Mary Ann Pearce

Mary Ann Pearce was among the students whom Montana State university professor Lloyd Berg recruited to study chemical engineering at MSU in the 1970s. After earning her bachelor’s degree in 1976, she joined ConocoPhillips’ natural gas processing group. There, she headed projects in six states and seven foreign countries. She was in charge of more than 300 people, 5,000 miles of natural distribution lines, seven processing facilities and a coalbed methane system. Under her leadership, her department’s earnings rose in one year from $7 million to $75 million. ConocoPhillips chose her as one of 14 employees to establish strategies and tactics as it entered the new millennium. In 2010, Pearce retired from ConocoPhillips as manager of commercial activities in the Lower 48. While at MSU, she started the student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. Since then, she has maintained her passion for community service and mentoring through her work as an instructor in the Houston area Women’s Energy Network, among other things. In support of MSU and in honor of her mother’s 85th birthday, she established the Olive Pearce Presidential Scholarship, which covers the full cost of tuition for an exceptional engineering student each year.

Mary Ann Pearce is an accomplished champion for women and stalwart supporter of women engineers at MSU.