Thriving As a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Kathryn ‘KC’ Cloyd of MD Energy Advisors On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

…I’d say one of the biggest challenges is trying not to fall victim to imposter syndrome and feeling like I shouldn’t have a seat at the table. Women in general often have a more difficult time advocating for ourselves and it can be difficult to get ahead if we are sitting around waiting for someone to hand us something when our male colleagues are out there pushing for that next step.

In the United States in 2022, fields such as Aircraft piloting, Agriculture, Architecture, Construction, Finance, and Information technology, are still male-dominated industries. For a woman who is working in a male-dominated environment, what exactly does it take to thrive and succeed? In this interview series, we are talking to successful women who work in a Male-Dominated Industry who can share their stories and experiences about navigating work and life as strong women in a male-dominated industry. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Kathryn “KC” Cloyd.

KC is the Vice President of Operations for MD Energy Advisors, a company committed to empowering people and businesses to make informed decisions about energy. KC is an experienced senior finance and operations executive who brings a wealth of C-Suite experience in strategic planning, new business and employee development, and business analytics to MD Energy Advisors. In her role, she manages the company’s daily operations, including the finance, accounting, operations and human resources functions, as well as vendors.

KC has held positions in finance and accounting for noteworthy companies such as Deloitte & Touche LLP, and Exelon Corporation (formerly Constellation Energy); where for more than 15 years, she successfully climbed the corporate ranks. As the Director of Financial Planning and Analysis, she established and managed processes for reporting, forecasting and budgeting for all Retail Energy business lines. She also held positions within the company as the Director of Internal Audit, Chief of Staff and Vice President of Commercial Credit, where she led a team of 20 professionals, evaluated and monitored counter party credit exposure and provided credit approval of all commercial transactions.

KC is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), who earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Accountancy from the University of Notre Dame. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Stocks in the Future.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?

From the time I was little, I wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps and go to the University of Notre Dame and growing up in a small town in upstate New York, I dreamed of someday working in the “big city”. After I graduated from college, I worked for Deloitte in Manhattan. I had the tiniest apartment across the river in Hoboken, NJ, but if I craned my head just the right way when looking out my bedroom window, I could see the top of the Empire State Building and I thought wow — I’ve really made it!

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

When I was in college, the job market wasn’t great, but I knew if I had an accounting degree and a good GPA from a big school, one of the public accounting firms would hire me. So, I focused on that area of study and passed the CPA exam, only to very quickly discover once I started working at an accounting firm, that I didn’t really care for auditing. It was a great foundation and allowed me to take on various finance roles at a variety of different companies (for that I am thankful) before I landed in the energy industry in 2004.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I was working at Deloitte on the 94th floor of the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, when a car bomb went off in the parking garage. It took 3 hours to evacuate the building, walking all the way down, sometimes in complete darkness. I had left my coat, purse, keys, etc. in the building and had no way to get home. I ended up appearing on the Phil Donohue show that afternoon, because a production assistant was at the World Trade Center looking for people to talk to about what had happened, and she offered free car service home if I would go to NBC to film the show. It sounded like a great deal to me!

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Hard Working — Early in my career, I had some projects that required long hours and tremendous work effort to get them accomplished. There were a lot of late nights and weekends, which required personal sacrifice and unwavering commitment.

Patience — The road to the top does not go straight up. It winds around and goes side to side. I made a number of lateral moves in my career and rather than getting hung up on my title being the same, I focused on the additional responsibilities or a new area of the business I was learning that was contributing to my overall development.

Willingness to Learn — A number of times I was asked to step into a role where I didn’t necessarily have the subject matter expertise, but I was willing to learn something new and apply my existing skills to the role.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you help articulate a few of the biggest obstacles or challenges you’ve had to overcome while working in a male-dominated industry?

I’d say one of the biggest challenges is trying not to fall victim to imposter syndrome and feeling like I shouldn’t have a seat at the table. Women in general often have a more difficult time advocating for ourselves and it can be difficult to get ahead if we are sitting around waiting for someone to hand us something when our male colleagues are out there pushing for that next step.

Can you share a few of the things you have done to gain acceptance among your male peers and the general work community? What did your female co-workers do? Can you share some stories or examples?

For better or worse, men often bond over sports. For many years I was an active marathon runner and triathlete (I’ve since retired from competition) and that was something that most everyone knew about me. I found that men often used it as a topic of conversation — “Hey, do you have any races coming up?” — and it helped build relationships with people.

What do you think male-oriented organizations can do to enhance their recruiting efforts to attract more women?

It’s more than just trying to hire enough women — the women need to feel like they belong once they get there. If an organization has a “Boys Club” culture, it will be very difficult for a woman to break into that and, ultimately, she won’t end up staying.

Ok thank you for all of that. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. A sponsor who already has a seat at the leadership table who is going to advocate for you.
2. A great female role model — unfortunately sometimes there isn’t another female in the organization that you can look up to and you may need to look outside of your organization.
3. Allies — men and women peers who you trust and can lean on for advice and who’ve got your back.
4. A thick skin — it’s not easy to be the only woman in the room and unfortunately, if a woman shows emotion it’s taken as a sign of weakness.
5. Self-confidence — if you don’t believe you belong there, no one else will either.

If you had a close woman friend who came to you with a choice of entering a field that is male-dominated or female-dominated, what would you advise her? Would you advise a woman friend to start a career in a field or industry that’s traditionally been mostly men? Can you explain what you mean?

My advice would not center around whether or not a field is male or female dominated. I would advise my friend to choose a field they are passionate about. I don’t think you will find very many successful people who aren’t passionate about what they do.

Have you seen things change for women working in male-dominated industries, over the past ten years? How do you anticipate that it might improve in the future? Can you please explain what you mean?

I think the Me Too movement is probably the biggest change I’ve seen in the past ten years. Particularly in male dominated industries, some of the bad behavior was normalized and women didn’t feel like they could speak up or if they did, would anyone take them seriously. But unfortunately, I still think we have a long way to go. Also, in the past decade we see companies across all industries paying more attention to their diversity statistics. You can’t fix what you don’t measure.

I’m appreciative to be a part of a team that recognizes and embraces the importance of diversity. As our CEO Phil Croskey said in a recent interview with Authority Magazine, diverse team = diverse perspectives, experiences, approaches.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I would like to meet Billy Joel. I love the piano and I am fascinated by how a musical genius’ mind works. I got a piano during the pandemic and have been trying to teach myself to play, but I am very much still at the beginner stage. I see notes on the page that I’m trying to translate into fingers on the keys. Sometimes I’m able to see a pattern in the music, which makes it easier to play. I want to understand what he sees and hears and figure out if there’s a way to make my brain work like that.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.