Vice President of Digital Solutions & Chief Information Officer, Portl General Electric
Search every verified John Kochavatr interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. John Kochavatr, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Portland General Electric (PGE), has discussed the company's efforts to accelerate digital transformation and decarbonization. He stated that PGE replatformed its digital infrastructure in 200 days, enabling customers to manage their own energy journeys, and that the company aims for 80% decarbonization by 2030 and 100% zero emissions from its business by 2040. Kochavatr noted that PGE has been the number one voluntary renewable energy program for 14 consecutive years, attributing this to customers voluntarily paying more for clean energy. He also described the "trilemma" of managing reliability, affordability, and clean energy, and said that data center growth, driven by AI and GPU energy demands, is a major source of load growth for utilities. In leadership discussions, Kochavatr emphasized focusing on outcomes over activities, particularly during the pandemic, and said PGE offered employees $300 for ergonomic equipment and $500 for child care. He shared a model from his time at GE that attributes 10% of promotability to performance, 25-30% to image, and 60-65% to exposure. Kochavatr stated that high-performing talent wants to work with other high performers and that leaders must show up as "8 or 9 out of 10" to attract top talent. He also acknowledged taking ownership of a cybersecurity incident during an ice storm in January, when a distributed denial of service attack disrupted PGE's call center.
“These leadership traits carry over pandemic or no pandemic, but one point I appreciated was how different team members are experiencing this very differently — in our business at least and for electric we have men and women in the field that don't get to work from home, and they experience it very differently than offi...”
“For us at Portland General Electric, we think about outcomes — it's less about activities and more about outcomes, especially during a pandemic, to help employees understand what the expectations are for them.”
“We offer $300 per employee to get chairs or standup desks or whatever they need to be more comfortable, and we offer another $500 in child care — those are relatively small gestures to let employees know we're thinking about their well‑being.”
“There was a stigma before the pandemic if your dog barked or a child walked into a Zoom call, but now that's become part of the norm and it's brought in a new personal side — we're learning more about each other in ways we didn't before.”
... and John Kochavatr, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Portland General Electric, join host Sanjog Aul to talk about ...
In this insightful episode, Dr. Rolando Vega sits down with John Kochavatr, CIO of Portland General Electric (PGE), to discuss ...... me about Portland General Electric now John you know I want to hear your Reflections why have you chosen Portland General ...
In this exclusive behind-the-scenes look, John Kochavatr, CIO of Portland General Electric, sits down with Dr. Rolando Vega to ...
John Kochavatr discusses how the best talent is attracted to the hardest problems to solve.
Sign in to search the full transcript archive, filter by topic, and access every quote from John Kochavatr.