She Played with a Chemistry Set Instead of Barbies

With aspirations for his three children to become engineers, Julie Hance’s father encouraged his children in science by purchasing educational toys instead of traditional gender-specific toys like Barbie dolls. Today, with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and master’s in business administration, Itron employee Julie Hance is doing dad proud.

Women hold 51 percent of executive, administrative and managerial occupations—but they account for less than 10 percent of top executive positions nationwide. As vice president of Itron software solutions, Hance further distinguishes herself by joining these ranks. Based in Itron’s Raleigh, N.C., office, Hance has 17 direct reports across five different time zones, leading Hance to joke that the sun never really sets on her team.

And although her overall goal each day remains unchanged—to build enhanced tools to help customers run their businesses better—there is no typical day for Hance and her team.

Responsible for all Itron’s software product lines including Itron Enterprise Edition™, MV-90xi, and the MetrixND suite of products, Hance’s team is continually developing strategies to better integrate Itron software solutions and find compatibility between products. Says Hance, “It’s all about finding balance. We’re trying to maximize one product without impacting another, or disrupting a customer’s expectation of cost, schedule or function.”

Hance sees this process as scientific—a proclivity likely based on her early exposure to chemistry sets. For Hance, matching Itron software products up with customers’ business cases is simply utilizing analytic, problem solving talents within a business context. She’s hesitant to take a lot of the credit though or make any gender-specific conclusions. Instead, she says, “The true innovation behind Itron’s software products is our dedicated team. There are 270 people solely dedicated to these products and the ultimate success of our software customers. I am honored to be a part of that.”

Somewhere amidst all that dedication to Itron and to her community, she also finds time for her husband and five American Saddlebred horses and her 17-acre farm. It’s all in a day’s work for Hance and we here at Itron wouldn’t have it any other way.