What else would you expect from a power-generating executive?

For the fifth straight year, Debra L. Reed, chairman and CEO of Sempra Energy, has been named to Fortune magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in Business” list.

Debra L. Reed, chairman and CEO of Sempra Energy. Photo by Eric Myers
Debra L. Reed, chairman and CEO of Sempra Energy. Photo by Eric Myer

Reed is ranked No. 23 in 2015, up from No. 30 last year. No. 1 is Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors.

“The first in her family to graduate from college, Reed became the $11-billion-in-sales energy services company’s first female CEO in 2011,” Fortune said in the profile. “Now she’s pushing to ­expand, planning to invest more than $19 billion over the next five years in utilities and infra­structure in the U.S., Mexico, and South America. Despite the volatility in the industry, Sempra’s stock has risen 80 percent during Reed’s tenure.”

Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women in Business” was launched in 1998 to recognize the most successful women in the nation.

In compiling the list, Fortune’s editors consider four criteria: size and importance of the woman’s business in the global economy, health and direction of the business, arc of the woman’s career, and social and cultural influence.

Thursday’s news showed why she’s held in high regard.

Reed, 59, has served as Sempra Energy’s CEO since 2011 and as the company’s chairman since 2012. She has spent her entire 37-year career with the Sempra Energy companies.

Previously, Reed was executive vice president of Sempra Energy. From 2006 to 2010, she served as president and CEO of San Diego Gas & Electric. and Southern California Gas Co., Sempra Energy’s two California utilities.

Reed first joined SoCalGas in 1978 and became the company’s first female officer 10
years later. She holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of
Southern California.