2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Jennifer V. Montague

In 2023, Montague was named president and COO of Columbia Gas, after serving as parent company NiSource’s senior vice president and chief customer officer. Her time in the energy industry goes back decades, having previously worked at BP and Commonwealth Edison. Montague also serves on boards for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, UNCF Richmond and the American Association of Blacks in Energy.

WHY I CHOSE MY PROFESSION: While at Stanford, I was an engineering intern at Amoco but didn’t love it. I told my mom and my mentor I wanted to drop engineering, focus on feminist studies and work in a bookstore. They suggested alternatives, and I double-majored in quantitative economics and feminist studies. My first job was sales of plastic chemicals, and I’ve been in energy ever since.

MOST MEANINGFUL AWARD: While vice president of communications and external affairs at our sister company, I won an Emmy for our renewable energy outreach campaign focusing on NIPSCO’s transition from coal to add wind, solar and storage. We faced obstacles: pressure about climate-related messaging and a lack of campaign diversity. I challenged the agency to include diverse voices, and I’m proud.

WHAT I’VE LEARNED: It’s important to get a mentor but also a sponsor. A mentor is someone you talk to and gives you advice, but a sponsor is someone who speaks on your behalf when you’re not in the room.

HOBBIES: Singing. I sing soprano in my church choir at First Baptist Church in Petersburg (the oldest African American church in the country). I sang in my church choir when I lived in London and when I lived in Chicago. It gives me such joy!