Maria Kingery

Co-Founder & Chief Visionary Officer, Southern Energy Management; Professional EOS® Implementer, Kingery & Company

2016 Entrepreneurship Award Winner

Maria Kingery co-founded Southern Energy Management (SEM) with her husband Bob in 2001. Since then, she has helped pioneer the residential energy-efficiency and solar industries in North Carolina and beyond. The company has installed hundreds of solar systems and worked with more than 300 homebuilders and developers across the nation to verify more than 25,000 homes to be energy efficient through the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) and other green building programs. For seven consecutive years, SEM was recognized as an Energy Star® Partner of the Year. In 2009, Kingery led SEM to become a Certified B Corporation. In 2012 and 2013, SEM earned “Best for the World” status, ranking among the most impactful Certified B Corps worldwide. In 2016, Kingery’s desire to help other impact entrepreneurs succeed led her to train as a Professional Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) Implementer. With her new company, Kingery & Co., Kingery draws on her decades of experience as an entrepreneur to help other leaders excel and expand their impact quickly and efficiently. Kingery is also actively engaged with a number of organizations dedicated to bolstering the sustainable business community. She has served as Board President for the Raleigh-Durham chapter of Entrepreneur’s Organization and the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, and as Chair of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association. She also serves as a board member of Amicus Solar Cooperative, a collective of 38 of the top independent solar companies in the United States. She stays connected to her alma mater, North Carolina State University, where she serves as an advisory board member for the Poole College of Management’s Business Sustainability Collaborative and the College of Engineering’s NC Clean Tech Center. She also serves as the Leadership Advisor for the Duke Environmental Leadership Program at Duke University’s Nicholas School for the Environment. In this role she works with candidates for the Masters in Environmental Management program to expose them to a wide variety of tools and resources to enhance their professional and personal development.