John Bryson

Why He Matters

President Obama nominated private sector power mogul John Bryson to head the Department of Commerce in late May 2011. Bryson is the former chairman, CEO and president of Edison International, a public utility holding company.

Several analysts saw Obama's nomination of Bryson as a signal that the president wanted to improve his administration's relationship with the business community.

The administration's notoriously rocky relationship with business was highlighted in Obama's February 2011 remarks to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "I'm here in the interest of being more neighborly," Obama said. "Maybe we would have gotten off on a better foot if I had brought over a fruitcake when we first moved in."

Bryson also has a background in environmental issues. He co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1970 and served on a United Nation's advisory group on energy and climate change.

He is co-chairman of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a non-partisan group that focuses on policy issues of the West Coast.

After retiring from Edison International in 2008, Bryson served on several corporate boards, including those of The Boeing Company, The Walt Disney Company and Coda Automotive, Inc.

In His Own Words

"The most important near-term step for utilities to take is pricing to consumers, rates to consumers that allow customers at least to elect to pay their utility bills on a time-of-use rate," Bryson said in June 2008. That would mean a difference in the price on "very hot summer days when air-conditioning demands are high and the whole electricity system is stressed and the price at 3 a.m."

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