Veterans Day – building purpose through a shared mission

Posted on by Kelly Yazdani

Today is a day to honor American veterans of all wars. It is a day most people acknowledge and respect, but maybe – mostly just appreciate the day off. Voltus is actually the first company since I left active duty who recognizes Veterans Day! So, I too appreciate the day off. With that, I want to share what being a Veteran means to me.

Indoc had begun. What I thought Indoc – Indoctrination – would resemble was something close to summer camp and getting to know each other and learn (very kumbaya). I was wrong – very wrong – and in for a rude awakening. Indoc is abbreviated boot camp. With my first step onto the bus to take me to base, Gunny started yelling at me. I apologized: “Sorry Sir,” which sent him apoplectic. Turns out you don’t call gunnery sergeants “Sir.”

My family ties to the military ended with grandfathers I barely knew. I did not grow up learning about the ranks, the branches of the military and their history. I just knew I wanted to be part of the greatest American tradition – be part of something great. I was named after my father’s fraternity brother (Stephen) who died in the Vietnam War. I grew up listening to my father opine about the greatness of the military. He had enlisted in the Navy during the Vietnam War – got rejected due to a heart condition – and then was drafted, and subsequently disqualified when they found out about his medical status. It was his greatest regret not having the opportunity to serve, and I would not have that same regret.

Before my friendly greeting by Gunny on the bus, my father said goodbye and reminded me, that this was “a great time to be in the military – it is a time of peace. You will learn and be given amazing opportunities you cannot find anywhere else.” Three weeks later was September 11, 2001. It was time to prepare for battle. The tradition expanded. The mission even more critical. 

Four years later I landed on The Big Stick (USS Theodore Roosevelt – an aircraft carrier) in the Persian Gulf. It was time to finally be part of the mission. During college my Naval ROTC classmates and I shared a lot of similarities, but now that I was joining Air Wing EIGHT in an active war zone, my new teammates ran the gamut. A variety of backgrounds, experiences, ages, ethnicities, but we were all there for a single purpose: the mission. We had almost nothing in common except our drive to serve. This is where I learned the true definition of camaraderie. 

The people I served with – most I haven’t seen in 10+ years – shared a unique experience, bond and mission with me. It is the people who are next to you during the endless hours, who ensure together you achieve success – no matter the stress, no matter the sacrifice. No amount of time nor separation could erode the experience. This summer, one called me and it was as if no time had passed. We still have nothing in common, but I could talk to him for hours. I hung up the phone feeling elevated – feeling grateful for the comrades I had made. Grateful for the experience I had had.

There is no doubt in my mind that the two organizations I will have “served” in my career with the greatest and most impactful camaraderie will be The United States Navy and Voltus, Inc. I can say that knowing I have many more decades ahead of me.

The parallels between the two organizations are uncanny.

  1. We are mission driven. 
  2. We use our diversity of experience, backgrounds and personalities to solve problems and build something with a purpose – something we all believe in – no matter how tough.

But the greatest parallel is the camaraderie. We share a unique experience, bond and mission. No amount of separation can erode the experience we have had (and will continue to have).

2020 has been a year. Highs and lows – a lot of lows. A lot of challenges. But some great highs as well. We have been through this time together, but our team is something special. And thanks to the leadership of Gregg and Matt we have the opportunity to expand our team and mission. We might be prohibited from time together right now, but because of the bright, gritty, good people on this team, we still have a rare camaraderie that most never get to experience. This is the group of people we get to do good with. The team we get to charge into 2021 with – armed and ready for what is next.

2021 is upon us. The tradition of (and need for) demand response expanded. The mission even more critical.

I will forever be proud and grateful to have served in the Navy and forever proud and grateful to be a Voltan.

Happy Veterans Day!

Stephanie Hendricks, VP of Operations & Customer Success

Interested in becoming a Voltan and joining our mission? View all available positions at www.voltus.co/join-us.

One Woman’s Journey to Bright, Gritty, and Good

Posted on by Kelly Yazdani

This post is in honor of International Women’s Day, as the women of the world find their passions, strike the balance, and write their own stories. This is my story.

Last month I joined Voltus as the Director of Marketing. Just like the virtual power plants Voltus manages, the Voltus team is entirely virtual, meaning we #workfromanywhere. The result is a surprisingly close-knit group of Voltans and a company culture ruled by trust and flexibility. As a result, I’m living my dream, working hard at a job I love in a fast-paced environment with the smartest people I’ve ever met, while balancing equally demanding personal roles of wife and mother. Last week, I popped over to my daughter’s school and read a book to her class before jumping back on a work call to plan a conference in NYC. I work until dinnertime and then walk upstairs to eat with my family. I can easily sign online seconds after putting my kids to bed to finish a task.

