Fay Coad

Fay Coad serves as a Project Manager at Ameresco in San Francisco, California, supervising four construction managers in the company's solar division. Her work focuses on commercial solar design, development, and installation, drawing on her background as an electrical engineer with expertise in power engineering and construction management. She graduated from college in 1985 with a double major and began her engineering career that year, spending 12 years at Sony Music developing audio devices before taking time off to raise her children. Upon returning to the workforce, she obtained her California Board of Licensing in solar contracting after dedicated study and now applies her power engineering foundation to the solar sector, where she has worked for 17 years across various companies. Coad attributes her professional success to the support of her father, who encouraged her to see herself as equal to two men, and her college physics professor, who helped her overcome shyness and build mental strength in a male-dominated classroom. She is passionate about mentoring others in the field and advises young women entering engineering to pursue it only if they genuinely love and are curious about the work rather than seeking to impress others.