Peggy Fowler

Peggy Fowler was born in Nampa, Idaho, on July 14, 1951.[1] The daughter of a Quaker minister, she grew up in Oregon, first in Portland.[1] Fowler was the youngest of five children in the family, with the next oldest nine years older than she was.[1][2] Growing up in a religious household, she did not watch TV at home until around age 10, and did not attend a movie until reaching college.[1] From the age of two until five she wore an eye patch over her right eye and is legally blind in one eye.[1] While in fifth grade the family moved from Portland to Hillsboro, Oregon, a suburb to the west.[1] In school she excelled in math and played the flute, while hoping to become a scientist.[1]

After high school Fowler attended George Fox College, a Quaker school in Newberg, Oregon.[3] At college she majored in chemistry and mathematics.[1] She graduated in 1973 with a degree in those subjects, and completed graduate work from the University of Michigan and the University of Idaho.[3][4] She was married a first time at age 21, with a divorce resulting within a few years.[1]

After college she began working for the Oregon Graduate Institute School of Science and Engineering, hoping to earn a Ph.D. at the school.[1] In 1974, Fowler began working for Portland General Electric as a chemist, and began working her way up the management ladder, first as general manager of the company’s environmental and analytic services department.[1] She was hired during the 1980s as the manager of PGE’s customer service department, located in Gresham, Oregon.[1] She was the first female manager of that division that includes the line repair crews, meter reading, and billing.[1]

Enron purchased PGE in 1997 and operated the company as a wholly owned subsidiary.[1] In 1998, Fowler became a director with the company and worked as the chief operating officer, keeping that title until 2000.[5] She was president of Enron’s Portland General Holdings corporation from 1999 to 2003 when it filed for bankruptcy.[6] She was then named chairperson of the board for PGE in 2001, remaining in that position until early 2004.[6] Fowler served as president of the company from 1998 to April 2000.[5] In April 2000, Fowler was promoted to the position of chief executive officer at the company.[1]

Fowler was named by the Portland Business Journal in 2005 as Oregon’s most admired CEO.[7] In April 2006, PGE became its own company again when its stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.[8] Fowler and seven other employees of the utility rang the opening bell at the stock exchange on April 10, 2006.[9] In 2007, Fowler was paid by PGE a total of almost $2.3 million in compensation, making her the 11th highest paid CEO in Oregon, and the highest paid female CEO in the state.[10] Fowler retired from the company in March 2009[11] and joined the board of directors where she stayed until May 2012.[12] She joined the board of directors at Umpqua Holdings Corp. in 2009 and became chair of the board in 2012.[13]

Peggy Fowler is married and has two stepchildren.[1] She lives with her husband Robert in Tigard, Oregon.[1][2] She is a board member of the Oregon Business Council, Oregon Independent College Foundation, and several regional healthcare organizations.[5] She won the Utility Women’s Leadership Conference’s Leadership Award in 2000.[2] In June 2007, she was appointed to the board of the Portland branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco,[14][15] and awarded the Portland First Citizen Award.[7]

• Peggy Fowler picture
• energybiz: Exec Steers Portland General Electric Through Turmoil