OAKLAND — PG&E handed out higher executive compensation for the utility leviathan’s top boss and other key execs in 2023, pay increases that arrive at a time of soaring monthly bills and rising profits.
Patricia Poppe, chief executive officer at PG&E, was among the top executives who harvested an increase in total direct compensation, a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows.
Poppe was awarded slightly less than $17 million — $16.99 million, to be precise — in her total direct compensation from PG&E for the company’s 2023 fiscal year that ended in December.
That was roughly 20.3% higher than Poppe’s total direct compensation, generically known as executive pay, for 2022, when PG&E awarded her about $14.1 million.
Of the 11 named company executives listed in the regulatory report, five received an increase in total direct compensation while six received decreases, a review by this news organization of a key table in PG&E’s annual filing with the SEC filing shows.
Poppe also harvested a gain of $24.4 million through the vesting during 2023 of an award of restricted stock, the SEC filing shows.
In 2023, PG&E’s profits soared higher, buoyed by surging electricity and natural gas revenues.
The power company earned an eye-popping $2.24 billion in profits in 2023, an increase of 24.6% from 2022, PG&E reported in February.
PG&E also predicted in the financial results report that its shareholders can anticipate that 2024 will produce even greater profits.