Employee Profiles: Senior Executive Assistants Millie Durrett and Melissa Shultz

April 23 is National Administrative Professionals Day, a time to honor employees who work behind the scenes to “keep the gears of our workplaces turning smoothly,” says the Days of the Year website.

Millie Durrett and Melissa Schultz are both senior executive assistants who have extensive experience keeping our company’s many gears running.

“I worked as a legal secretary prior to starting at Louisville Water in 2001 as the administrative assistant for Human Resources,” Durrett said. “Two years later I became the admin for customer service.”

Now she assists President & CEO Spencer Bruce, Executive Vice President Dave Vogel, and occasionally Vice President of Finance & Treasurer Lynn Pearson as their senior executive assistant.

Schultz started as a legal secretary in 1987 before joining LG&E in 1997 as the senior executive assistant to that company’s senior vice president of information technology.

“I came to Louisville Water in 2011 as an executive assistant to work for Jim Brammell, chief engineer at the time, and have been in that role since,” she said. “I now assist [Vice President & Chief Engineer] Larry Bryant and [Vice President of Communications & Marketing] Kelley Dearing-Smith as their senior executive assistant.”

But Schultz also pointed out that “since we are the only two executive assistants at Louisville Water, we work with people from every department on a daily basis.  We wear many hats and have to be able to change gears quickly and efficiently.”

Asked if she has had an especially memorable day at Louisville Water, Schultz said, “There have been lots of memorable moments, but volunteering with Dave Vogel for the Kentucky Derby Festival Hole-in-One is one of my favorites.”

Durrett said she has especially enjoyed organizing and overseeing Louisville Water’s annual retiree holiday luncheon for the last few years.

“I enjoy listening to the retirees’ stories about Louisville Water during the time they worked here,” she said.

When she’s not at work, Durrett said she enjoys using her free time for “traveling, gardening, and spending time with my family.”

Schultz said she loves to “read books while sitting on a beach with my husband and spending time with my five grandkids.”