Meet The Speaker: Bentina Chisolm Terry, SVP of Northwest Region, Georgia Power Company

Discover how many marathons she has run, why her mom is her role model, and what she likes to do when she is not working or running. Meet her in person May 20-21 in New Orleans at The Power Conference to ADVANCE Women in Utilities

Question: Name, Title, Company?

Bentina Chisolm Terry, SVP, Northwest Region, Georgia Power Company

Question: Family, hometown, where you live?

Married, no kids, loves on a 16-year-old, long-haired chihuahua named Bubba, from Fayetteville, NC, live in Atlanta, GA

Question: What is your utility experience?

22 years in the industry with experience in legal, compliance/ethics, external affairs (economic development, regulatory, governmental, corporate communications, environmental, community relations), operations (distribution, customer service), sales, marketing, and charitable giving. 20 years in formal leadership, 13 years at the executive level.

Question: What do you like to do when you’re not working? Hobbies?

Running, reading, traveling, and doing crossword puzzles.

Question: Notable achievements?

Personally – Ran 17 half marathons. Professionally, settles to successful rate proceedings – one resulting in the largest rate increase in the company’s history, design and implementation of corporate ethics framework, and programming for corporations.

Question:  Where do you see ‘Women in Utilities’ in two-to-five years?

Continuing to move to executive levels, particularly in operations.

Question: Who are a couple of your role models (and why?)

My Mom is my role model. She has always been a community leader and managed all her competing priorities well. She raised 4 kids, worked full time, attended school (first an associates degree, then bachelors and culminating with MBA at age 54) and working in the community. She was elected to the school board back home at 68 – her first elected position. She never lets anyone or anything stop her from going where she wants to go. With that said, there are many other women whose tenacity, grace, spirit, and accomplishments I admire – but I only have one role model.

Question: What is one of your biggest goals?

It’s weird. I typically don’t have goals like most people think of. My biggest goals are to stay grounded, to have grace, to keep things in perspective, and to be happy.

Question: What’s the biggest misconception you run into in your role (or what people seem to think about Women in Utilities)?

The biggest thing is that most people don’t know we exist or that we are only working in non-technical roles. It’s good for them to see us everywhere handling all aspects of the important work in our industry.