisor for TRC Consulting, Engineering and Construction.

Lewis holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida and an MBA from Nova Southeastern University. He attended both the Advanced Management Program at Duke University and an Executive Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.

Chair of the Finance Committee
Member of the Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee
Millegan photo

Michael Millegan is a member of PGE’s Audit and Risk Committee and Finance Committee. He has been an independent director since 2019.

Millegan is the Founder and CEO of Millegan Advisory Group 3 LLC where he advises early-stage companies on strategy that drives technology innovation and shareholder value since 2018. Previously, he held a variety of executive leadership and management positions within Verizon, where he led large-scale and scope business units. As president of Verizon Global Wholesale Group, he was responsible for $11 billion in sales revenue, 13,000 employees and $1 billion in annual capital spending.

Millegan is on the board of Axis Capital Holdings, Wireless Telecom Group, Inc., the Virginia Mason Foundation and Network Wireless Solutions, and is a strategic advisor and investor in Windpact, Inc. and Vettd, Inc.

Millegan holds a bachelor’s degree and a MBA from Angelo State University.

Member of the Audit and Risk Committee
Member of the Finance Committee
M. Lee Pelton

Dr. Lee Pelton chairs PGE’s Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee and is a member of the Audit and Risk Committee. He has been an independent director since 2006.

Pelton is president and CEO of The Boston Foundation, a philanthropic organization with over $1 billion in assets. Before joining The Boston Foundation, Pelton served as president of Emerson College from 2011 to May 2021. Prior to that, Pelton served as President of Willamette University from 1999 to 2011, dean and professor of English Literature at Dartmouth College from 1991 to 1998, and dean of students and later dean of Colgate University from 1986 to 1991.

Pelton also currently serves on the board and executive committee of Boston Chamber of Commerce and is board chair for Boston Arts Academy Foundation and the Boston Racial Equity Fund and trustee for the Barr Foundation Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

Pelton has served on numerous educational and cultural boards and committees, including the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education (past chair), the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the Museum of African American History in Boston, and the Harvard University Board of Overseers. In 2020, he was recognized by the Boston Chamber of Commerce as a 2020 Distinguished Bostonian and included in the Boston Business Journal’s 50 Most Powerful Leaders in Boston list.

Pelton holds a doctorate in English from Harvard University and undergraduate degrees in English and psychology from Wichita State University.

 

Member of the Audit and Risk Committee
Chair of the Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee
Patricia S. Pineda

Pat Pineda is Chair of PGE’s Compensation Culture and Talent Committee and a member of the Finance Committee. She has been an independent director since 2022.

Pineda has held diverse leadership roles in human resources, marketing, legal, communications, philanthropy and stakeholder relations. Prior to her retirement, Pat was the Group Vice President, Hispanic Business Strategy Group at Toyota Motor North America, Inc. Previously, Pat was the Group Vice President, National Philanthropy, and also Group Vice President, Corporate Communications/ Administration and General Counsel. Pat began her career at New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., where she held leadership positions in Human Resources, Legal, and Government and Environmental Affairs.

Pineda received her Juris Doctor from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California in Berkeley, CA; her Bachelor of Arts in Government from Mills College in Oakland, CA, and has participated in executive education programs at Wharton School of Business and Stanford Business School. She is fluent in both Spanish and English.

Pineda is the founder and Chair emeritus of The Latino Corporate Directors Association, and currently sits on the board of EarthJustice. She is currently a board member at Levi Strauss & Co, Frontier Group Holdings, Inc., and Omnicom Group.

Chair of the Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee
Member of the Finance Committee
James Torgerson

Since 2023, Jim Torgerson has served as Chair of the PGE Board. He is also a member of PGE’s Audit and Risk Committee and Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee. He has been an independent director since 2021.

From 2015 until his retirement in 2020, Torgerson served as CEO of AVANGRID, Inc., a sustainable energy company with approximately $30 billion in assets and operations in 24 states. Previously, he was president and CEO of UIL Holdings Corporation from 2006 to 2015, when it merged with Iberdrola USA to form AVANGRID. During his time at UIL Holdings, he oversaw its expansion from a regional electric utility to a diversified energy delivery company and one of the largest generators of wind electricity in the U.S., serving natural gas and electric utility customers across multiple states. Before joining UIL Holdings, he was president, CEO and director of the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc. from 2000 to 2006. He also previously served as chief financial officer for several natural gas and electric utilities including Puget Sound Energy and Washington Energy Company. Before transitioning to the utility industry, he served as vice president of development for Diamond Shamrock Corporation, where he also held various finance and strategic planning positions.

Torgerson currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale-New Haven Health System.  He previously served as chair of the American Gas Association and was a director of Archaea Energy Inc. prior to its sale to BP Products North America, Inc. in December 2022.

Torgerson received a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from Cleveland State University.

