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President and CEO, Hoosier Energy
Achievements: Donna Walker leads Hoosier Energy, a not-for-profit electric generation and transmission cooperative that provides wholesale service to 18 member distribution cooperatives in central and southern Indiana and southeastern Illinois. In early 2020, the Hoosier Energy board approved a new long-range plan that included the decision to step away from ownership of the coal-fired Merom Generating Station and move toward a more diverse, sustainable, stable and affordable resource mix. Walker has been leading Hoosier Energy through this transition. She is also leading the cooperative’s involvement in the Palisades Nuclear Plant restart, the first utility-scale nuclear recommissioning in history, which is scheduled for August 2025.
Career track: Walker was a business assurance manager with Coopers & Lybrand LLP in Indianapolis before joining Hoosier Energy in the accounting and finance department in 1995.
Influential moment: In 2018, Hoosier Energy’s CEO announced his retirement. The board launched a national search to find a replacement. Walker decided to apply—and didn’t get the job. She sent a quick text to her husband and sons. But over the next two weeks, while she experienced all the stages of grief, things didn’t work out with the other individual. The board offered her the position. “Without that initial rejection, I never would have heard the words of support and respect that my husband and sons shared with me when I told them I hadn’t been chosen,” she said. “I now know that June 20 wasn’t the right time for me … yet. The exact right time for me was 14 days later.”
Givebacks: Walker is vice president of the National Generation & Transmission Cooperatives Managers Association and chair of its finance committee. She is also part of the Indiana 21st Century Energy Policy Development Task Force, appointed by Gov. Eric Holcomb to represent electric utilities.
Advice for young women: Apply for senior leadership positions. “So often, women think they shouldn’t apply for an opportunity unless they are completely qualified to step into the position on day one. As most senior leaders know, that’s hardly ever the case. With confidence and the right skill set, you will figure out the parts you don’t know once you get there.”•
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