Tom Kuhn: Pedro Pizarro

In honoring Kuhn with Public Utilities Fortnightly's highest award, named for the extraordinary industry leader of a hundred years ago — Owen Young — we salute the man behind the transformational "Power by Association." We do this not alone. What follows are the voices of a dozen of the industry's top leaders of the twenty-first century, about Kuhn's accomplishments, and the man himself. Including four utility Executive Chairs, three utility CEOs, four retired utility CEOs, and Kuhn's longtime key associate at EEI, David Owens.

PUF's Steve Mitnick: When in your career did you begin working with Tom Kuhn and his team at EEI? Talk about a couple of those experiences.

Pedro Pizarro: I met Tom when I first started interacting with EEI. That was probably when I was a senior executive at Southern California Edison before going to Edison Mission Energy in the late 2000s.

Tom was always larger than life but very gracious. One of the things that I admired about him then — and still do today — is that, even though his main relationship is with member CEOs, you see him get to know executives all the way down the line. He is a very welcoming guy.

I started working with Tom more closely once I became CEO at Edison International in 2016 and joined the EEI board. Immediately, the engagement was fantastic.