2023 Most Influential Women: Amy Derdall

With a career spanning over 25 years, including a dozen of them between two stints working for City Utilities of Springfield, Amy Derdall said she leans on early professional lessons when it comes to connecting with fellow employees.

“I learned early in my career that you build your resume every day and you should treat each person in the organization with the same respect as you would the CEO,” says Derdall, who serves as CU’s chief financial and supply chain officer. “Another key tenet is to only ask others to do what you would be willing to do yourself.”

Derdall first began working as a staff accountant for CU in 1998 before leaving in 2009 for Rapid City, South Dakota-based Black Hills Corp., where she eventually was promoted in 2019 to regulatory and finance director. But it was upon her return three years ago to Springfield, when Derdall was rehired by CU as CFO, that she says her most significant professional accomplishment would take place.

During a February 2021 winter storm, Derdall says she led and facilitated a team of more than 20 leaders at CU and kept its customers’ best interests top of mind.

“In that period of time, natural gas supply was very costly and was also in very short supply due to freeze-offs of natural gas wells where CU gets our supply,” she says. “For more than a week, I worked around the clock with natural gas and power generation operations and our fuels areas to ensure we had sufficient fuel, planned resources accordingly and minimized the cost impact for our customers.”

To defer recovery of some of the costs from customers over a 24-month period, Derdall says she led the initiative to take recommendations to the CU Board of Public Utilities and, later, ordinances to Springfield City Council. To Derdall, she was just doing her job.

“One of my favorite sayings is to ‘be known for your job, not your gender.’ If you asked my male counterparts about my leadership during this event, I am positive you wouldn’t hear that a woman led the team,” she says. “Rather, they would say, ‘Amy was a great leader during the winter weather event in 2021,’ and that makes me happy.”

Overall, she supervises over 100 employees in a dozen departments, overseeing an annual budget of nearly $700 million.

CU General Manager Gary Gibson says Derdall is one of the best leaders of people he has ever been around.

“Amy is a caring leader who goes out of her way to make genuine connections with people, from connecting with crews in the field to frequently riding the bus to experience the challenges of our customers,” he says. “Amy is actively engaged in making our community a better place to live.”

Derdall also serves as treasurer on the Victory Mission & Ministry board.

“Volunteering for an organization who promotes holistic change through restoration, builds relationships and walks alongside people through their restoration process is tremendous,” she says. “I am humbled to work with the employees and volunteers at Victory, as well as program participants, who bring so much passion and dedication to lifting others up and transforming them.”