hi everyone I'm Nicola tangan the CEO of the Norwegian SN wealth fund and today we have Patty poppy with us the CEO or pg& one of the United States largest utility companies.

pg& one of the United States largest utility companies the fund owns more than 1% of the company just under half a billion doll and so it's a big position for us.

now in 2021 Petty took over the company which was then u in crisis well you were pretty much uh bankrupt.

and now Patty is here to teach us how to lead with love.

war welcome P.

well thank you Nicolai so great to be with you and thank you for your ownership.

we are a combination uh natural gas electricity provider to uh almost 40 million people in the state of California we serve 16 million of them.

um proud to be the energy provider to Northern and central California.

now what happened before you joined uh.

I would say a series of in some cases particularly Wildfire disaster uh climat driven.

and frankly um a company that hadn't uh built infrastructure to withstand these new uh extreme climate conditions.

uh great harm was done to uh people communities wildfires that uh devastated towns um lives were lost and our company went bankrupt.

I I think some people refer to us as the first uh climat driven Bank bankruptcy and uh we are rebuilding our company as a result.

what's the key to rebuilding a company after after something like that.

I think um recognition that we need to make it safe and make it right.

in fact uh I got some advice from Mary Bara who is the CEO of General Motors when I took this job.

I felt she had had some experience when she took over the helmet General Motors uh she had some real crises and safety related crises to deal with.

so I called her and she told me uh she said well I'll give you the advice that Warren Buffett gave me.

and I said well okay I'll tune in.

and uh that advice was make it right and do it fast.

and so it actually became very influential in my thinking about making our system safe as quickly as possible and making it right for those who had been harmed.

it's quite a challenge to take on I mean do you do you like problems.

uh I do I'm an engineer by training and so uh I enjoy problem solving.

um I also think that it was a great opportunity for me to build on my previous experiences.

in fact our current board chair Bob flexon uh encouraged me when we were doing the recruiting process that this could be my in fact professional final exam.

that everything I learned in my years in automotive about lean manufacturing and uh operational excellence uh combined with my years in the utility running a very successful utility in Michigan uh we going to be put to test.

and that PG was at the end of the day just a utility but it was a utility that was in need of great transformation and so I felt compelled to come and do my part.

what what Li and the advice make it right do it fast.

I think uh the idea that we need to certainly uh heal those who had been harmed and make sure that we didn't forget what happened.

and I think do it fast means uh make the changes necessary to make that system safe.

and so the Wildfire mitigation efforts that we've um implemented technology infrastructure um really have been game changers in the uh environment in which we operate.

uh that we've dramatically reduced Wildfire risk um we have uh dramatically improved our infrastructure and yet there's more to do and so we're doing it as quickly as we can.

I've heard you say that you thought it was uh because this was not about financial re engineering or change this was about operational change so so what you do first day into the job you come to the office just how do you approach a task like that.

well first and foremost uh I knew I had experience with something we refer to at PG as our performance Playbook.

we had key elements the safety management system a lean operating system and something we call breakthrough thinking.

those three key components I knew would be the key components for transforming the culture of PG creating a safety culture and creating an environment where we could serve and we could reliably uh deliver.

so my first day I will tell you what I did I drove to uh Paradise.

well no pardon me I started my day at our Union Hall uh and met with our our Union president and his executive team because I knew I would need the partnership of my Workforce and I wanted them to know that I both knew knew that I needed them and that I respected them.

so I started there.

and they found it quite interesting I showed up in my pickup truck in my blue jeans and it was just me no Entourage.

and they were like who are you and I said I'm the new CEO and they said where are your people I said I don't know but I'm here with you first.

so I did that first and then I drove up to Paradise California which was devastated by wildfire.

and to see this was 3 years after the fire and it was still felt a apocalyptic.

um the devastation was still obvious and we were rebuilding as quickly as we could but it made it it really came home for me that this was a challenge that required um speed.

where had you learned to empower people and to get them aboard the way you did through.

my career I was a lifelong operator.

and and to your earlier question I knew it wasn't a financial transformation it was a an operational transformation which appealed to me.

um we uh I learned both in the implementation of lean operating system that that's a bottoms up uh people driven continuous Improvement culture mindset sort of um uh toolkit.

and uh so I had learned when I went to the utilities when I left automotive and went to the utilities I I ran power plants and I got to experiment with implementing lean techniques in power generation.

and then implemented it in customer facing functions and then in all the operations when I let operations at Consumer Energy um operations and Engineering.

that all of these lean problem solving toolkits standard work and visual management and uh problem solving were very much applicable to the utility work environment.

and so I had all of that experience.

