Mary Powell Lights Up Vermont

By Roberta Nubile

Green Mountain Power supplies energy to more than 200,000 Vermonters (nearly a third of the population), and employs 200 people. The energy it transmits is comprised largely of nuclear power from Vermont Yankee in Vernon and hydropower from Hydro Quebec. As contracts with these companies expire, GMP is branching into cost-effective, renewable energy sources – such as the proposed Kingdom Community Wind project in Lowell, which awaits a go-ahead response from the Public Service Board in early May.

At the head of this cutting-edge company is Mary Powell, one of only five female CEOs of investor-owned industrial utilities in the country. Yet Powell, 50, calls herself an “accidental executive”: Far from being groomed from day one for an executive future, she acquired a wide-ranging resume that seems couldn’t have better prepared her for the work she does today. So how did she do it?

A New York City native, Powell attended the Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music and Art (and now Performing Arts) thinking she would follow in her actor father’s footsteps. “My upbringing was about arts and music, not business,” Powell recalls. At the same time, however, she felt a drive to “take care of myself and others,” and worked pragmatically at saving money.

“Although my Dad was successful later on, perhaps because of an insecurity growing up around money, I was very industrious, worked at any job I could, and saved a lot of my money,” she says. For a long time, however, Powell didn’t see herself as a business person. “I grew up feeling sorry for people in business; I thought big corporations were stuffy.”

After high school Powell earned an associate’s degree in arts and music at Keene State in New Hampshire – her highest degree – but says she “just didn’t feel talented enough” to pursue the arts. Instead, she took courses in hotel and restaurant management. “My approach to learning is on a ‘what I need to know’ basis,” she explains. Powell was shocked to find she loved the business courses.

Back in New York for the summer, she took a job as a technical writer at The Reserve Fund, America’s first money market. Powell saw the company grow from $200 million to $3.5 billion in assets. Her own position advanced, too. The CEO recognized her “people and organizational skills” and put her in human services; seven years later, at age 28, Powell was Associate Director of Operations. She took courses in accounting and operational management at Baruch College. Later in her career, Powell went on to take a series of executive development courses at Wharton.

During that time Powell met her future husband, Mark Brooks, who worked as a corporate chef on Wall Street. But neither saw themselves as corporate types, Powell says. They were ready for a change, and Vermont seemed like the perfect choice: her sister already lived here and her family owned a 19th-century vacation cottage in Colchester.

So in 1989 she and Mark seized an opportunity to housesit for an IBM couple traveling overseas. “I thought I would just waitress, have fun outdoors, and enjoy the great quality of life,” Powell says with a smile.

But waitressing didn’t satisfy Powell’s industrious nature – nor pay the bills – and within six months she was putting her HR skills to work as Director of Human Resources for the State of Vermont. During her tenure, which lasted under Governors Kunin, Snelling and Dean, Powell had occasion to testify on the administration’s behalf. It proved to be a pivotal moment for her: “I thought, ‘This is the real deal.’ Things can happen quickly here. I saw the impact one person could have.”

By this point, says Powell, “I’d done everything in life I thought I’d never do. I’d worked in business, and then in government.” She had even launched a business called Spot the Dog (selling reflective wear for pets; it’s still managed by Mark). Then she surprised and amused herself by going into banking – “something I’d always looked down on.” Through the Women’s Small Business Program she learned of an HR job with the Bank of Vermont (now Key Bank). Powell soon rose from Vice President of Human Resources to Senior Vice President of Retail Banking.

“I knew I was working in predominately male sectors, and there was a male code, but I never even thought about it,” reflects Powell. “I’d always spent time with the guys. I’d vacation with my brother Michael and his friends. It was all very natural to me.”

Although she can’t recall receiving any overt messages about how a woman lives her life, Powell says, “I know my mom gave up her theater aspirations to be with the three kids. When I became a mom, I was amazed at how hard-wired I was when I thought, ‘If you are a good person, you sacrifice all and stay home with your child.’”

Powell had a series of life-changing events over the next year: she became pregnant, miscarried, became pregnant again with her daughter Alexandra (now 14), underwent stressful changes at the bank, lost her mother to cancer, lost her horse, and saw her house burn to the ground. She made a decision to walk away from banking and stay at home for two years with her daughter, as well as focus her energy on Spot the Dog and another business she started, HRworks.

Before the two years had ended, Powell says she realized something about herself: “I was not wired to work from home. I had more drive and energy than I knew what to do with. I accepted that this was a God-given part of myself – to nurture – and I needed to figure out a way to use it in a meaningful way.”

In 1998, Powell tried to sell HRworks services to Green Mountain Power, and GMP in turn tried to hire her. As Powell recalls with amusement, “I’d always thought the next worse thing to banking and government was to work for a utility.” Powell turned down GMP’s job offer three times, feeling that working for “the man” would mean selling out. When a close female friend and mentor suggested she try it out, Powell took her advice, thinking she’d last a year or two. She accepted the position with the understanding that the company was in great shape and in no need of downsizing, an HR task she abhorred.

Within months of her hire, GMP was faced with a rate order from the Public Service Board that would have brought the company close to bankruptcy. Chris Dutton, then CEO (now CEO of Velco), recalls Powell’s impact on the crisis: “She became more than just an HR officer. She was a person on whom I came to rely for answers to tough questions. When we were teetering on the brink and bereft of ideas, Mary offered many ideas in cost saving which at first didn’t make sense, but she was persistent, and I finally said yes to her. It turns out her judgment was exactly what was needed to prevail. It took almost two years to fully implement the programs that Mary initiated, but that effort had great symbolic value – it showed the regulators we did everything we could do, and it allowed us full cost recovery.”

