NRG People Power: Get To Know Mason Willis

Welcome to another edition of People Power, where we introduce you to the names and faces behind the scenes of our organization, tasked with bringing you the best products and services available in the energy industry. In this feature, we’re excited to highlight Mason Willis, a Sales Project Analyst and recent NRG President’s Club award winner who is leveraging technology to build a better sales platform from the ground up.

Mason’s journey with NRG began in 2024. Fresh out of The Ohio State University with his bachelor’s degree in Finance, he started in a sales analyst role for NRG’s West Sales team, poring over processes, templates, and sales stats to improve efficiencies.

In this role, he saw how much time account executives were spending on repetitive data entry tasks instead of building relationships and securing contracts. Always curious, and having a distaste for wasting time, Mason knew there had to be ways to streamline these processes and hit the ground running.

Over the course of 2024, Mason developed an analytics dashboard to track contract changes for a high-value broker partner, replacing a cumbersome email and spreadsheet process. From there, he taught himself Microsoft Power Automate and dove into AI to automate the tracking of rejected enrollment emails; this cut issue resolution time by nearly two-thirds. He also created another dashboard to correlate growing sales opportunities in California, and by the end of his first year, was piloting another AI email solution for the East Strategic Client Services team.

All of these efforts earned him the prestigious Most Valuable Player of the Year award at NRG’s 2025 President’s Club Awards. From there, he’s garnered a lot of attention, and has since transitioned to a new analysis role on the Business Transformation team, where his innovations will be applied on a much broader scale.

Even as a child, Mason was frustrated by having his time wasted, and now he utilizes AI in his own life to make lists, research topics, streamline his routine, and solve problems. Using AI was a habit Mason formed in college, where he was involved with two high-level projects that bridged the gap between finance and technology.

In 2022, during Ohio State’s Fintech Innovation Contest, Mason was a finalist for his comprehensive business plan for a 5-megawatt, 100% green energy Bitcoin mining facility. The model included AI-directed solar and geothermal energy collection, using automation to adjust the panels to effectively acquire and store energy.

In 2023, Mason headed a team that developed a 5-year business model for a Bitcoin mining data facility as part of Ohio State’s Fintech Industry Immersion Program. They assessed various energy types, event scenarios, and cost models to ensure maximum profitability.

These projects were pivotal moments that shaped Mason’s understanding of how technology can transform industries and also deepened his interest in the energy sector.

At work, Mason is encouraged by how NRG has proactively embraced AI. With booming power demand, investing in cutting-edge technology gives businesses a competitive boost, but he recognizes there can be some hesitation around implementing “robots.” Luckily, his colleagues have seen how AI can make their tasks more efficient, and they are eager to see what else automation can do.

“Human potential is amazing,” Mason says. “But there is only so much productivity one person with two hands and an eight-hour work day can achieve. We leverage tools to help us all the time. Most technological innovations have been to make life easier – AI is the same.” In other words, AI isn’t here to replace us – it’s here to assist us.

Long term, Mason sees himself staying two steps ahead of AI innovation, eventually growing into a leadership role similar to that of his mentor, Tracy Ross, VP of West Sales. He describes her as an “amazing leader that everyone respects.” When he eventually becomes CAIO – Chief AI Officer, a job title he’s inventing for himself – Tracy’s belief in his ability to solve unsolvable problems will be part of what got him there.

It’s not surprising that even when Mason is relaxing at home with a cup of coffee, his brain is going a mile a minute. “I can’t just buy a coffee from a local franchise,” he sighs. “I make a much better cold brew at home, which is way more efficient and cost-effective.” Ever the entrepreneur, he hopes to one day have his cold brew blend on local market shelves.

Mason also enjoys golfing with friends and spending time with his mom and their Cockapoo dogs, Chase and Fetch. He likes dystopian and fantasy books, listening to podcasts, and figuring out who the Faithful and the Traitors are on reality show “The Traitors.”

Mason recently attended a “Bot-a-Thon” in Houston, hosted by the NRG RPA (robotic process automation) team in conjunction with Uipath, an automation software company. The goal of the event was to teach employees how to be “citizen developers.” They learned basic automation by working on projects relevant to their team so that they can take these skills back to their department and implement further integration. In just three days with the project, Mason ran a program that identified a value of nearly $250k in additional meters held by customers we are already contracted with, a task that previously would have taken hundreds of hours.

This curiosity and investment in continued self-development shows that Mason’s journey is more than just the personal achievements of a young go-getter in a dynamic industry – it’s a blueprint for how the integration of human ability and technology can create a more efficient future. His calm reassurance about AI’s role in enhancing our capabilities reflects a mature understanding of technology as an ally, rather than a threat.