What Happened?
San Francisco, CA-based Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation Retired Karen Austin as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
About the Company
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in Northern and Central California.
About the Person
Karen A. Austin has been the Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President at Pacific Gas & Electric Co., (alternate name Pacific Gas and Electric Company) since June 1, 2011. Ms. Austin oversees the IT systems that support all of PG&E's customer touch points. She also direct all cyber security initiatives to assure that protection of customer data is robust and effective. She served as the Head of IT Department of Sears Holdings Corporation since March 24, 2004. She served as Executive Vice President of Sears Holdings Corporation from March 2005 to January 2009 and President of Home Electronics from February 2009 to May 2011. She served as President of Home Electronics at Sears, Roebuck and Co. She served as Chief Information Officer of Sears Holdings Corporation from February 2006 to February 3, 2009. For more than 27 years, she worked at Kmart Corp. and Sears Holdings. Most recently, she led Sears Holdings' Consumer Electronics business during its launch of several effective and innovative programs aimed at improving the customer experience. Ms. Austin served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at the retail chain of Sears Holdings Corporation from April 18, 2002 to March 2005. She also served as Interim Chief Marketing Officer for Sears Holdings Corporation since 2003. She oversaw an extensive data center consolidation, led enterprise-wide business intelligence initiatives, launched a new e-commerce multi-channel platform and merged the people, processes and technology for Kmart and Sears. She held various information technology positions for The Timken Company and for Central Mutual Insurance Company in Ohio. She has an intimate knowledge of Kmart Corp.'s systems and was responsible for systems governing store operations, merchandising, supply chain and finance. She served as Vice President for Applications Development at Kmart Corp. She joined Kmart in 1984. She served as Vice President of IT Applications at Kmart Holding Corp., from 2001 to 2002 and as Divisional Vice President of Supply Chain Applications from 1999 to 2001. She has been a Director of VeriFone Systems, Inc., since June 2014. Ms. Austin holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Tri-State University in Angola, Ind. She studied in Fuqua School of Business and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Theology from Moore College, Sydney University, Australia and in Computer Science from Institute of Technology in Madras, India. She holds MBA from The Fuqua School of Business.
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