Jennifer Montague: President and COO at Columbia Gas A Talk About Energy, Equity & Women In Leadership

By Brenda H. Andrews
Publisher
New Journal and Guide

“When it comes to delivering the Columbia Gas of Virginia message, Jennifer Montague is all business.”

As the company’s president and Chief Operating Officer, Montague’s bio says she has profit and loss responsibility as well as oversight of operations, risk management, regulatory, legislative and external affairs for the utility company’s nearly 290,000 customers in 98 communities across Virginia. Columbia Gas of Virginia is located in Chester, near Richmond, a major market, along with Northern Virginia (parts of Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties), Winchester, Roanoke, and Hampton Roads where 57,000 customers use Columbia Gas of Virginia. The utility company is part of NiSource Inc., which operates in six states, and has its headquarters in Indiana.

Recently Montague penned an editorial that appeared in the local Virginian Pilot where she announced Columbia Gas of Virginia is reinforcing its commitment to deliver safe and reliable natural gas to Hampton Roads, and has projects underway to upgrade existing natural infrastructure in Hampton Roads, including one in Chesapeake.

Montague is among a small but increasingly visible sector of women in top leadership positions as chief executives, engineers, and regulators in the utility industry. It’s only been in the late 20th and early 21st century that these major gains have been achieved due mainly to education, civil rights reforms and industry transitions toward renewable energy, smart grids and climate resilience.

For Black women, like Montague and other Black women leaders at the top of the utility industry, the movement has grown, in part, as the industry has undertaken a strategic priority to open pathways that allow women opportunities to reach new corporate levels.

Jennifer Montague has more than three decades in the energy and utility sector and she sets a high standard for women and men who are mission and cause-driven.

This is the only career she has ever known and perhaps one that she was “groomed” to occupy, as she looks back.

As a National Achievement scholar graduating from high school, she was awarded a prestigious internship with Amoco Oil as she began attending Stanford University. For four summers, she worked in various Amoco departments to include marketing, customer service, product management, engineering and communications.

For the first two years of college, she thought she wanted to be an engineer which she combined with feminist studies. She credits her mentor, Mr. Harper, with guiding her through the trials of college and the coveted internship and showing her how Amoco was preparing her for the career she occupies. Upon graduation with a degree in quantitative economics and feminist studies, she “fell into energy” she says.

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And she has stayed, with joy and dedication.

Montague found a niche where she could grow into a career that offered her  increased opportunities to break barriers, help others, and besides that, “it pays well,” she says with a smile.

Over the years, she gained experience in the energy industry in customer operations, branding, communications and marketing. She served in top positions  at NiSource headquarters in Indiana, as well as the Commonwealth Edison Company. She gathered increasing responsibility for British Petroleum Amoco that took her to various work locations in the United Kingdom and the U.S.

Montague is eager to talk about Columbia’s concern and support programs to help customers pay their utility bills, especially  after this year’s extreme weather increased energy usage charges.

“Sometimes people may be prideful about seeking help, but I encourage anyone with affordability issues to look into our programs. We don’t want people to have to make a decision about whether to buy their medicine or stay warm.”

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Montague has a strong reputation for civic engagement and community partnerships. Much of it is tied to her desire to educate young people on the variety of high paying jobs and career opportunities in the energy field that they have never encountered.

“I want to make sure people understand you can have a really great job in energy,” she says. “Our first jobs start at $42 an hour. College graduates may start at $80-85,000 a year.”

Significantly, she’s an advocate for energy jobs not just at Columbia Gas, but all other destinations, including other utility companies and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Her strategy is to educate at all levels through age-targeted activities. One program which she titles “Introduce a Girl to STEAM Day” brings 3rd and 4th graders on-site at the company’s training center in Chester and instructs on utility safety.

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Another hands-on program operates in Suffolk and Richmond and Columbia volunteers interact with middle school students at their schools on energy issues.

In Petersburg, Montague has instituted a summer paid internship of 20 hours per week for high school juniors and seniors. For her, it is modelled after her own mentor, Mr. Harper, who helped her discover opportunities in the energy field.

“People talk to the students so they learn there is more to a utility company than being a gas meter operator,” she explains.

At the adult level, Montague provides a program called Engage. This is for adults in the community who may be underemployed. The opportunity offers a career in energy or construction. Adults go through a 12-week training to be certified for a job in energy; again not only at Columbia, but also other utility companies.

