Edison International ranks 10th on the 2010 Fortune 500 utilities list and its public utility subsidiary is currently the nation’s largest purchaser of renewable energy. Based in Rosemead, Edison has its roots in the earliest days of the U.S. energy industry — in 1886, the company’s public utility began as Holt and Knupps, a small startup that put electric street lights in the Central Valley town of Visalia. Today its largest subsidiary is regulated utility Southern California Edison, which distributes electricity to nearly 14 million people in Central, coastal and Southern California. Its unregulated division, Edison Mission Group, is an electric power generator, distributor and investor in infrastructure and renewable energy projects in states beyond California including Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and West Virginia. Some of Edison’s most high-profile projects include upgrading the power grid to handle a rising number of electric automobiles and various wind power generation projects around the country.
THE QUICK BIO
Robert Adler, 63, is a longtime corporate attorney who has represented clients ranging from sports teams to hospitals to Hollywood. He became executive vice president and general counsel for Edison International in 2008 after more than three decades in the corporate practice at Munger, Tolles & Olson, where he was co-managing partner.