I used to wonder when I was a young professional how CEOs knew what to do.

P you're still a young professional.

well thank you you can't see the gray hair well enough.

I think um I I used to wonder and now I actually was walking into this role knowing exactly what to do.

I knew that this utility required um a a way of operating that made problems visible faster and taught people how to solve them.

and that if I could enable my entire Workforce to be problem solvers not a handful of problem solving Specialists but in fact the entire Workforce to be problemsolving professionals then there was nothing that we couldn't do together.

and I've already seen the early uh signs of progress uh here at pg& of how impactful that can be.

um when you approach a situation like that how do you map uh what needs to be done I mean you say you had a Playbook but this was a different situation.

yeah well my new leadership team thing one was to have the right team.

so I had to hire an entirely new leadership team everyone had either left or or had been asked to leave.

I had um my attorney was still there thankfully my general counsel uh he's a very important part of our team he's stuck around.

but everybody else we had to hire and so the first thing to do was to Define our purpose.

did you hire people you knew from before.

um I knew of them I hired uh very very talented utility uh professionals from across the sector and then peppered in a few non-utility uh experts and specialist because I like a little competitive mindset and competitive uh experience uh peppered in.

I think it's part of my secret sauce that I both learned in a competitive industry plus the utility industry.

why do they want to join you.

I think we felt all of us felt compelled to serve.

we knew that the industry needed us to make PG successful we knew California needed us to to deliver on the clean energy transition to really bring an energy system that was climate resilient and affordable um and reliable.

we um all felt like we had the right experience to come and and run this uh company to be to meet its full potential and to deliver on this commitment uh to the people of California and therefore the people of the world.

when you say competitive element what do you mean by that.

I mean um when you I grew up in in the automotive industry and that was you know doggy dog.

you had to improve every day to succeed and and to thrive in that environment.

um I think some people would look at a utility and think that because we have regulated um uh cost recoveries and regulated revenues that perhaps were less competitive minded.

so I like some commercial experience combined with the technical expertise that's born in utility with that commitment and purpos driven um mindset combined with a commercial mindset.

that uh every dollar matters that we need to improve for customers every day at a lower cost.

but how do you get a competitive mindset into what is basically uh Monopoly.

I think teaching people how to think competitively.

so it helps to have a few of the executive team with that commercial mindset.

but one of the most important things in our lean operating system is making problems visible showing our daily performance having not just reliability Target targets but cost targets.

we have an operating and maintenance expense reduction um expectation we build on that expectation and teach people that they can in fact do more for customers at a lower price.

we can save money for customers while we are improving their service.

I remember learning that in the automotive industry that quality and cost could both be improved simultaneously and that's what I've learned in the utility sector.

it's the same we can improve customer outcomes at a lower cost.

what have you done to the goopa culture since you joined.

yeah we our objective was to deliver on um creating a culture of service and performance and we've done that.

we started with something we call breakthrough thinking which is a part of our performance Playbook.

breakthrough thinking is something where we teach people that the past does not need to be a predictor of the future in other words what what is true today does not necessarily have to be what's true tomorrow.

you get to cause your future uh we get to cause our performance by uh a Pursuit and drive for breakthrough outcomes.

so we have put over 2,000 of our leaders through a 4-day breakthrough intensive Workshop where they learn that um what was true in the past is not necessarily true in the future and they learn that they can believe in.

and how do you teach how do you teach them that.

to remind them that every great Innovation didn't used to be true every great outcome didn't used to be true.

and part of our team really needed to frankly have some healing about the past.

you can start to believe your press when people say we're criminals when people say we were um uh irresponsible people can start to believe that about themselves.

