Jen O’Brian, Director of Innovation at Worthington Enterprises

Jen O’Brian’s career has taken her from biofuels research and pipeline integrity to helping shape new products and development initiatives at Worthington Enterprises. Along the way, she has developed a philosophy centered on listening to customers, drawing ideas from different industries and bringing diverse perspectives together to solve problems.

She had a strong role in establishing innovation laboratories at Worthington Enterprises, Voice of Customer events across the country and new product launches, including the Smartlid remote tank monitoring system, for which she holds two patents.

Although her 14-year career has not been exclusively in propane, it has remained focused on the pressurized energy sector. After earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio Northern University, Jen joined Battelle, where she worked on biofuels before transitioning to oil and gas pipeline integrity. Five years later, she joined the Corporate Innovation and Strategy Team at Worthington Enterprises before becoming the first product engineer in the company’s Building Products segment.

Today, Jen believes the best solutions begin by bringing together different perspectives. “Seasoned perspectives are dynamite. They are full of lessons learned we can build upon,” she says. “New perspectives are magic keys. They contribute fresh concepts and energy we can equally build upon.”

In 2024, she helped lead the company’s transition to a five-stage product development process designed to balance speed with thoughtful risk management. As the team built that framework, they also reimagined how ideas are generated, captured and prioritized across the organization, resulting in a tenfold increase in idea intake within a single year. Today, engineers, operations, commercial teams and customers all contribute ideas as projects move from concept to development.

Jen is also credited with helping bring Worthington’s innovation laboratory from concept to reality. Opened in 2024, the lab focuses on functional prototyping, product testing and customer interactions. Jen’s nomination highlighted her leadership and team contributions to developing and leading Voice of Customer events held at customer sites, industry trade shows and other settings.

“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that the best innovation rarely happens behind a desk,” she says. “We have to get out of the building.”

This has led her team to ride with bobtail drivers, tag tanks in a Minnesota winter, observe tank refurbishment and spend time with customer service representatives. She also looks beyond the propane industry for ideas, drawing from markets such as refrigerants, water systems, adhesives and other building products to identify technologies, materials and practices that can be adapted for propane applications.

While Jen recognizes the industry’s emphasis on safety and regulation can make change more deliberate, she remains optimistic about its future.

“This industry is impactful, highly driven and deeply values people, from our collective employee base to the communities we serve,” she says.