Denita Willoughby

Advisor

Denita is an accomplished business leader who brings more than 25 years of executive and senior management experience at Fortune 500 companies. Her expertise lies in leading large sales and marketing organizations, transforming billion-dollar supply chain operations and overseeing logistics, supplier diversity, fleet, facilities, and real estate divisions. She has been instrumental in developing business strategies and operational excellence for national business sales organizations and call centers. With her leadership, she successfully introduced communication and technology products, including AT&T U-Verse and start-up digital wallet solutions.  

Currently, Denita is the CEO of Big Energy Group, a firm that provides executive consulting and coaching services. In her most recent client engagement, she developed a go-to-market green hydrogen strategy and launched the LA Cleantech Career Academy. She also serves as a board member for NWS Wireless, a Grain Management portfolio company, as well as a founding board member for Vision to Learn and a board member for UNITE-LA.  

Previously, Denita was the vice president of Supply Chain & Support Services for Southern California Gas Company and San Diego Gas & Electric, both Sempra Energy California utilities. Her responsibilities included managing a $3 billion supply chain, fleet, and facilities’ operations and overseeing SoCalGas’ $6 billion real estate portfolio. Denita has a strong crisis management background and was appointed as Logistics Chief during the Covid-19 pandemic. She also led the relocation team during the Aliso Canyon gas leak, successfully relocating 8,200 households.  

Denita spent over 15 years in leadership roles at AT&T/SBC/Pacific Bell, where she led government affairs and sales organizations with profit and loss responsibility. She was also on the U-Verse launch team and led the negotiations with emerging networks.  

Denita began her career at IBM as a sales representative and earned recognition in the 100% Club. She was also the interim CEO and board member for WikiLoan, a publicly traded micro-loan and mobile payment company that was purchased by Source Financial in 2013. She has served as the Chair of the Board for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and UNITE-LA, a non-profit focused on workforce readiness. Denita's past board service includes Green Dot Public Schools, The Los Angeles Urban League, United Way of Greater LA, and California Institute of the Arts. As a board member, she has led and served on executive, nominating, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) committees.  

Denita holds a master's degree in business administration from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree in engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also received the Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award. She is married with two sons and lives in Los Angeles, CA.