CES Stories | International Women’s Day Series

How Dr. Natalie Cotton-Nessler became one of CES’s earliest employees—and why she never really left 

Not everyone’s CES story runs in a straight line. Dr. Natalie Cotton-Nessler is living proof that the most meaningful ones sometimes don’t. 

Natalie was only the fifth person hired at Customized Energy Solutions. She joined around the year 2000, fresh from a college internship at PECO Energy, after a colleague introduced her to CES founder Stephen Fernands. She came on part-time first, then full-time after graduation—an energy consultant working in what CES now calls retail, supporting clients like New Energy Ventures with a mix of IT work and market intelligence. 

Then she left. Graduate school called. Then a doctorate. Then a career as a Business School professor at a couple institutions. For the better part of two decades, Natalie built an entirely different life. 

But she never quite cut the thread. 

A Company That Keeps the Door Open 

Even through the academic years, Natalie kept showing up for CES when capacity allowed—FTR analysis here, a market project there, HR support as the company grew. “I did a little bit of everything,” she says. “It was a very small company.” 

The relationship ran deeper than project work. Stephen attended her wedding. They stayed in touch through the years when she wasn’t officially on the books. When 2020 arrived and Natalie found herself wanting a larger footprint in the world beyond the classroom, she knew exactly who to call. 

“It’s so important that Stephen sees each person as an individual first—as a person, not just an associate. And that makes it easier for the rest of us to do the same.” 

She rejoined CES as Skills Development Coordinator in Associate Care, leading trainings, supporting the annual review process, and helping strengthen the people-first culture she’d always valued at the company. This past January, she made yet another pivot—transitioning into the Market Intelligence team, where she now works within the MISO region alongside an all-female subteam of four. “It’s been pretty cool,” she says simply. 

The Power of the Pivot 

Natalie’s path defies the tidy career arc. Energy consultant. HR specialist. Academic. Professor. Associate care coordinator. Market intelligence consultant. “My story is just very, very quirky,” she laughs. She acknowledges that not all of the standard interview questions about energy mentorship and legacy quite fit her lane—and she owns that with complete ease. 

What does fit her lane is the advice she’d give her younger self—and it’s advice she believes is especially relevant for women navigating a field that remainsmale-dominated, especially in engineering and at the executive level. 

“Aim for credentials. Get the certifications, get the degrees—those external validations of competency are really key in helping to project a strong, valued image. And then be willing to raise your hand. Step into the new project. Say yes.” 

She draws on research as much as personal experience: women are statistically less likely to volunteer for stretch opportunities, often out of caution. Natalie has lived that tension. Her answer to it isn’t to dismiss the anxiety—it’s to build the community that pushes you forward anyway. “We want to support each other by pushing each other to go do that, try that out. It’s a win-win—for the individual and for the company.” 

Honest About the Work Still Ahead 

Natalie doesn’t sugarcoat the landscape. She felt the lack of female representation acutely in energy in her early days, and she’s candid that progress inside CES and across the industry has been uneven. “This is still a male-dominated industry, especially when it comes to the engineering aspects,” she says. “And that can be hard.” 

But she sees movement—in the all-female MIQ subteam she’s now part of, in CES’s sponsorship of the Indiana Women in Energy Conference last November, and in the conversations CES Stories is starting to create. Her hope: that those conversations translate into something tangible—maybe a women’s group, a quarterly dinner, a standing space for connection. “A great way to help each other,” she says, “is just to spend time together.” 

Beyond the Office 

When she’s not working, Natalie recharges by playing video games—computer games, specifically. She also has two cats she describes as “almost like little human beings, they’re so needy.” It’s a fitting detail for someone who has spent a career thinking carefully about how people learn, grow, and connect. 

Twenty-five years after she first walked into CES as a college student figuring out her path, Natalie Cotton-Nessler is still here—still growing, still contributing, still finding new ways to be part of the story. In a company that has been building a history of firsts since 1998, that kind of commitment means something. 

Some people find their place and never leave. Others leave and find their way back. 

For Natalie, CES has always been both. 

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ABOUT DR. NATALIE COTTON-NESSLER 

Natalie is a member of the Market Intelligence team at Customized Energy Solutions, working within the MISO region. She holds a doctorate and brings a background spanning energy markets, HR, academic research, and business education. She is one of CES’s earliest employees, first joining the company around 2000. 

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