PSEG CEO
A common retort when we don't know an answer is, we're not a rocket scientist. In this portrait of a leader, we're featuring someone who can't use this excuse. Why? Because he is a rocket scientist. Well, close; he's technically a nuclear physicist.
Ralph Izzo currently serves as Chairman, President, and CEO of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. PSEG as many know it. Under his leadership, PSEG was recently awarded the Edison Electric Institute's 2022 Edison Award, which recognized substantial efforts to protect and support customers following Superstorm Sandy. But what led Izzo to this career in energy? It started with a common everyday interaction with the energy market: filling up at the gas pump.
Getting into Energy
In 1973, when Ralph Izzo was sixteen years old, he could finally get his driver's license in New York City. Unfortunately, this was during the 1973 Oil Crisis. So, after waiting all his life for his ticket to freedom, his driver's license, he spent that freedom waiting in line to purchase gasoline for his father's car. Of course, he didn't have his own yet.
After surviving one oil crisis, in 1979 he got to repeat the experience. But at that point, Izzo had made it to college. He then thought that a major related to energy could be very useful. A lack of energy security was becoming a huge issue in many ways.