Prior to his retirement, Torgerson served on the board and executive committee of the Edison Electric Institute and co-chaired its CEO Policy Committee on Reliability, Security and Business Continuity. He was also a member of the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council, which serves as the principal liaison between the federal government and the electric power industry on efforts to prepare for, and respond to, national-level disasters or threats to critical infrastructure.

Member of the Audit and Risk Committee
Member of the Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee

Corporate Officers

Maria Pope

Maria Pope is president, chief executive officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Portland General Electric, Oregon’s largest electric company.

As CEO, Pope leads PGE in delivering safe, affordable, and clean energy for Oregonians.  Under her leadership, PGE is accelerating the transition to a clean energy future by adding significant amounts of renewables, hardening the grid through investments in transmission and distribution assets and technology, as well as collaborating with customers and policy makers to advance supportive energy policy.   

Pope joined PGE in 2009 as chief financial officer and treasurer.  She went on to oversee the company’s power generation facilities, wholesale power marketing and long-term resource strategy as senior vice president of Power Supply, Operations and Resource Strategy.

Prior to PGE, Pope was CFO of Mentor Graphics Corporation.  She has also held senior operating and finance positions within the forest products and consumer products industries.  Pope began her career in banking with Morgan Stanley.

Pope represents the electric industry on the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board.  Her other board work includes the Edison Electric Institute, Electric Power Research Institute, the Oregon Business Council, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and The Nature Conservancy of Oregon.

Pope is an alumna of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. 

Benjamin Felton

Benjamin (Ben) Felton leads PGE’s utility operations groups, including generation, distribution, engineering, project management, environmental, construction, safety and other operations-focused areas.

Felton joined PGE in 2023 and has more than 30 years of energy industry experience. He has held a variety of senior leadership positions including as senior vice president of Energy Supply at DTE, leading Electric Operations and Power Delivery at NIPSCO a subsidiary of NiSource, and Electric Systems Operations and Maintenance at Consumers Energy.

Felton holds a degree in Business Management and received a Master of Arts in Business Administration and Management from Spring Arbor University.

Jim Ajello

Jim Ajello oversees all aspects of Portland General Electric’s accounting, finance, tax and investor relations efforts.

He joined PGE in 2020, bringing an extensive background in both energy and finance, including over eight years as executive vice president and CFO for Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI), where he helped lead its clean energy transformation. In 2020, he became an independent director of HEI’s Hawaiian Electric Company, where he serves on the Audit Committee. In 2021, he became a member of the Board of Directors of Dimension Renewable Energy, a developer, owner and operator of community solar solutions.

Ajello has also served as senior vice president of Business Development at Reliant Energy, managing director for UBS Financial Services’ Energy and Natural Resources Group, and chaired the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Advisory Board.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from State University of New York Oneonta, and an MPA from Syracuse University. He is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the European Institute of Business Administration.

In 2018, Ajello made a gift to Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, which established a professorship in energy and environmental policy at the university where he lectures and provides ongoing training and research grants for students. He has also been on the board of trustees at Hawaii Pacific University for many years and is chair of its Finance and Investment Committee.

Larry Bekkedahl

Larry Bekkedahl oversees PGE operational areas and is responsible for advancing PGE’s strategy to build the grid of the future — one that is resilient, smart, and delivers a clean energy future.

He oversees PGE’s strategic system architecture and system upgrades, which will serve as the foundation for the smart grid of the future. This includes initiatives related to system integration and operations, smart cities, enabling distributed energy resources, energy storage, dispatchable standby generation, transmission system performance and market interfaces, environmental services, engineering, project management, enterprise security, as well as research and development.

Bekkedahl joined PGE in 2014 as vice president of Transmission & Distribution. He has more than three decades of leadership experience in the energy industry. Before joining PGE, he was senior vice president for transmission services at the Bonneville Power Administration and held leadership positions at Clark Public Utilities, PacifiCorp and Montana Power Company.

He has a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Montana State University and serves on the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Research Advisory Committee, the Stanford University Bits and Watts Advisory Council, the University of Akron Energy Advisory Committee, and the All Hands Raised board for Portland Public Schools Foundation.

Nik Blosser

Nik Blosser is responsible for PGE’s public policy, communications, government affairs, and community impact departments. He joined PGE in 2022.

Blosser has more than 20 years of business and policy experience. Prior to joining PGE, he served on the Biden-Harris presidential transition team and as chief of staff and Deputy Cabinet Secretary for the Office of Cabinet Affairs at the White House. Prior to that, he served Oregon Governor Kate Brown as her chief of staff, working on the Governor’s signature policy issues, including: transportation, clean energy, forestry and wildfire, retirement security, and COVID response. He also spent fifteen years in the private sector as the co-founder and CEO of Celilo Group Media.

Blosser has deep roots in Oregon, growing up on the family farm, Sokol Blosser Vineyards and Winery, in Dayton, Oregon. He was a co-founder and former chair of the statewide business group the Oregon Business Association, and was a co-founder of Renew Oregon, an organization that supported clean energy policy in Oregon.