“I want to be able to create pathways for people in the energy space. I’m particularly passionate about that with women and people of color who don’t know those opportunities are out there. I want to create pathways to eliminate poverty to help people have a better life,” Montague says.

At the college level, Montague has her eye on HBCUs in Virginia and how to introduce the opportunities offered by Columbia Gas of Virginia to those graduates. Currently Columbia supports nearby Virginia State University’s career fairs, and  in partnership with a cybersecurity consortium, Columbia has granted 25 VSU students to study the issue of cybersecurity threats.

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Montague says she’s always thought big. “I’ve always felt like a leader.”

“But I didn’t think of doing this,” she laughs. “I wanted to be the president of the United States.”

“Leaders are born and made,” she asserts.  “I’ve always had a proclivity toward that; however, leaders can be developed. And you can have good mentors who recognize something in you and push you toward that and you can also have people who see something in you and give you some encouragement.”

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One image of Montague as leader can be summed up as one who uses her power to power others to rise higher. This may be rooted in her college proclivity to feminist studies.

“I have not used the practical side of my degree in feminist studies, but theoretically, hiring women, mentoring women and making sure they are aware of opportunities available for them is important to me,” she says.

“I spend time mentoring people, especially women, and I spend time in sponsoring people. I say there’s a difference. When mentoring people, they  talk to you, you give feedback. When you’re someone’s sponsor, you’re attaching your name onto them, you’re attaching your success onto them – you’re co-signing for them.”

Montague recalled an instance early in her career that impacted her to rise higher. It helps explain her committed spirit to help power others.

“Before I became a V.P. (Vice President), I had been a director for about 12 years. At an advance leadership conference, a woman pulled me aside. ‘I want to talk to you’, she said. “‘You’re ready to be a V.P.  Don’t let where you are dictate where you are going. And don’t let what the people are telling you about what they think you can do. You decide when it’s time for you to become an executive.’”

Montague continued, “She spoke life and encouragement into me because I had been feeling bad. I’d tried out (unsuccessfully) for six VP roles. She spoke that life into me.”

Montague said that conversation pushed her on a new path to success that she has been able to play forward with other  women.  “Seeing leadership in people and being able to help develop it – I love doing it!”

She added, “That was God using her to encourage me to move when I was feeling stuck. She literally changed my life and she probably didn’t even realize it.”

Montague calls herself  “not fortunate – but blessed and highly favored.”  She acknowledges she has reached  heights of success because of her strong faith and the steady support from the people in her life. She speak freely and favorably about her love for her husband, Reg, her mother, father, brother, and children.

During one stressful period with a succession of  family illnesses, she declared, “Lord, what is going on and what are you doing. I made it through by prayer, asking for prayer, praise and worship.” Yoga helped also, she laughed.

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Montague grew up reading the Black-owned Chicago Defender newspaper. Her wedding announcement is recorded there. Her husband, Reg, grew up in New York reading the New York Amsterdam News, another legacy Black-owned newspaper.

Montague credits much of her success with the strong support she has received from her family. Her husband and her mother have not only been her encouragers, but they have provided the essential day-to-day support she needed as a busy woman in a power-packed career who was raising two young children and wanted to be a great wife, a great mother, and a great leader.

To women who would seek to emulate her career choices, she offers this advice.

“Don’t buy into the myth that you can do it all at the same time. You can do it all, but you can’t do it all at the same time. Especially if you in a high powered industry like the energy industry.”

“You have to be strategic how you put your life together, especially if you have children. You have to have a supportive mate. I do. He’s encouraged me and feels like it’s part of his role to help take care of the house and the kids.”

It’s worked for 26 years of marriage as they have raised two children, now 24 and 21, and traveled the world together, along with some strategic help from her mother, the family’s “Granny-Nanny” who has always been close by.

Finally, for a woman who gives so much of herself to power others to success, one closing value she was able to isolate among several comes from her dad: Stand up for yourself and stand up for others.

Montague is a member of the Historic First Baptist Church of Petersburg where she sings in the choir. She also is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and she serves on the boards of directors for United Negro College Fund of  Richmond, American Association of Blacks in Energy, Merit School of Music, Virginia Business Council, Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

She has a bachelor’s degree in quantitative economics and feminist studies from Stanford University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.

Montague and her husband currently live in Richmond, Virginia.

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All photos by Stephanie Benson