Looking Forward
Pat Kampling is the recently retired CEO of Alliant Energy.
Recently, Navigant's Jan Vrins and PUF's Steve Mitnick talked with seven inspiring utility CEOs — all women — about their experience as leaders, their advice to today's rising stars (particularly those that are young women), and their company's challenges as they transform their organizations to navigate the energy transition, address climate change, and redefine our industry.
PUF's Steve Mitnick: Talk about your experience as a CEO in this industry, but also as a female CEO over time.
Pat Kampling: Several of us women in the industry were all a little astonished when we became CEOs because we were not asked about our accomplishments, but instead, and it was mostly the media, kept asking us, how did a woman get to be CEO?
So, we had a nice chat about it and agreed that since there are so few of us, we stand out and people want to know more about us. They're curious, so we turned this into a positive story of the great careers we've had.
I've been fortunate that a lot of men and women supported me in every role I've had. I've taken a lot of chances with different companies and jobs and each opportunity was fantastic. I tell people being CEO is the most liberating job on the planet because if you don't like what's going on, you can change it.