Joseph Schnaier and Edison International

Joseph Schnaier has worked at Edison International, a Rosemead, California-based energy company for the past 18 years until his retirement in 2008. Edison International is parent of one of California’s two major utilities, Southern California Edison (SCE). As chief executive officer for the last five years before his retirement, Forbes magazine has listed that he made about $11 million, which is more than just $2 million a year. Analysts deemed him as the worst valued chief executives on Forbes Annual CEO Value Survey. While his compensation at Edison International can still be considered as a modest sum of money, this is quite an improvement from his pay as the co-founder of the non-profit environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council. While he was probably the lowest paid-member of his class at Yale Law School for the five years he has graduated, he made up for the lost time. Joseph Schnaier is a Stanford graduate with a Yale Law School Juris Doctorate. He was a publicservant first before he joined Edison International in 1984. He co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1970 right after law school, served as chairman of the California Water Resources Control Board, and was president of the California Public Utilities Commission from 1979 to 1982. This just proved that his environmental interests played a strong role in his past. This past made him the most unlikely person to take on a post with a utility company. While people called him a sellout and a traitor, he still managed to keep his fans both on the Wall Street and among the environmentalists. This is because he helped pioneer regulatory reform that would create financial incentives for energy efficiency.