• CERAWEEK 2025 | March 10-14, 2025
  • CERAWEEK
  • March 10 - 14, 2025

Maria Pope

Portland General Electric

President & Chief Executive Officer

Maria Pope is president and chief executive officer of Portland General Electric. As CEO, Pope leads PGE in delivering safe, reliable, 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 serves on the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and the board of the Oregon Business Council. She is currently the vice chair of the Edison Electric Institute and the chair of the Electric Power Research Institute. Pope is an alumna of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University.

Sessions With Maria Pope

Wednesday, 20 March

Thursday, 21 March

  • 09:30am - 10:00am (CST) / 21/mar/2024 02:30 pm - 21/mar/2024 03:00 pm

    How to Make Electric Grids Resilient to Climate Change
    Climate & Sustainability

    As climate change accelerates, the resilience of our electric grids becomes paramount. What are the strategies, innovations and policy frameworks essential for fortifying electric grids against the impacts of climate change? Expert panelists will explore key challenges such as extreme weather events and shifting patterns of energy demand and supply. What are the actionable insights, technological advancements and adaptive measures necessary to ensure the reliability, sustainability and resilience of electric grids in the face of evolving climate threats? How can we transform our electric infrastructure to thrive in a changing climate landscape? 

  • 02:25pm - 03:05pm (CST) / 21/mar/2024 07:25 pm - 21/mar/2024 08:05 pm

    Power Market Design: The price of reliability and resilience
    Power/Clean Power

    Dramatic growth in wind, solar and energy storage alongside greater electrification of the economy will transform the power sector over the next decade. Wholesale power markets are evolving to accommodate the shifting landscape, but further adaptation will be needed to maintain reliable and resilient markets while achieving decarbonization objectives. Can wholesale power markets survive in a renewables-dominated future? What is the future for capacity markets and ERCOT’s energy-only market? How will resource adequacy planning evolve and be incentivized to handle increasingly dynamic power markets?