Why it Pays to Build Relationships

magazine. “We utilize data to understand how customers use our system and when it is used. As you can imagine, we have 1.8 million customers around the state (of Michigan), and we measure their energy use minute by minute. That’s a lot of data to process.”

An early adopter of analytics, Aponte was the only electric and gas regulatory proceedings expert to complete a CE program. The new learning allowed Aponte to bring others along for a more significant impact on customer savings, a reduction of human struggle built into inefficient processes, and equitable information around rate cases to the Michigan Public Service Commission.

Reflecting on her parents’ passion for lifelong learning, Aponte said her biggest takeaway was that there is always something to improve.

Josnelly Aponte Director of Revenue Requirements and Analysis Consumers Energy

Josnelly Aponte is the director of revenue requirements and analysis at Consumers Energy. She also won the 2022 Women of Color FinTech Leadership Award, which recognizes leading women developing financial technology products, devices, or processes. Aponte’s nomination for the award was endorsed by the Minority Advisory Panel, an employee resource group at Consumers Energy that promotes a culture of diversity and inclusion among minorities through education, development, and networking.

Aponte’s leadership has shone through in many examples, mainly because she laid the groundwork. Spreadsheets had always made her accounting life more efficient, but at Consumers Energy (CE), she saw new opportunities for financial modeling.

“Within the utility industry, metadata became more prevalent in the last few years,” she told Women of Color

“My dad was an accountant, so I had to follow in his footsteps,” she said. “But I had a more artistic inclination, so I had to learn to love my trade. Both of my parents grew up poor. They went to college later in life, understanding that it would bring financial security. My dad didn’t get his college degree until I was 8. My mom didn’t finish high school or obtain her college degree until she was 50. She became a lawyer. My dad was a big proponent of learning a second language, how to swim, and all the skills that will be helpful at some point in life.”

Aponte’s father lived long enough to see her achieve success. In 2006, she was transferred from a CMS Energy affiliate to Michigan because of her knowledge of accounting and ability to communicate in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. By 2010, as she was acclimating to the U.S., she made time to join the Junior Welfare League, where she served as a volunteer board member. Under her leadership, the organization funded educational and social programs benefiting thousands of people. She is now the chief administrative officer of the

Jackson Preparatory & Early College Board of Governors and a member of the Jackson Community Foundation Financial Committee.

Looking back, Aponte said volunteering looked different while growing up because “in Latin American countries, poverty is so prevalent,” adding that volunteering meant “helping your neighbor because everybody is in need,” she said.

Aponte confessed that raising kids has been challenging because “you’re fighting against the world to maintain your traditions,” she said. Aponte’s daughter recently graduated high school and obtained an associate degree simultaneously. She was born in Venezuela and arrived in the U.S. when she was 2 years old.

Initially, Aponte found corporate America overwhelming. The problems became more complex as she gained influence. Her most daunting challenges were office politics, building work relationships, and navigating the hidden rules of her new workplace.

“There’s a lot of good and bad memories,” Aponte said of her early days as a transplant from Venezuela.

A 2022 McKinsey Women in the Workplace report, conducted in partnership with LeanIn.Org, surveyed more than 40,000 employees and conducted interviews with women of diverse identities—including women of color, to get an intersectional look at biases and barriers. According to the report, Latinas and Asian women are more likely than women of other races and ethnicities to have colleagues comment on their culture or nationality.

“Sometimes it’s very subtle,” Aponte remarked. “I have found myself thinking after an interaction, wow, that wasn’t nice. But it comes with disbelief that people can cross that line,” she said, adding that cultural stereotypes she has had to deal with are of Latin women being passionate and intense.

“There have also been situations where if I bring a message to the table as a woman who is confident in what I’m sharing, it’s very evident that I have been dismissed because I bring that passion.”

Her advice to new graduates is to persevere. “Even when people ignore you or give others credit for your point of view. Eventually, I could prove my point with data,” she said. “That was a journey I had to live through. It took a while for people to buy into robots and automation, but I didn’t give up.”

Speaking to her younger self, she said relationships are the most important thing people can develop. “You get to know people, and people get to know you. As immigrants, we come in and work, work, work. Then we feel isolated. It’s easy to get into that mode and not focus on what’s most important, and that is relationships.”

Aponte also said it is important to trust yourself. “Sometimes we doubt ourselves, but if we know in our gut, heart, and mind what is the right thing to do, then go for it.” 