SAN DIEGO, March 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sempra LNG, a unit of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE), today announced that Justin Bird has been named president and Lisa Glatch will become the company's chief operating officer.

"The Sempra Energy board and the management team could not be more pleased to match our world-class liquefied natural gas (LNG) opportunity with a world-class leadership team," said Jeffrey W. Martin, chairman and CEO of Sempra Energy. "This is a powerful combination as we work to become North America's premier energy infrastructure company."

Both Bird and Glatch will be reporting to Carlos Ruiz Sacristán, chairman and CEO of Sempra North American Infrastructure.

"We are well positioned to serve the growing Atlantic and Pacific markets with five strategically located development projects that will provide direct access to clean and reliable natural gas," said Ruiz Sacristán. "Justin and Lisa bring extensive expertise in developing infrastructure projects, marketing capacity, financing, engineering and construction. With their leadership, our LNG business is on solid footing for continued disciplined growth."

Bird led the continued development of Sempra's five LNG projects in his prior position as chief development officer for Sempra North American Infrastructure. He previously led the $7.4 billion project financing of the Cameron LNG liquefaction project in Hackberry, La. Earlier in his career, Bird played a key role in the development and commercial arrangements for the Cameron LNG facility and Energía Costa Azul regasification terminal in Baja California, Mexico. Bird also served in senior leadership roles within the Sempra companies, including vice president of gas infrastructure and special counsel, vice president of compliance and governance, and corporate secretary. In his new role, Bird will focus on marketing and project development.

With more than 30 years of engineering and construction experience, as well as the management of multibillion-dollar projects, Glatch will be responsible for engineering and construction, project controls, human resources, external affairs and operations for Sempra LNG.  She also will continue to serve as the board chair for Cameron LNG. Glatch joined Sempra Energy in 2018 as strategic initiatives officer and her primary focus has been to support the completion of Cameron LNG's Phase 1, the $10 billion joint-venture liquefaction project under construction, of which Sempra Energy owns 50 percent. Previously, Glatch held board and senior executive positions at CH2M, Jacobs and Fluor, global engineering, construction and technical firms serving the energy market.

Sempra LNG develops, builds and invests in natural gas liquefaction facilities and is pursuing the development of five strategically located LNG projects in North America with a goal of delivering 45 million tonnes per annum of clean natural gas to the largest world markets, making Sempra Energy one of North America's largest developers of LNG export facilities.

Sempra Energy's mission is to become North America's premier energy infrastructure company. With 2018 revenues of more than $11.6 billion, the San Diego-based company is the utility holding company with the largest U.S. customer base. The Sempra Energy companies' more than 20,000 employees are focused on delivering energy with purpose to approximately 40 million consumers worldwide. Sempra Energy has been consistently recognized for its leadership in diversity and inclusion, social responsibility and investment value, and is a member of the Dow Jones Utility Index.

This press release contains statements that are not historical fact and constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements can be identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," "contemplates," "assumes," "depends," "should," "could," "would," "will," "confident," "may," "can," "potential," "possible," "proposed," "target," "pursue," "outlook," "maintain," or similar expressions or when we discuss  our guidance, strategy, plans, goals, vision, opportunities, projections, initiatives, objectives or intentions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Future results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.

Factors, among others, that could cause our actual results and future actions to differ materially from those described in any forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties relating to: the greater degree and prevalence of wildfires in California in recent years and the risk that we may be found liable for damages regardless of fault, such as where inverse condemnation applies, and risk that we may not be able to recover any such costs in rates from customers in California; actions and the timing of actions, including decisions, new regulations and issuances of authorizations by the California Public Utilities Commission, U.S. Department of Energy, California Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Public Utility Commission of Texas, states, cities and counties, and other regulatory and governmental bodies in the U.S. and other countries in which we operate; actions by credit rating agencies to downgrade our credit ratings or those of our subsidiaries or to place those ratings on negative outlook and our ability to borrow at favorable interest rates; the success of business development efforts, construction projects, major acquisitions, divestitures and internal structural changes, including risks in (i) obtaining or maintaining authorizations; (ii) completing construction projects on schedule and budget; (iii) obtaining the consent of partners; (iv) counterparties' ability to fulfill contractual commitments; (v) winning competitively bid infrastructure projects; (vi) disruption caused by the announcement of contemplated acquisitions and/or divestitures or internal structural changes; (vii) the ability to complete contemplated acquisitions and/or divestitures; and (viii) the ability to realize anticipated benefits from any of these efforts once completed; the resolution of civil and criminal litigation and regulatory investigations and proceedings; deviations from regulatory precedent or practice that result in a reallocation of benefits or burdens among shareholders and ratepayers; denial of approvals of proposed settlements; delays in, or denial of, regulatory agency authorizations to recover costs in rates from customers or regulatory agency approval for projects required to enhance safety and reliability; and moves to reduce or eliminate reliance on natural gas; the availability of electric power and natural gas and natural gas storage capacity, including disruptions caused by failures in the transmission grid, limitations on the withdrawal or injection of natural gas from or into storage facilities, and equipment failures; risks posed by actions of third parties who control the operations of our investments; weather conditions, natural disasters, accidents, equipment failures, computer system outages, explosions, terrorist attacks and other events that disrupt our operations, damage our facilities and systems, cause the release of harmful materials, cause fires and subject us to third-party liability for property damage or personal injuries, fines and penalties, some of which may not be covered by insurance (including costs in excess of applicable policy limits), may be disputed by insurers or may otherwise not be recoverable through regulatory mechanisms or may impact our ability to obtain satisfactory levels of affordable insurance; cybersecurity threats to the energy grid, storage and pipeline infrastructure, the information and systems used to operate our businesses and the confidentiality of our proprietary information and the personal information of our customers and employees; actions of activist shareholders, which could impact the market price of our securities and disrupt our operations as a result of, among other things, requiring significant time by management and our board of directors; changes in capital markets, energy markets and economic conditions, including the availability of credit; and volatility in currency exchange, interest and inflation rates and commodity prices and our ability to effectively hedge the risk of such volatility; the impact of recent federal tax reform and our ability to mitigate adverse impacts; changes in foreign and domestic trade policies and laws, including border tariffs and revisions to or replacement of international trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, that may increase our costs or impair our ability to resolve trade disputes; expropriation of assets by foreign governments and title and other property disputes; the impact at San Diego Gas & Electric Company on competitive customer rates and reliability of electric transmission and distribution systems due to the growth in distributed and local power generation and from possible departing retail load resulting from customers transferring to Direct Access and Community Choice Aggregation or other forms of distributed and local power generation and the potential risk of nonrecovery for stranded assets and contractual obligations; Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC's (Oncor) ability to eliminate or reduce its quarterly dividends due to regulatory capital requirements and other regulatory and governance commitments, including the determination by a majority of Oncor's independent directors or a minority member director to retain such amounts to meet future requirements; and other uncertainties, some of which may be difficult to predict and are beyond our control.

These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the reports that Sempra Energy has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports are available through the EDGAR system free-of-charge on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. Investors should not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forecasts or projections or other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Sempra South American Utilities, Sempra North American Infrastructure, Sempra LNG, Sempra Renewables, Sempra Mexico, Sempra Texas Utility, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC (Oncor) and Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.B. de C.V. (IEnova) are not the same companies as the California utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) or Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), and Sempra South American Utilities, Sempra North American Infrastructure, Sempra LNG, Sempra Renewables, Sempra Mexico, Sempra Texas Utility, Oncor and IEnova are not regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission.

SOURCE Sempra LNG