Debra Reed

Last year wasn’t great for Sempra Energy. In January, California declared a state of emergency as a gas leak at a Sempra-owned storage facility caused 8,000 families to temporarily relocate. The disaster has already cost the company more than $700 million (partially covered by insurance), and the state-­ordered cleanup operation wound down only this past summer. Not even that has derailed Sempra’s stock price, up more than 100% since Reed took the top job in 2011, driven by the compan­y's natural-gas infrastructure businesses and utilities.