A23-year veteran of the Exelon Company, Angela Ahmad is now manager, safety and human performance at Baltimore Gas & Electric Company (BGE), an Exelon company headquartered in Baltimore(www.bge.com).

 

Ahmad’s interest in engineering began in the sixth grade. “I was a student member of PRIME, a Philadelphia non-profit focused on promoting the interest of minorities in engineering,” she explains.

 

A certified Utility Safety Professional, Ahmad holds a BS in electrical engineering from Temple University and a MBA from St. Joseph’s University, both in Philadelphia. As an undergraduate student she participated in an internship at PECO, an Exelon Company headquartered in Philadelphia, leading to a full-time permanent job after graduation.

 

“Throughout my years at Exelon, I’ve taken advantage of the diversity of areas within the utility space where I could apply my problem-solving skill set with applicable business processes,” she says. For her current position, Ahmad contends there was no better experience than being a front-line leader of overhead mechanics.

 

Her current focus is to prepare her team to provide services that support a safe working culture. “I currently oversee safety and human performance improvement and am responsible for facilitating the program that oversees incident-free operations of BGE personnel,” she explains. She looks to ensure that all 3,400 BGE employees keep their personal safety and the safety of their co-workers foremost in their minds.

 

As for advice to young professionals, Ahmad addresses the importance of confidence and humbleness – confidence in what you bring to the table and humbleness in knowing that you do not know everything. “Leadership courage balanced with the fortitude to apply and reapply proven safety risk management techniques are most desired skills for those working in human performance improvement in the utility/energy sector,” she states.

 

What Ahmad, a mother of five, enjoys most about her position are the many challenges she faces every day. “Every challenge is unique. It’s the design of the solution that fires up my passion to succeed on a daily basis,” she says. Involved in recruitment at Society of Woman Engineers (SWE) conferences and a recipient of the 2014 SWE Emerging Leaders Award, Ahmad holds memberships in the American Association of Safety Engineers, is active on two Philadelphia Home and School Executive Boards and has served as an elected judge of Elections for the 13th District 2nd Division in Philadelphia, among other community venues.