Although this position is my current state, my professional journey has been atypical to say the least. After graduating top of my class with a degree in Chemistry from Dartmouth at 21, I rolled out of college with a six figure, 80+ hour per week job in the male dominated energy trading industry. I had the proverbial world at my feet, one of three women in an otherwise all male company. I worked hard. I did not play hard. I worked harder. Then the unthinkable happened. At 24, I got pregnant with my first child. 

The backlash was intense to say the least. Like out of a Mad Men clip, I had a male colleague say to 6 month pregnant me: 

Shouldn’t you be home, barefoot and pregnant, where you belong?

I’d like to say that the comments stopped with one chauvinistic co-worker, but the comments were not limited to the often cold corporate world, nor were they limited to men. Well meaning female family members and friends lamented my lost potential and how my life would never be the same. 

Successful women I knew looked at me with pity, like I had violated an oath I made to my generation, to educated women everywhere. It quickly became clear that balance would not be achieved at my 80 hour per week job. I opted to take some time off and reevaluate. A month later my son was born and the next unthinkable thing happened: I didn’t want to go back to work. 

The sweetness of motherhood didn’t stop the aching insecurity that I was doing things backwards, misallocating the prime of my life. Despite these feelings, I dove into momming full force. Four and a half years and three kids later, my home and heart were full, but my brain was ready for a change.

There is no way you are going to find a good job after taking time off.

Wary of needing to explain the gap in my resume, I started a business with a friend and jumped into the world of entrepreneurship, e-commerce, and marketing and eventually landed at a more established start-up doing similar work. Something was still missing though. I was the only person at my company with kids and, to be frank, I yearned to work with other parents. Sometimes school gets canceled. Sometimes children get sick. I always felt awkward needing to explain those things to a group of thirty somethings that, despite good intentions, couldn’t always relate. 

In October 2019, a solution fell out of the sky in the form of a LinkedIn message from Dana Guernsey, VP of Product and Energy Markets at Voltus. Dana and I had been introduced by a mutual friend several years back. We shared an interest in energy and a college alma mater. Dana’s message was clear: Voltus was hiring. As I learned more about the company, such as their commitment to bringing more women into Cleantech (women currently constitute 40% of Voltus’s workforce and rising), applying and ultimately accepting the position was a no brainer. Voltus is an incredible group of bright, gritty, and good women and men and includes the strongest group of kick butt working moms and single parents that I’ve ever met. The values that brought Voltus to life have created a system where people, regardless of personal circumstance, can thrive. My only hope is that other organizations can emulate Voltus’s model, allowing people to make a positive impact on our planet while continuing to prioritize the things they hold dear. I’m proud to be part of the #womenofvoltus. Who else wants to join us?

Interested in learning more about current opportunities at Voltus? Click here.

Wanted: Women in Cleantech

Posted on by Voltus

Recently I was in a meeting with four other women and it was embarrassingly notable. I’ve long ago stopped noticing when I am in a meeting with four men, so why should four women catch my attention? The answer of course is that this was a rare occurrence.  Ask any woman in cleantech and she’ll tell you she’s more often than not the only female in the room. I will admit that in the past I used do things like wear my glasses, put my hair back, wear a button-up shirt – essentially I was trying to blend in, so I wouldn’t be perceived or judged in any way beyond my professional contributions. These were physical adjustments, rather than what I believe are more appropriate behavioral ones. Women should speak up more, say sorry less, demand what they want, and stop caveating. We need to fight the gender gap in cleantech, and encourage more women to enter, stay in, and become leaders in this amazing field. 

Ironically, the clean energy industry is one of the best opportunities to have a positive influence in the world. It impacts everyone, and getting it right makes our planet better. It is exciting, fun, and has a positive social impact . . . something that women rank very highly when considering their careers. Sadly, many still believe inherent biological reasons exist that make men better suited for STEM careers than women. Absurd . . . yes, but the argument boils down to this: if 30 applicants apply for a position and only 4 of them are female, odds are that the best candidate for the job is male . . . and doesn’t every company just want to hire the best? What this is missing, however, is that the industry has a pipeline problem. The problem isn’t that a company might select one of the 26 males as the best candidate for the position – the problem is that the company didn’t do more up front on the issue that only 13% of their candidates in the pipeline were women to begin with. 

At Voltus, we know we need to proactively recruit female candidates . . . the male candidates come to us easily. This is because, not surprisingly, our professional networks represent the existing industry bias – sitting at just 23% female, so we need to actively manage against this in order to avoid perpetuating the problem.  We have done dramatically more direct outreach to female candidates, recruited directly through university networks (which have closer to even ratios), and posted and networked within female-based industry groups. We’ve done a decent job of improving the number of female candidates we attract, but we need to do much, much better.  

We seek creative new ways to build out our pipeline of female candidates . . . this post itself is written to raise this issue and attract female candidates. Please share your stories, feedback, and advice with us, send this around to your female friends and colleagues, and come talk to us! 

Dana Guernsey – Vice President of Market and Business Operations, Voltus, Inc.