Around Minneapolis in January, the average daily low is a frigid 8 degrees above zero. As winter takes hold, fish house villages appear on the lakes, complete with street signs.
Ice fishing, pond hockey, bowling with frozen turkeys – the cold is embraced in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
But in Hermiston, “I’m told you can’t drive on lakes here,” Sonja Bogart says. “I will keep that advice in mind.”
Bogart, Umatilla Electric Cooperative’s newly appointed Chief Operating Officer, was raised in Hermiston but has spent her 20-year utility career in Minnesota.
During the majority of her career, from 1997 to 2015, she worked at Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association in Rockford, Minn. Wright-Hennepin serves about 45,000 electric accounts just west of Minneapolis. She also previously held positions at a power supply cooperative and an energy consulting firm.
At Wright-Hennepin, she first worked as a marketing specialist, then energy and services manager and since 2002 she held the title of vice president of customer service, sales and marketing. She also led several of the utility’s independent business units.
As part of her duties, Bogart oversaw Wright-Hennepin’s security business, which installed and monitored home and business security systems that protected against burglary, fire and more. Started in 1989, the business has more than 15,000 customers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul marketplace. Wright-Hennepin was Minnesota’s first cooperative to offer a community solar option to its members and the first in the nation to incorporate electric battery storage for backup power.
“UEC is going through an exciting time with growth and opportunity, and I’m glad to be here,” Bogart said.
As a member of the Stone family, her Hermiston roots run deep. A great-grandfather, Albert Prann, was an early Hermiston mayor who was the town’s first drugstore owner. At one time, her mother owned a furniture store on Hermiston Avenue.
After graduating from Hermiston High School, Bogart received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Oregon at Eugene, where she majored in marketing and finance. While working at Wright-Hennepin, she received her Master of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., in 2010.
She has two children, Allison, a pediatric nurse at the University of Minnesota children’s hospital; and Matthew, who works in the warehouse at Wright-Hennepin.
“She has proven herself, rising to a high level in a well-respected cooperative,” UEC General Manager and CEO Robert Echenrode said. “Along with her broad experience, she brings knowledge and appreciation of our area with her hometown roots.”