Powell offers her take on that time: “The future was bleak. The only way to save the organization was to radically transform it. It was a formal, stuffy, bureaucratic culture [yet] filled with funny, smart, talented people. I told them, ‘I need to remind you this is not Mobil; this is a small energy company in Vermont.’ At the end of the day, it was so clear. We needed to have laser focus: how can we deliver the most value to the customers we serve?” Powell cut 35 percent of the staff, including many at the top, and flattened the company’s organizational tiers.

Powell worked with Dutton over the next ten years to render unstuffy the culture of GMP, always focusing on the objective of delivering low-cost, superior services to customers. This credo formed the basis of the energy strategy she launched when she became CEO, which focused on building a low-cost, low-carbon, and solidly reliable power supply portfolio for the future.

Dutton retired as CEO from GMP in 2008, but he had pegged Powell as the best equipped to succeed him years before then. “I came to recognize her discipline, her understanding of how organizations work, and how people behave, for better or ill, and how to effectively influence those behavior patterns,” Dutton recalls.

Dotty Schnure, Manager of Corporate Communications and a GMP employee since 1982, speaks to the changes Powell and Dutton made. “With Chris [Dutton]’s support, Mary helped us lead the company through that crisis. She took charge and analyzed how we did everything. If it didn’t directly benefit customers, it was cut. She improved who we were and provided better service to our customers. When the organization was flattened, it made everyone take more responsibility for what they were doing, which made it more satisfying. In the old days it was by the clock. Now we are judged by the work you do, and if we decide to work at home, it doesn’t matter, as long as you are getting work done.”

Robert Dostis is head of External Affairs and Customer Relations and active in negotiations around the Lowell wind project. Dostis held many leadership positions prior to GMP but says working for Powell has brought his knowledge of what leadership is to a new level. “I am understanding the value of what it means to be a leader, the responsibilities and opportunities that come with that title. To reinforce what she accomplishes at GMP, the key to leadership is developing your staff, helping them to own their full potential. She is a master at doing that. Her own example of being a leader helps us to see our potential.

“Mary believes in being very transparent,” Dostis continues. “We are complex beings. If we spend time trying to hide our insecurities, doubts, that uses up energy. In addition to very concrete plans, we use some of our meetings as a place to talk about these things. It opens up a level of trust and supports active, creative dialogue. We are allowed to disagree and trust gut. I call GMP an un-utility. People will say it’s ‘touchy feely’. Maybe it is, but in the end if you have a happier, more transparent, better functioning, communicating work force you will get higher productivity.”

Powell recently co-chaired the Go Red for Women campaign of the American Heart Association with Melinda Moulton, the CEO of Main Street Landing Company. Via email, Moulton had this to say about Powell. "I've known Mary for about ten years. We met on a panel for IBM Women, and got together shortly thereafter for lunch. I have always had the highest respect for Mary. She is accessible, open minded, creative, and caring. Her business acumen is superior, and she is truly a joyful human being who brings a light-hearted energy to all that she does. We just finished co-chairing Go Red together, and it was a blast and very successful. Mary gets it done and always with an ear-to-ear beautiful smile."

Barbara Grimes, the general manager at Burlington Electric Department, credits Powell for the strong relations between their two companies. “When there are issues,” she says, “Mary and I will talk them through. It’s nice to have another woman at the table. Mary and I come at things differently, because of our personalities, but we bring a woman’s perspective to issues.” Both women are mothers, a fact she says helps them with listening to and resolving difficulties among staff. “Along with Melinda Moulton, Mary rocks!” Grimes declares. “Even though I am older, I always say when I grow up I would like to be like either one of them!”

Additional admiration of Powell emanates from her former Montpelier workplace, as well. Says Governor Peter Shumlin: “If we could clone Mary and spread her around, everything would be more efficient and productive. I have tremendous respect for her.

“I worked with her a few years ago when we brought together business leaders and government funders. Everyone thought [the project] was a good idea but no one wanted to move fast, […] they weren’t ready for change,” Shumlin recalls. “It was a bunch of guys and Mary. She stood up and said, ‘You all need to change now; you are part of the problem!’ She is good at bringing people together and building consensus. It’s a rare combination of skills, and Mary’s gender has nothing to do with her skills. As governor I am frustrated with the lack of women who lead corporations in Vermont, so here in Vermont, Mary makes us proud. And as a father of daughters – she is a real example to them of a great leader.”

Walk into the Colchester headquarters of GMP, and it feels anything but stuffy. After a friendly greeting by a casually dressed front desk person, you can’t but notice the open, breezy, modern design of the floor plan and splashes of bright colors alongside the omniscient energy grid. The conference room’s glass walls don’t merely signal openness; Powell says she created it “so no one can hide.” She herself works not in an enclosed office but a central workspace, at a stand-up desk. Fashionable, fit, and approachable, she embodies the forward-thinking leadership that has taken GMP from a traditional corporate structure on the brink of bankruptcy to the low-cost, efficient, and consumer-friendly energy company that thrives today.

Roberta Nubile is a freelance writer from Shelburne.