Schneider Electric honoree Bhavani Amirthalingam works at Ameren, an energy company that provides electricity and natural gas to large areas of the central United States. Bhavani stands out as a leader of change in several ways. She’s a high-level executive steering a critical, people-serving company through a period of great change, while also being a civic leader and helping young people (including girls) learn about careers in technology.
Bhavani’s title at Ameren is Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Information Officer. As such, she is in charge of using digital technology to serve customers and adapt to changing needs. In the energy industry, that is a big deal these days. All people in modern societies depend on having reliable flows of electricity to power everything from lights and home appliances to factory equipment, hospitals, schools, and much more. But the electric grids that deliver the power through myriad lines and wires are not simple. Computers are now needed to constantly adjust and direct the flows—and with new sources of clean, sustainable energy coming on line, the picture gets even more complicated. It’s up to technology leaders like Bhavani to assure that we can make this transition.
Bhavani has a computer science degree from the University of Madras and advanced education in management. In St. Louis, her home-city area of the U.S., she has served on the boards of groups including the ballet company and the symphony orchestra, and has mentored aspiring young tech women through programs like the FIRST robotics competition. Here are highlights from Bhavani’s interview with World Woman Hour.
Q: Could you tell us some more about your work in the energy industry?
Bhavani Amirthalingam: In my job, what I look forward to every day is just powering the quality of life in the communities that I love. Secure, affordable, reliable energy is fundamental to our existence. Being able to leverage technology to make it better and easier for people is what makes me excited about what I do. And the electric grid is probably going to change more in the next five, ten or 15 years than it has in the past 100 years.
Q: What will these changes look like?
Bhavani: Think about the clean-energy transition that’s already happening. For that to keep happening efficiently, it has to be enabled and supported with the right changes on the grid, so that distributed energy sources can come up. If you think of the people and organizations putting solar panels on their roofs, the customers are becoming producers. They can actually produce energy as well as consume it. This is a really important aspect of where the industry is headed. At energy companies, we have to be able to do that transition at scale and make sure the grid is ready, from a technology perspective.
And we have to see that all of that is done in a very secure manner. Cybersecurity is top of mind for everybody, when you think about the electric grid or any other critical infrastructure. So, providing every human being with access to reliable, secure, clean power is going to be a very exciting change, and the pace at which it’s going to come and all that goes into making it happen, is just exciting for me.
Q: How can young women prepare to lead change—in this field or any other?
Bhavani: The most important part of being a change agent is curiosity. This means approaching every situation with a curious mindset, with curiosity to learn. Then you need compassion, to see how a change could benefit people, and courage to drive the change. I think about these as my three Cs: curiosity, compassion and courage.
Q: Is there a piece of advice that you wish you had known, when you were younger and just embarking on your career?
Bhavani: Don’t try to figure it all out yourself. In my career I’ve been super fortunate. I’ve had tremendous opportunities. And I’m also a mother. I have two kids who are now 17 and 13 years old. But when I think about all the things that were coming at me when they were very young—sometimes I had this tendency to try to figure it all out myself. So I think one thing I would tell my younger self is: Don’t do that! Build a support system, leverage the social network around you to help you. There’s nothing wrong with being able to do so.
Q: What could be done to bring more women into your field? And to help them achieve leadership roles?
Bhavani: In technology, I think it’s starting really young with girls, for them to just be able to know the biases or stereotypes of what girls can and cannot do. Then it’s removing those biases and giving them the opportunities, early on, to explore more science and technology. I think that is very fundamentally needed. When I think of myself, if I didn’t have the opportunities when I was very young, I think I wouldn’t have done all the things that I did.
But there are so many biases like “If you’re a girl and you’re really good, you can do X, Y or Z better.” I think the one thing that we need to be very conscious of, and very deliberate about, is giving young girls exposure to all of the opportunities that exist. And then helping them explore their passions without any biases.
Q: Aside from the formal mentoring that you’ve done, what else can be done to lead change for women generally?
Bhavani: Every day, you have opportunities to support women and girls—by advocating for them, by helping them change, by giving them access to opportunities that they may not have otherwise. So for me it’s as simple as thinking about it and acting on it with the women and girls I encounter every day.
At home, I have a young 13-year-old. Think of the influences and impacts I could have on her and her friends. At work, and in the nature of my social activities, a lot of times I find women who are very competent but they may not be good at advocating for themselves. Sometimes you have someone who’s very quiet, but is just an absolutely fantastic performer. Maybe you can help this person move a little bit out of her comfort zone, get more exposure, and help to build her confidence.
I have these opportunities to advocate for women or young girls every single day. It’s all about being ready for the opportunities when they show up, and making sure to have a very deliberate approach to it. I think that is what can help to bring women forward.
