PG&E CEO Bill Johnson to Step Down After a Tumultuous Year

PG&E Corporation CEO Bill Johnson will retire at the end of June, the company announced Wednesday morning.

The company will appoint William “Bill” Smith, a former AT&T Inc. executive who joined the board of directors in October, as interim CEO.

Johnson joined the beleaguered utility in 2019 after the company entered into bankruptcy protection.

"I joined PG&E to help get the company out of bankruptcy and stabilize operations. By the end of June, I expect that both of these goals will have been met," Johnson said in a statement.

PG&E officials wrote in a statement that they expect the company's reorganization plan will be approved by a U.S. bankruptcy court before Johnson retires on June 30.

Jared Ellias, who teaches bankruptcy law at UC Hastings College of the Law, said that Johnson got the company through bankruptcy proceedings.

"But then he's handing off the job of actually getting the company out of bankruptcy after the judge approved the plan and then dealing with next year's fire season to someone else," Ellias said.

Meanwhile, the fallout for survivors of fires caused by PG&E before Johnson's tenure continues. The timing and amount of survivors' compensation deal with the utility — half of it to be paid into a trust as PG&E stock — remain uncertain.

"I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that stock price is up so when they sell it, they get a good price and distribute to the victims," Johnson told KQED in February.

The victims' trust is not slated to be funded before Johnson's departure.

Johnson is the second PG&E CEO to step down from the position in three years. He joined the company as CEO on May 2, 2019.

Johnson helmed PG&E through last year's fire season, which saw the utility implement unprecedented rolling blackouts across much of California.

Those rolling blackouts didn't stop last October's Kincade Fire – the largest wildfire in the state last year – from roaring into Sonoma County, charring 77,758 acres and destroying 374 structures.

The blackouts, implemented by the utility to prevent its equipment from sparking wildfires during dry and gusty weather conditions, angered many Californians, and some called the policy life threatening.

"He was very cavalier about them, even after the fact, when he was claiming he was taking responsibility. He was still very much maintaining the framework that the shutoffs were an inconvenience and was reluctant to acknowledge that they constituted an emergency in their own right," said Melissa Kasnitz, legal director at The Center for Accessible Technology, which represents the medically vulnerable.

Johnson is credited by PG&E officials with positioning the company's reorganization plan for a quick approval from federal officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom's office, in addition to reaching a $25.5 billion settlement with wildfire victims.

Johnson and Smith will use May and June to transition.

"I have been deeply involved in the board's work helping to prepare PG&E for its successful emergence from bankruptcy," Smith said in a statement.

KQED's Lily Jamali contributed to this story.