Why She Took the Hardest CEO Job in America | PG&E's Patti Poppe

84 counts of involuntary manslaughter. A worker dying every 90 days. An empty C-suite. That's what Patti Poppe signed up for when she became CEO of PG&E.

In this episode, Patti gives a masterclass in crisis leadership — and pulls back the curtain on how she turned things around.

She explains how she rebuilt the leadership team from scratch, why she hung up on every executive candidate who called PG&E a "stepping stone," and what it actually looks like to double down on safety and love (yes, love) when your company has killed 84 people.

Five years later, PG&E has hit a 946-day safety record, buried 1,000 miles of power lines (a huge deal), and hasn't lost a single structure to equipment fire in 3 years.

If you've ever inherited a mess, led a team through something nobody trained you for, or wondered whether the hard path is actually worth taking, this episode is for you.

Chapters

00:00:00 Intro — Taking the hardest CEO job in America 00:01:40 From TV broadcaster dreams to utility CEO 00:02:55 Why leave a dream job for a nightmare? 00:08:10 The turnaround playbook — Purpose, lean, and breakthrough thinking 00:10:21 Hiring for service, not stepping stones 00:24:04 The Dixie fire — Six months in and everything's burning 00:30:07 Leading through crisis — Speak up, show up, go to the problem 00:17:32 When a coworker dies every 90 days — The safety transformation 00:36:05 Holding the weight — Grief, resolve, and progress 00:39:41 Ikigai and meaningful work — When your job fuels your life 00:47:48 Wrap-up — You're putting a man on the moon