Future Leader Award
Jennifer Koehler
Partner
PwC
Jennifer Koehler is a Partner in PwC's Power & Utilities Advisory practice with over 14 years of experience working in the industry. She leads PwC's largest transformational initiatives through multiple disciplines—finance, tax, IT, risk management and operations—and has served over 20 power and utility companies in her career.
"Simply put, I relish the opportunity each and every day to make a difference," she says. "That could be to my clients or to the teams in which I work. That might mean delivering a lasting process change for a client or showing a client that there is another, perhaps better, way to conduct business. It could mean helping a junior associate realize a level in their career they did not think possible. There is no shortage of opportunities in the consulting world to make a difference."
Koehler began her PwC career some 15 years ago on the audit side of the business, but about seven years ago found herself wanting to experience new opportunities, she says. So she reached out to some internal trusted advisors, who then steered her into the world of consulting. "I have been happy ever since," she says. "It is an impactful, necessary and ever-changing industry in the United States, so I feel privileged every day to be part of it."
Koehler leads financial organization transformations for her clients, spanning all business processes and supporting technologies in corporate accounting, capital accounting, external financial reporting, internal management reporting, income tax, property tax and financial planning & analysis functions. She also contributes to tax repairs sustainability assessments, assisting integrated regulated gas and electric utilities with determining the appropriate and sustainable solutions for tax repairs deductions.
Outside of her clients work, Koehler says her greatest professional achievement is being admitted to the partnership at PwC—the first female partner admitted to her part of the practice. "So it was something truly ground breaking," Koehler says. "The partnership at PwC is very special. It is a valued and revered part of our culture, and to have the opportunity to be part of it—well, that just feels fantastic."
Koehler credits her parents with instilling confidence in her at a young age and teaching her that there is "nothing a woman can't do." From them, she's "learned that being a woman is an asset—and I try every day to never forget that. There have been those intimidating moments in my career where I have been the only woman in the room, and I always come back to their words."
What does winning the Women Leaders in Consulting award mean to you?
"I am not someone who enjoys the limelight, so I prefer to focus on what the award means for women leaders as a whole. I think that awards such as this are necessary to further the dialogue and the discourse about women in business leadership. We live in a world where there still remain far too few women in leadership positions, and any medium we can take to recognize them is a necessary one. I personally yearn for the day where a woman occupying a senior leadership position in business is not the headline. Reaching that point starts to look like gender parity. Until then though, awards such as the one Consulting Magazine is facilitating are necessary… and a heck of a lot of fun!"
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