Orlando —

On Monday evening during PennWell’s Annual Awards Gala, Mary Powell was named the POWER-GEN 2014 Woman of the Year. This is the second year that this prestigious award has been given to a highly successful woman who works in the largely male-dominated power industry.

Powell is President and CEO of Green Mountain Power, an electricity utility in the state of Vermont that serves approximately 265,000 residential and business customers. Industry peers nominated Powell for the award, along with about 30 other successful women, during a nomination period that extended from May through August 2014. The PennWell Women in Power committee then selected three finalists out of all of the nominated women and subsequently voted to choose a winner. The other two finalists, who were also present at the Gala, were Diane Drehoff, Director of Maintenance Marketing at Siemens Energy and Colleen Layman, P.E., Associate Vice President and the Resources Business Group Water principal for HDR Inc.

Mary Powell has served as President and CEO for Green Mountain Power since 2008, following seven years as Chief Operating Officer. During her tenure, Mary initiated and implemented a strategic and comprehensive restructuring of the company that dramatically transformed the utility.

Of her early years, Powell said that she “grew up in a theatrical home and went to a specialized high school for the arts.” She credits much of her training in the arts with helping foster the leadership success she has found in her career.

Powell will be giving a keynote speech during the Women in Power luncheon, taking place Tuesday, December 9 from 12:00-1:00.