He graduated from Stanford University with joint degrees in aeronautical engineering and English.

Angelica Espinosa

Angelica Espinosa is responsible for PGE's legal affairs and coordinates the company's ethics and governance activities. She joined PGE in 2021 as Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary with a focus on board governance, power operations structuring and origination. 

Espinosa has over 18 years of legal and risk management experience in the utility and energy industries. Before joining PGE, she held leadership positions with such organizations as Sempra Energy and General Electric.

She currently serves on the board of the PGE Foundation, and has served on the boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Corporate Director Forum. In January 2023, Espinosa began serving on the board of the Portland Business Alliance (Portland Chamber of Commerce).

Espinosa holds a law degree from Universidad de Los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia) and earned her JD, magna cum laude, and her master’s in law from the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. She is admitted to the Texas State, New York State and Oregon State Bar.

John Kochavatr

John Kochavatr is responsible for the customer solutions, supply chain and information systems. He joined PGE in 2018.

Prior to joining PGE, he was senior vice president and CIO at SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions. Earlier in his career, he held several CIO and global leadership roles at General Electric (GE) in the Infrastructure, Power, Aviation, Oil & Gas and Capital divisions.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in Chicago, Illinois.

Anne Mersereau

Anne Mersereau leads PGE’s efforts to develop, attract and retain a diverse, inclusive and engaged workforce.

She joined the company in 2009 and became vice president in 2016.

Mersereau has more than 25 years of human resources experience in the utility, insurance and hospitality industries. Before joining PGE, she held leadership positions with such organizations as Hilton Hotels and Marsh USA.

An active member of the community with a passion for education and workforce development, in 2017 Mersereau was appointed by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to the Oregon Workforce and Talent and Development Board, where she is the Vice Chair. She is also a member of the Partners in Diversity Leadership Council.

Mersereau earned a bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis in management and human resources from Washington State University.

Brett Sims

Brett Sims leads Portland General Electric’s Strategy, Regulation & Energy Supply team. He oversees the company’s long-term strategic planning and regulatory strategy efforts and ensures that PGE has the energy resources needed to serve its Oregon customers.

Previously, Sims served as senior director of Strategy, Commercial and Regulatory Affairs. For more than 15 years, he served as director of Origination, Structuring & Resource Strategy, managing the company’s resource planning and acquisition efforts.

Before joining PGE in 2001, Sims held business development and management roles in the finance and banking sector.

He a holds a bachelor’s degree in Business with a focus in Economics from Linfield University and an MBA from George Fox University. 

An active member of the Oregon community, Sims serves on the Finance Committee of the board of Lifeworks NW, an organization that promotes a healthy community by providing mental health, behavioral and family support services.

Board Committees

Independent Director Audit and Risk Committee Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee Finance Committee Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee
Dawn L. Farrell Independent Director Finance Committee Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee
Mark B. Ganz Independent Director Audit and Risk Committee Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee
Marie Oh Huber Independent Director Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee
Kathryn J. Jackson Independent Director Audit and Risk Committee Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee
Michael A. Lewis Independent Director Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee Finance Committee
Michael H. Millegan Independent Director Audit and Risk Committee Finance Committee
M. Lee Pelton Independent Director Audit and Risk Committee Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee
Patricia S. Pineda Independent Director Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee Finance Committee
Maria M. Pope
James P. Torgerson Independent Director Audit and Risk Committee Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee
= Independent Director = Chairperson = Member = Chairman of the Board

Committee Charters

Document Type
Nominating, Governance and Sustainability Committee
Compensation, Culture and Talent Committee
Audit and Risk Committee
Finance Committee

Articles of Incorporation

Read PGE's Third Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation.

Corporate Bylaws

Read PGE's Eleventh Amended and Restated Bylaws.

Communications to the Board of Directors

Read PGE's process for handling communications to the Board of Directors and Board Committees.

Corporate Governance Guidelines

Read the guidelines adopted by the Board of Directors to assist in the exercise of its responsibilities.

Code of Business Ethics and Conduct

This Code of Business Ethics and Conduct (Code of Ethics), which has been approved by the Board of Directors, expresses the principles, policies and practices every director, officer and employee of Portland General Electric Company and its subsidiaries (PGE or the Company) should use when conducting the Company's business.

Code of Ethics

On February 14, 2018, the Board of Directors adopted the Code of Ethics for Chief Executive and Senior Financial Officers, replacing in its entirety the PGE Accounting and Reporting Code of Ethics.

Political Engagement Policy

Read PGE’s policy on political engagement.

Read PGE’s 2022 Annual Report on Political Contributions and Expenditures.
 

Related Person Transactions Policy

Read PGE’S policy on the independent review of related person transactions.
 

Sustainability Policy

Read PGE'S policy on sustainability.