PG&E Hires New CIOPG&E Hires New CIO

Patricia Lawicki has been hired as Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s new CIO and vice president. Lawicki had been CIO at NiSource Inc., a natural-gas and electric-utility holding company.

In announcing Lawicki's hiring, Gordon R. Smith, president and CEO of the West Coast utility firm, said information technology has become key to operations.

When she starts Jan. 12, Lawicki will be managing systems including those for customer transactions, billing, outage tracking, call-center support, and finance systems. She has a bachelor's degree in technology management from Purdue University and an MBA from Indiana University.