Women's Energy Council

In this episode we will discuss how Tracy's passion for recycling as a child led her to the energy industry, her 22 year career in ExxonMobil consisting of 14 positions and opportunities across the value chain. This has taught her to always tap into other people’s talents, ask questions, cooperate and share knowledge. Finally, we will discuss the creation of Power Play, a platform to promote and celebrate diversity in the LNG sector. I really look forward to Women’s Energy Council and Power Play working closer in these tough times and beyond, exploring ways to cooperate and grow both networks. Nominations for the Power Play Awards are open until June 19th and can be found here https://www.exxonmobillng.com/Power-Play/Power-Play-Awards 

Olivia Wassenaar is a Senior Partner at Apollo Private Equity having joined the firm in 2018, and is focused on the firm’s natural resources investing activities. She serves on the boards of several Apollo portfolio companies, including Apex Energy, American Petroleum Partners, LifePoint Health, Pegasus Optimization Managers, and Talos Energy (NYSE: TALO).  Prior to joining Apollo, Ms. Wassenaar was a Managing Director at Riverstone Holdings, where she was a member of the investment team for ten years.

Previously, Ms. Wassenaar worked at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking Division focusing on natural resources and at The World Bank Group.  

Dr Amy Jadesimi is a Managing Director of LADOL - West Africa's 100% indigenous sustainable economic zone and logistics hub for Nigerian and multinational companies. In one CNN interview in 2017 she said "The one thing that I definitely didn't want to do was work in oil and gas”. After graduating from Oxford University with Medicine and Physiological Sciences degrees she was ready to be a doctor. But Her career pivoted after working for Goldman Sachs and completing an MBA in Stanford. The return to Nigeria was a heart-warming experience that made her vision clear – Amy wanted to contribute to the development of her country and local communities, and execute her own decisions. She joined her father’s company LADOL. In this episode we talk about challenges working for a family business and how to minimise unhelpful stereotypes, how hard it is to be heard as a woman, and especially as a woman of colour, we talked about institutional racism and about her deep belief in people doing the right thing.

Olivia Wassenaar is a Senior Partner, Co-Lead of Natural Resources at Apollo Global Management. She is one of the very few women (we couldn't count more than 4 in Senior Partner positions in energy globally) in Private Equity. In this episode we talk about the value of friends and networks, the transferable skills writing can bring to creating economic models and the idea of "You can't be what you can't see". With so few women in senior positions in PE, there is a lot that can be done, starting with very small mindset changes and increasing awareness. 

Iman Hill held Managing Director, President and Head of Development and Operations positions in companies including BP, Shell, BG Group, Sasol, Dana Gas in the Middle East and Energean. In this episode we explore lessons in leading teams with respect, not fear, the importance of having tough conversations and close teams, and balancing family (Iman has 5 children) and a successful career. She has also been through one of the most tragic events that I can imagine but came out even stronger. She is now my inspiration and I’m sure she will be yours too.

Geeta Sankappanavar is the Co-founder and President of Grafton Asset Management, a ~$1B energy investment firm based in Calgary Alberta. Geeta had a very clear career path planned in her head when she was at university but one dramatic event changed that trajectory completely. She turned towards the energy industry and stayed in the sector since. This podcast uncovers important ideas about unconscious bias, networking advice and how leadership is about people following you because they want to, not because they have to, and why it is harder for women...

In this episode, Marta describes her journey from Shell to becoming a President of ANCAP, the NOC of Uruguay. Juggling her family obligations, constant travel and ambitions wasn't easy but she developed a keen eye for excellence as a result, challenged traditional ways of thinking even in the public company and drove the energy transition for Uruguay.