we have to help people learn a new file about themselves that their potential is Theirs to cause and theirs to achieve and they have to believe that they can achieve wildly uh outrageous outcomes because they stand for them to be true.

so for example um uh we've taken a stand uh that everyone and everything is always safe.

now some people in an environment like ours might say well that's impossible you can't do that.

well we've proven we've reduced our our uh employee injuries uh by over 50% 70% in some areas.

we've reduced our number of um preventable motor vehicle instruments or incidents in dramatic fashion because we've taught people that they have to challenge how things have been done in the past in order to do them differently today.

you um talk about the philosophy of leading with love what does that mean by the way I'm I'm a huge believer in this so uh you're talking to uh to you know the converted hair okay good.

well I got a lot of rolled eyes when I first said that when I joined the PG team um.

but what I believe is number one we need to humanize our business.

I do think business in general can be a force for good but ours in particular.

we people ask are you an engineering company are you a uh an energy company I say we're a people company.

we are people who are serving people that is the heart of our business.

and so we need to recognize that love is a fundamental attribute of taking a job and and taking it from a work pay transaction to a commitment to serve and to bring your full self to the work.

I've had the unfortunate um duty to attend a funeral of a coworker who died on the job.

and the outflow of love and the expression of Love at such a funeral is too late.

the moment to demonstrate love is on the job when someone is doing something they don't understand or taking a step that is too high risk or not taking the necessary steps to be safe.

that is the moment to love one another is to interrupt the work stop the job and make sure we're doing it safely.

and so that is definitely safety and a safety mindset is an underpinning of how we demonstrate love for one another at work.

but that same commitment to safety through our safety management system is how we keep our customers safe and demonstrate love for our customers by doing the hard things so that they can have a safe and reliable Energy System.

what other things than safety have you implemented to express this philosophy of Love.

yeah uh we have uh a joy survey that we conduct.

I do believe that when people one of the stands that we've taken as a management team is that it will be enjoyable to work with and for PG.

so to measure that we're not just making these lofty statements we intend to measure meure.

we measure our safety performance we measure Joy at work.

how do you measure joy.

we ask four questions question one is do you enjoy working at PG number two is are you proud to work for pg number three are you loved at work at PG and are you known uh at work.

and it might surprise you to know that over 80% of our co-workers are both proud and enjy to work for PG.

now those are up double digits uh since we did the first survey we've been taking the survey a couple years now.

now uh to feel loved at work is about 50% of my co-workers feel loved at work and that's something then that we've created a whole conversation with.

you know one of the things that I observe in athletics for example these professional athletes when they have a winning or a losing season they will always inevitably say I love my teammates I would go to the ends with them.

they they jump into each other's arms they laugh together they cry together they're they have the full expression of their professional joy.

and I think we in Corporate America think there's only so much joy that one can observe or demonstrate at work that there's a professional joy that for some reason athletes get to know the full expression.

I'm challenging my team to know the full expression of their emotion and that's because they can be purpose-driven.

and when you are purpose-- driven and you do the hard thing why wouldn't you know the full expression of your joy and love for one another as you are fulfilling your full potential as a human being.

this isn't work for pay but this is work for purpose.

why do you think the athletes feel it differently for people the.

I think there's a culture that says it's okay for athletes to fully Express Joy.

I want to change that culture in Corporate America why not.

why can't people feel their passion and maybe their passion is spreadsheets.

okay good show your passion for your spreadsheets and feel loved and valued for being the best spreadsheet person there ever was.

for us doing Line work and gas work and providing heat on the coldest day and light on the darkest night that's way more important than putting a ball in a net.

why can't we know full joy and love of one another as we deliver such work.

you said people were rolling their eyes when you uh started to talk about it are they rolling their eyes now.

uh way less there might be a handful of them I haven't met them if they spend any time with me I'll help them get through it.

but is there some religious underpinning here.

