Green Mountain Power President and CEO Mary Powell will receive a $2.1 million retirement package when she retires from the utility at the end of the year, the company said.
Powell is leaving the state’s largest electric utility after 20 years, 12 of them as CEO. She led the utility through its 2012 merger with Central Vermont Public Service, when it became the state’s largest electricity company.
The retirement package, first reported by VPR, will be paid out over the next six years as Powell, 59, reaches the retirement age of 65, said GMP spokesperson Kristin Kelly. Powell will also earn about $1.4 million this year including a base salary of $589,000 and performance incentives, Kelly said.
“She only gets the incentive compensation if the company meets all kinds of metrics in delivering for customers,” Kelly said.
In her time at GMP, Powell presided over the company’s certification as a benefit corporation, making it the first utility in the world to obtain that status, GMP said. GMP announced in April it will obtain all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
When Powell started as CEO, there were “less than a handful” of female CEOs of investor-owned utilities around the country; now, nearly 20% of S&P 500 utilities have female heads.
In 2016, she wrote a column justifying her salary, which, while high for Vermont, is lower than that of her male predecessors at GMP and at CVPS, who both managed smaller organizations.
“And in neighboring New Hampshire, a much smaller utility than GMP, measured by both employees and size of service territory, has a male CEO who received more than double my 2014 salary,” Powell said in the column.
Powell has not announced what she plans to do after leaving GMP. Mari McClure, senior vice president, will be GMP’s new head.
The retirement plan is a benefit that was typical for top-level executives at GMP at the time Powell was hired, Kelly said Friday. The company has since discontinued it.
“It was still in practice when she joined the company, so that’s why she has this benefit available to her,” Kelly said.
Kelly added that at 75% of the similarly sized utilities in the U.S., the leaders are earning more than Powell. Part of the reason, she said, is GMP’s B Corporation status. B Corps are designed to balance purpose with profit, and to gain certification, must make a commitment to creating a positive impact for workers, the community, customers and the environment, both in day-to-day operations and in business model.
