The Blue Thread Behind the Global Grid

By: Megan Hujber

Amsterdam is a city shaped by connections. Its canals link neighborhoods across the city, much like the professional paths that brought two Duke alumnae working in different corners of the climate and energy world to the same place.

Fiona Spruill ’99 and Clare Murray ’10 didn’t meet on campus. They crossed paths thousands of miles from Duke, both living and working in Amsterdam. Spruill had moved there to join Overstory, a company helping utilities prevent outages and wildfires. She later became CEO. Murray, after building a global career, founded Blume Equity, an investment firm backing companies critical to the energy transition.

Neither expected Duke to enter the conversation, but it did.

“It felt like a very small-world moment,” Spruill says. “There was immediately a shared understanding.”

That understanding came quickly. Though they approached the same challenge from different angles, both women were focused on one fragile system: the power grid. Spruill was working to reduce physical risk on the ground. Murray was evaluating which solutions were ready to scale and make a real impact. Duke didn’t create their connection, Murray says, but it helped explain why the alignment felt so natural.

Overstory’s work centers on a growing problem that affects communities worldwide. As storms, droughts and heat intensify, trees and vegetation near power lines have become one of the leading causes of outages and wildfires. In North America alone, vegetation accounts for roughly 20 percent of major power outages, according to federal energy data. Overstory helps utilities spot trouble before it happens, identifying where branches are likely to fall, where dry growth could ignite and where a small spark could spread.

“If you don’t have a reliable grid,” Spruill says, “you can’t do the energy transformation we need to help solve climate change.”

For Murray, the question wasn’t whether the technology was impressive, but whether it was usable. Could it help utilities act faster, spend smarter and keep people safe?

“They’re operating where technology meets real-world risk,” she says. “And the impact is immediate.”

One Canadian utility using Overstory’s platform reduced tree-related outages by nearly 50 percent, improving reliability while lowering wildfire risk. As electrification accelerates, that kind of resilience is no longer optional.

Blume Equity’s decision to lead a $43 million investment in Overstory came down to shared values, Murray says. “It was both what the company was doing and how they were doing it.”

Both women trace that mindset back to Duke, though in different ways. Spruill credits Duke with teaching her pragmatism, how to solve complex problems with real-world results, as ever present in her leadership. Murray points to the power of exposure. “Being around different people and perspectives early on changes how you lead later,” she says.

That shared foundation became something tangible. A conversation turned into alignment, alignment turned into action and a Duke connection, formed years earlier and continents away, helped strengthen a system millions of people rely on every day.

“Duke instills boldness,” Murray says. “It makes you willing to pursue something you never thought was in your plan.”