I uh think that each of us have uh talents and capabilities that when we are fully expressing them uh we are fulfilling our life's purpose.

what the Genesis of those uh talents and skills are um I think each individual can choose the source of them.

for me I certainly have uh a source where I believe that I was called to serve the people of California and the people of PG at this time and that I was prepared for a Time such as this I believe that for myself.

so you've seen an increase in the joy index uh fewer people are rolling their eyes these kind of things so specifically what are the biggest changes you've seen amongst the people you work with.

yeah I think their freedom to um innovate their freedom to have the big Ideas their freedom to contribute to the the cause and the freedom to be known and loved at work.

every day at 10:20 a.m. the executive management team reviews yesterday's performance.

we are passionate about the work that our people do our people know that they have a channel where they can communicate what the barriers are that are are preventing them from solving the problems that they face.

I am watching their capability to solve problems unfold I am watching as I do go and see visits to see the work and see how they do it.

I am observing them taking more and more ownership for our business and for our ability to serve our customers.

um and so we we see that in our our in our safety measures in our uh speed to deliver measures in our reliability and in our um affordability measures our cost reduction measures.

we're seeing those ideas take material shape in how our business is performing.

and I think we're on the cusp of continued breakthrough in being able to deliver what I think is the most exciting time in our industry since Thomas Edison originally invented it.

we can't do what we've always done and deliver the new decarbonized Energy System at the lowest societal cost.

we have to do it differently and I'm watching my team step up for that challenge.

is there not um a contradiction between making a a safer organization and one with more Innovation.

so for instance in the large uh energy companies everything has to be safe even in your headquarter on land you kind of hold the handrail you uh you park your your car uh you know in the right uh way so that you are tired afternoon the spot you're back in in the morning because you're Tire in the afternoon and you crash all this kind of stuff.

can you really have super safe environment in that part of the business and then be Innovative try out new things take risks when it comes to uh procedures Technologies and so on.

this is where I think the lean operating system is so powerful and what Toyota taught us decades and decades ago.

you can have standard work that is the determined to be the safest work but then you set a Target your breakthrough goal whether it's zero injuries or whether it's um 10,000 Mi of underground power lines.

and within the space between here's how we do standard work today and here's the out the the Breakthrough goal that we're trying to achieve that's where Innovation gets applied.

and then you set a new standard and you continuously improve and you continuously improve and you continuously improve that standard.

so yes backing into a parking spot is something I'm expected to do and everyone who works at PG is expected to back into their parking spot.

but we just innovated and added new cameras that are available in our uh Passenger cars they're now in our bucket trucks.

why couldn't we innovate and create new tools to make backing up even safer yet.

this the standard is back into a parking spot now we have cameras and in whatever in some cases we need a spotter.

we will continuously improve our ideas and set a new standard of of excellence and then continually improve that standard.

I do not think there's a conflict between Innovation and safety.

you got 16 million customers how long time does it take to rebuild trust.

a long time.

uh I would love to think that we could be granted trust but that's something that gets earned every day.

we have shown through our customer satisfaction survey results and and transactional Survey results that when a customer has an interaction with us um their satisfaction and their trust goes up.

but many of our customers don't don't have interactions with us other than receiving a bill and paying it.

there it's a it can be a very passive Arrangement and so that's where brand trust gets born and brand trust takes time.

what does it do for your trust the fact that your bill is just going up and up because you have been criticized for rate hikes uh in California over the last few years.

yes and I think it's not just a a California problem I think that's a a national problem.

I think we have to earn andove can tell customers and help them see what we're doing to help them save money.

and this is one of the things that I'm very excited about with our team we are building an infrastructure that will be less costly to maintain and therefore will parlay into cost savings for customers.

we have something we call our simple affordable model and that means that we can invest in climate resilient infrastructure but save operating and maintenance costs by doing this lean operating system.

we're finding ideas every single day some of them big Ideas like our self- insurance program or reimagining our vegetation Management program our inspection programs.

and some small ideas like uh getting laptops to new employees faster from our it team.

this range of cost savings idea will translate into bills that uh are going down well less than inflation and in some cases will go down in absolute value and help to earn the right to then deliver a decarbonized economy.

which incidentally is more affordable than our current Energy System.

we have forecasts that show as we decarbonize our service area by 70% that includes Transportation decarbonization a household spend on energy will go down by 20% because electricity is a more efficient fuel than gasoline.

so the fuel switch from gasoline to electricity will save households 20% today and in the future.

and the more customers who participate in the electrified decarbonized economy more families more households will benefit economically.

and I think uh our industry has done a bad job of making that case.

