RECAP:  WLI Uncorked: Conversation with a Leader featuring Crystal Smith, Duke Energy

On January 15, 2019, the ULI Charlotte Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) hosted a conversation with a leader, featuring Crystal Smith of Duke Energy.  Below are some of our notes:

• Duke Energy has six buildings in Charlotte and is consolidating down as they plan their new office tower.
• Crystal is transitioning roles and now will be solely managing the construction of the new tower.  Previously, she managed all six buildings plus other buildings throughout the southeast including those of Piedmont Natural Gas, as they merged.
• On Monday, employees move into the Optimist Hall facility, which is an 83k sf innovation center that will provide forward-thinking space for forward-thinking employees and they come up with everything from apps to drones to self-healing electrical grids.
• Not only does her job entail managing existing facilities but the real estate group “is providing solutions, whether or not it is acted upon”.  Sometimes her solutions aren’t immediately implemented but are a strategic take on what options are available.
• Hard work, dedication, and tenacity is in her DNA.  Her father was an electrician and was always proud of his work and the buildings that he worked on.  Crystal knew she wanted to follow his path into construction.  He would always guide her with “If that’s what you want, what’s your plan?”.
• She took initiative and pressed the envelope to get things done in individual instances, problem-solving on the fly, and in her career as a whole.  She wasn’t afraid to take a risk if the opportunity was a step in the right direction for her career.
• She took the initiative early to work internationally and spent a year in the Netherlands as the only young black American female on a team building a pharma manufacturing facility.  She was persistent to get this job.  She asked multiple times to work on an international job and was turned down again and again until she was finally given a chance.
• She had a couple of construction jobs but Turner Construction was her big break.  On her second tour with that company, they brought her to Charlotte to work on the Duke account.
• Over her career, she worked on utilities, hospitals, medical facilities, casinos but the tower will be her biggest project yet.
• She encourages you to always learn something new.  She continues to get certifications and went back, later in life, to get her MBA.  You should keep learning personally and professionally.  When she had no common ground with coworkers in her stint in New York, she took it upon herself to learn some of the pastimes of her coworkers.
• In the recession, she lost everything, was humbled and had to start over with no car, no house, and no job.
• Duke is an amazing place to work.  Lynn Good is an amazing leader.   The amount that they give back to the community is unmatched.

The quote that she shares that she feels is her best career advice is “Do the best that you can until you know better, then do better” by Maya Angelou

Notes provided by Nicole Frambach, Ryan Homes.