Sempra is swapping its chief financial officer and its infrastructure chief into new jobs, both moves keyed to a single closing date. Karen Sedgwick, currently Sempra's executive vice president and chief financial officer, will become chief executive and president of Southern California Gas Company once Sempra closes the sale of a 45% equity interest in Sempra Infrastructure to affiliates of KKR. Justin Bird, now chief executive of Sempra Infrastructure, will take over as Sempra's CFO. Bob Patel has already been named the incoming chief executive of Sempra Infrastructure, effective at closing, taking the seat Bird vacates.
A finance chief moves to run a gas utility
Sedgwick brings more than 30 years across the Sempra family of companies, with experience spanning utility practice, regulatory affairs and safety. She will keep a seat on the SoCalGas board after taking the CEO title, and she steps into a company Sempra describes as the nation's largest natural gas distribution utility. Sempra chairman and chief executive Jeffrey W. Martin called her "a proven leader who has touched all aspects of our California utilities" over her three decades there.
The new CFO already knows the deal from the inside
Bird has more than 20 years at Sempra, including time in treasury, financial planning, corporate development, legal, and five years in commercial and project finance. As Sempra's CFO he will run investor relations, treasury, financial planning, audit, insurance and tax, on top of the corporate development program he already oversees. He keeps his seats on the boards of Sempra Infrastructure and Oncor Electric Delivery Company.
What the KKR sale is worth and who ends up owning what
The transaction was announced in September 2025 as a $10 billion deal, which Sempra says implies an equity value of about $22.2 billion for Sempra Infrastructure before adjustments. Sempra still expects the sale to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory and other approvals and closing conditions. Ownership after closing splits three ways.
| Holder | Stake in Sempra Infrastructure |
|---|---|
| Affiliates of KKR | 65% |
| Sempra | 25% |
| Affiliate of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority | 10% (existing stake) |
Why Sempra is doing this now
The cash from the sale is meant to fund a narrower company. Sempra expects the deal, combined with the rest of its simplified business strategy, to push roughly 95% of its earnings to come from regulated U.S. utilities in California and Texas by 2027, and it is targeting more than 60% of its rate base in Texas through the end of the decade. Rate base is the value of utility assets that regulators let a company earn a return on. Sempra also expects the proceeds to remove the need for common equity issuances in its 2026-2030 base capital plan and to support deconsolidating Sempra Infrastructure's debt from its own financials, part of what the company calls its 2026 value creation initiatives.
Sempra's broader pitch is that it owns one of the largest energy networks on the continent and is electrifying and improving energy resilience in California and Texas, the two largest state economies in the country. The company also points to its recent inclusion on the Wall Street Journal's inaugural "Best Companies for the Future" list, where it ranked among the top companies for leadership and talent readiness.