I think everyone's ringing their hands a little bit that oh the decarbonized economy will cost more it'll cost too much.

and I think they're thinking at the extreme level let's think about the journey and know that Innovation will enable us to continue to decarbonize at a lower societal cost.

and uh I think that we will earn trust and be seen as the leader both industrywide but certainly uh for our hometowns in California they're going to experience it first.

Patty what are the pros and cons of being a publicly publicly listed utility and owned by people like like us right living in Norway we own a chunk of a Californian utility versus being uh owned by you know the state or municipality local municipality.

you know I used to ask myself when I first joined the industry I wondered why aren't we not for profit or why aren't we just a a agency of the government.

I soon learned that investors make us sharper.

our access to the capital markets people say that we're not a competitive industry and and our rates are set we have a captive customer base all that's true.

we have regulated monopolies but we do compete for Capital.

and trust me Nikolai you rack and stack us you help us see where we rack and stack.

you know that safer utilities are more economically viable and have better earnings potential or lower risk.

you know that a well operated utility is a better investment therefore we rack and stack each other on our operational efficiencies and Effectiveness.

I care very much where I uh sit relative to peers so it creates a competitive um mind mindset that we can then deploy.

um and I think having access to the capital markets is more affordable for customers especially when we're competing for that capital.

and uh I think that makes our business better and I think there is no tradeoff in my world between serving customers and serving investors.

our simple affordable model is the way that we deliver earnings growth and cost savings for customers.

you mentioned at the beginning you were of the first um climate L bankruptcies um just let's spend a minute on on climate and how it impacts you.

um so I wasn't quite aware of the cost of vegetation management for a company like yours the fact that you have to cut down trees to reduce Wildfire risks.

and now you are putting a lot of your infrastructure underground right you basically dig it down tell me about that.

well first of all it's much more economic for customers today given and and particularly in our service area.

we've identified 8% of our lines not all of them we're not going to underground every mile people I did not go crazy.

we we have 8% of our lines that are high density tree and therefore spending $1.5 billion do we were spending as much as2 billion doar a year to cut down trees.

that's a lot of trees you need to cut down.

that's a lot of trees and it and it come back and do it every year every year every year.

and that expense gets passed along to customers annually.

in our business we can trade expense for Capital at a 7:1 ratio or a 1 to7 ratio.

we can trade a dollar of expense for $7 of capital and keep a customer's Bill flat.

so you take that $2 billion a year times 7 that's $14 billion a year we can invest in climate resilient infrastructure AKA undergrounding in these highest risk miles and hold customers bills flat.

now our goal is to actually do it for Less so we reduce the amount we we don't go 7 to one maybe we say 5 to one.

we start to reduce how much vegetation management we're doing that's a cost savings to customers.

we invest in the infrastructure spread it out over time we have safer infrastructure more resilient to climate change and lower cost.

that's a win-win win I'll do I'll make that math work every day.

now talking about math you also have what you call a triple bottom line right so you care about people Planet Prosperity just how do you balance the um the interests of so many stakeholders.

here's the most important thing with the triple bottom line it's not one or the other or what's most effective today it has to be all three every day.

so people our customers my co-workers the planet and the prosperity of the of our communities.

so I don't think it's hard to balance all three of those all the time you just have to be conscientious about it.

so burying those power lines is also more environmentally friendly.

the Wildfire emissions is a massive carbon sink and we lose the benefit of the the vegetation when uh a forest Burns.

and when we have to trim the trees especially those that are just growing into the lines that are healthy trees we have to take out a lot of uh dead and dying trees as well.

but the this idea that the triple bottom line is some sort of trade off is wrong it's a trade up for all three all the time.

and um I do think this decarbonized economy we are we are entering into what I consider the Golden Era of our sector and our industry.

that we can deliver this decarbonized economy at a lower societal cost that's the triple bottom line in action.

but you have to think that way at every decision.

how are you how are you going to deliver a decarbonized energy going forward.

we start with um decarbonizing our power supply.

and so the the energy that we delivered to our customers last year was 100% % carbon free.

we have um uh uh hydro and hydrogen and Renewable Energy System uh in California.

and we specifically at PG we're going to Electrify we're going to enable the electrification of Transportation because transportation is the number one source of carbon emissions in our service area.

so enabling electrification of Transportation uh also means that we can utilize the first dynamic demand and Supply ever.

