--- description: Find out how Charles Hua is shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. title: Charles Hua Is on the 2025 TIME100 Next image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt892d6041749daf20/6998c9f19fbc7c3f22d9a6e9/t100-next-2025-charles-hua.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 30, 2025 # Charles Hua by Jacqui Patterson  Courtesy Charles Hua As the executive director of PowerLines, a nonprofit he launched in 2024, Charles Hua stands to have a pivotal impact on energy in the U.S. Through his work to modernize the utility ­regulatory ­system, he has done a brilliant job of shining a light on public-­utility commissions­—the critical but mostly unknown state agencies that oversee our access to things like water and electricity—and holding them accountable to provide safe, affordable, and environmentally just services to their communities. He has a pragmatic understanding of what it takes to foment change, and he’s built amazing relationships with utility commissioners, elected officials, philanthropists, and everyday Americans to do just that. Between his passion and persistence, he has everything it takes to achieve critical transformation. _Patterson is founder and executive director of the Chisholm Legacy Project and sits on PowerLines’ advisory board_ Charles Hua: TIME100 Next 2025 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318845/charles-hua/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318845/charles-hua/"},"headline":"Charles Hua","datePublished":"2025-09-30T11:04:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:55:37.177Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318845/charles-hua/","keywords":["TIME100 Next","sponsorshipblock"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt892d6041749daf20/6998c9f19fbc7c3f22d9a6e9/t100-next-2025-charles-hua.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt892d6041749daf20/6998c9f19fbc7c3f22d9a6e9/t100-next-2025-charles-hua.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time100-next/","name":"TIME100 Next"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2025/7318845/charles-hua/","name":"Charles Hua"}}]}] ```