EVs are the best thing that have ever happened to the grid.

EVs both can be charged when we have Excess power and in California because we have the largest penetration of rooftop solar we have a massive oversupply of energy midday.

we can leverage that call it free energy for to charge electric vehicles and then discharge those electric vehicles on a peak summer day as an energy resource.

on the roads today in my service area we have uh almost 9,000 megaw of Supply in the form of electric vehicles.

now we can't use that Supply today it's they're not bidirectional but the automakers are starting to make bidirectional vehicles.

uh the Cadillac lric the Ford Lightning those vehicles have the capacity to put power back on the grid in the next coming years.

those will be a supply resource and a demand we've never had anything like that.

lights come on when it's dark air conditioning come on comes on when it's hot cars can charge any time with the right price signal.

and they can be a resource back to the grid.

we can now start to more fully utilize the grid lower the peak raise the belly of the duck fill the belly of the duck as I like to say of the duck curve.

use the excess capacity that we have and more fully utilize our grid.

our grid today is utilized about 45% the electric grid especially the distribution system of the electric grid utilization is about 45%.

but it's overbuilt plus 15 20% for the handful of peak days in my service area.

let's use those lower that Peak raise the belly more fully utilize our grid just like any other asset utilization that lowers the unit cost of electricity.

so when do you think uh your car pool will be a real force in energy storage so that you can take it back when you need it.

well so technically the bidirectional charging of vehicles is starting to take shape over the next 5 Years it'll be more and more prevalent.

but even just the act of smart charging those Vehicles only utilizing them when we have excess you know only charging them when we have excess capacity is a form of grid beneficial demand.

and so that's happening today.

you know in my service area we have 560,000 electric vehicles.

28% of new vehicles sold last year were electric which was up from 22% it's rising again this year.

people are saying EVS are less and less popular I don't know about that that's not happening in my neck of the woods.

where we live our EV demand is growing.

in fact Santa Clara County um 43% of new vehicles sold last year were electric.

we're building the structure you are living uh where where that kind of stuff is happening right uniformly across America.

but what.

one another thing what about the data centers what is that doing yeah to energy demand.

we see a big benefit to data centers.

in fact we had a meeting with our uh in New York last week with our investors and our analysts and we shared with them that we see the we can differentiate between what's called good load and bad load.

all data centers are not the same data centers.

but we can show that uh if we added a gigawatt of data centers and spent about either call it half a billion to 1.5 billion dollars to build out the infrastructure for that specific gigawatt of data centers we can save customers uh one to two% on their bill.

their bill could go down one to two% because the offsetting revenue exceeds the cost to deliver that new load.

but there are there's a break even point and so we've now identified the break even point.

but I'll tell you in my service area because we serve Silicon Valley there is great demand for data centers.

we have 3.5 GW of demand we need to confirm that that 3.5 GW which of those 3.5 gaws are good load for customers.

we think it's a significant portion but we haven't built that into our plan our our earnings guidance.

and our industry-leading earnings guidance actually is not dependent on that so that's all upside to customers and investors in PG service area.

how do you look at nuclear as part of the future and in particular the small modular reactors.

well first let me say that we own and operate a large large reactor uh two of them.

we uh own and operate Dio Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and um the state actually did uh a a pretty significant shift in perspective about the uh lifespan of Diablo Canyon.

it was scheduled to close one of the units scheduled to close this year and another of the two units next year and instead the state uh passed legislation to extend the life of that plant by five years.

uh we're applying for uh a license extension with the nuclear Regulatory Commission for 20 years because that's their standard uh life EXP expectancy.

I do think Basel load carbon- free energy like nuclear energy without a doubt has a role to play.

we're proud to operate da Canyon Nuclear Power Station and uh it's one of the highest performing nuclear plants in the nation.

we're proud to be the operators and and uh we're thankful that the the state uh had a change of uh heart for the next 5 years.

I think small modular reactors very much could have a role I don't foresee PG building one uh anytime soon.

um I think because they still too expensive or.

yeah and too high risk.

let I don't want to be uh uh bleeding edge on a technology like that.

um I want somebody else to be.

I think the doe is really stepping up to help fund uh that kind of research in the United States.

I know others but when you say when you say risk you mean um cost risk rather than risk.

yes you don't need nuclear risk I don't mean nuclear risk I mean cost overrun risk.

um we've got enough Capital that we need to deploy just in the en energ delivery system that that's where we're focused at Pini.

now you talked about the grid and um how the grid can help um interestingly um the Nvidia CEO yansen hang said that uh he thought it the place where AI could help the most could actually be grid efficiency what what do you think about it.

I do think grid uh AI is going to be a key enabler to this Supply and load picture that I was describing earlier.

this is a new optimized grid.

I tell people all the time if Thomas Edison took a walk with me today he would recognize most of the stuff but not for long.

because these distributed resources these uh new and dynamic energy Demand with EVs and rooftop solar we can optimize those resources today with a smarter more digitized grid.

I was just with Jensen yangang last week and um he and I had a great discussion about what the potential is to decarbonize economy and the role AI is going to play in making sure that we do that in the fastest way and the smartest way.

you were the first female CEO who moved from one Fortune 500 company to another.

now you have also founded a scholarship for female industrial engineers and so this is clearly very very close to your heart why are there so few female Engineers.

you know it's a great question.

I think for a lot of uh young women I think they um wonder if it's meant for them.

and I'll just say this I have two daughters who are both Engineers uh and so I've done my part for society with my husband who is also an engineer.

so the deck was stacked let's just say for our children.

but you know as I watched my girls grow up we worked hard to introduce them to things like first robotics.

we're big my husband and I are big supporters of the first robotics program which really demystifies and makes fun science and engineering.

I think too often uh we treat science and Engineering as boring and uh quiet when in fact it can be fun and exciting.

and getting more young people all especially underrepresented people who might not have exposure to being an engineer and seeing how much fun it can be.

I think confidence building through early uh especially in Middle School and High School for Girls is very important that they get exposure to Science and Math and how much fun it can be to solve problems.

and first robotics does a really great job of making it fun and creates an athletic like environment for scientists and engineers in their middle school and high school years.

and that was a game Cher for our daughters uh it was essential in their own success in their own confidence.

and so I just think um we've got to reach kids earlier particularly the girls and help them see that math and science uh can be fun and can be for them.

totally agree we actually do have some of the same challenges in in in finance so we um similar we we work hard on it what do you do to relax or do you ever relax.

um you know I'm a believer that uh relaxing following hard work is the best kind of relaxing.

uh like so I like to um when we take vacations or or what have you I like uh like a family skiing vacation because you work hard all day and then you can relax and take a breath.

I find that in my work I do believe that when you do what you love and you do what you were born to do um it isn't hard it's it it's joyful.

and so uh you know taking a breath after a hard-earned victory is fun but I'm quick to get back to work because I just love what I do and I'm I'm blessed in that way.

that's great um lastly what do you what is your advice to young people.

I really believe that young people need to know them learn about themselves and know themselves.

I I subscribe to a Japanese philosophy called eeky guy that's spelled i k i g a i eeky guy.

and it's um about a purpose-- Driven Life.

and I think too many young people pursue a career that brings them the economics that they're looking for chasing the dollar.

so yes you should get paid for what you do but eeky guy says not only should you you shouldn't settle for just getting paid you should also do what you're good at do what you love and do do what the world needs.

so if you can know yourself and know what you love know what you're good at parlay that into something that the world needs my goodness and then get paid for it that's what I feel I have.

I have a job where I'm good at it I love it the world definitely needs the people of PG need to do what we're doing and then you combine we get paid for it.

that's that's um a purposeful life and a purpose-driven life and I would encourage someone to pay attention not to what somebody else thinks you're good at but what do you love what do you love that you are also good at.

don't let somebody else Define that for you find that for yourself and then pursue it with abandon.

py that's a beautiful place to end a big thank you for uh for being with us and uh thank you for empowering the world and please uh keep it up.

thank you Nikolai thanks for having me.