2021 Events - SPE Trinidad & Tobago

Events

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Diversity and Inclusion Panel Session

Topic:
Diversity and Inclusion: A Key Driver for Today’s Industry

Wednesday June 30, 2021 | 8:30 – 10:00 am

Moderator:
Ms. Gail Ramdath, Regional Director SPELAC

Moderator

Ms. Gail Ramdath is the Tenders & Contracts Manager for Tucker Energy Services for the past five years, based in Trinidad and Tobago. Prior to this she has worked throughout the Tucker Trinidad organization in various roles as Petroleum Engineer, Development Manager, Human Resources Manager, and Project Manager.

Prior to joining the management team she worked as a Field Engineer in Stimulation and Completions services primarily in the offshore East coast Trinidad fields. She has received several SPE awards, including the SPE Regional Service Award in the Latin America and Caribbean Region in 2014.

She has been a member of SPE since 1997 and is currently serving on the SPE International Board of Directors as the Regional Director for the Latin America and Caribbean Region. Ms. Ramdath is an MBA Graduate of the Heriot Watt University, Scotland as well as a graduate of University of the West Indies, St. Augustine with a BSc in Chemical & Process Engineering. She is also a PMI Certified Project Management Professional.

Panelists

Stacy Patel-Kissoon is a Human Resources Manager at Shell Trinidad and Tobago with over 15 years of experience and knowledge in employee relations in the energy sector. She holds her Bachelor in Commerce and a Masters in Business Administration, specializing in Human Resource Management.

With a strong business knowledge of the local upstream industry within the HR function, she has held roles in compensation and policy, Organization Development and Learning, and extensive time building strategic business partnering skills. In her role as HR manager for STTL, her passion has been fulfilled through building the transformative culture and creating an environment in which employees feel empowered, supported and developed continuously. Her goal in role is focused on continuous development of the asset talent pipeline, coaching and mentoring and helping employees remain curious, creative and innovative. This is also seen in her role as Chairman of the Board for the International School of Port of Spain which concentrates on broad direction and strategic planning of the school.

Stacy is passionate about human capital development in Trinidad and Tobago and she believes in playing her part to ensure that T&T has a sustainable future not just for her 2 sons but for all citizens.

Nicola Reece (she/her/hers) is the Innovation Laboratory Lead – Production & Subsurface Science for bp. In this role she has accountability as an ambassador for the Innovation Lab, raising awareness and being the relationship holder for individuals and teams wishing to utilise the space. She is responsible for ensuring that guests are properly inducted into the laboratory, risks are assessed, and that safety remains the top priority.

Prior to this role, Nicola worked in the Upstream Laboratories with a focus on enhanced oil recovery and SCAL, operating technical experimental equipment and as a leader in safety, ensuring compliance with regulations, leading audits with the Environment Agency and Counter Terrorism Unit. She continues to hold accountabilities in this area.

Nicola is dyslexic and is part of the working group who are positively influencing bp’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion agenda and promoting cognitive diversity. She has authored awareness training courses looking at the most common forms of neurodiversity and the superpowers these bring, as quite often the negatives get focused on. She has campaigned within bp to move the company to be more accessible for employees and its customers who are neurodivergent.

Nicola holds a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Bath and is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Sonia Badilla her career in Schlumberger in 1999, as a Well Services Engineer in Venezuela.

After gaining experience on land operations, she was transferred to the Gulf of Mexico as Lead Engineer, based in Houston. She took the role of Cementing Instructor in 2002, in Oklahoma.

In 2004 she moves to Dubai as Training, Development and Staffing Manager, covering new Field Engineers in the Middle East & Asia. Operations Management positions were undertaken in the United States and Gabon subsequently. Australia was the next destination, were she completed two assignments, one in Sales, and another one as Deepwater Project Manager.

During the last five years she has done multiple positions in Human Resources, at HQ and Corporate level in London, Paris and Houston. She is married, and proud mother of two girls.

Jose Acosta is Director of Global Operations for Halliburton Landmark. He is responsible for setting the vision and strategy in managing all sales, technical sales, and service teams.

For the last 18 years, Mr. Acosta has led regional teams for Halliburton and Landmark. Most recently, he was Senior Regional General Manager in Latin America, where his team dramatically increased revenue and implemented groundbreaking solutions for Latin America customers.

Mr. Acosta was Regional Manager Business Development and Technology, from 2010 to 2014, where he led the business team instrumental to achieving record revenues for four years in a row. Prior to this, Mr. Acosta was Regional General Manager of Drill Bit and Services in Latin America. His vast global experience at the Company comes from his leadership roles as a Region General Manager or a Country General Manager while located in Latin America, the Middle East, and North and South Africa. Prior to joining Halliburton as a Senior Technical Advisor in 2001 in Latin America, Mr. Acosta held engineering positions at Fluor, Honeywell, and Siemens.

Mr. Acosta earned an electrical engineering degree from Universidad Nacional Simon Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela and a MBA from F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business in Massachusetts, U.S. He also earned a specialist designation for finance at IESA and a specialist designation in corporate economy at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, and both universities are located in Caracas, Venezuela.

Diversity and Inclusion Workshop

Wednesday June 30, 2021 at 10:30 am – 3:30 pm

Speaker: Ms. Sara Laschever

Ms. Sara Laschever

Description: Whether they want higher salaries, better career opportunities, or more help at home, women are much less likely than men to ask for what they want. Women pay for this decision in every aspect of their lives—in lost income, delayed career advancement, and under-utilization of their skills. Women who aspire to leadership roles must master the art of wielding influence without resorting to traditional command-and-control leadership styles, which typically backfire when employed by women. They need to know how to request opportunities and resources—on their own behalf and on behalf of their teams—without seeming too demanding or self-promoting.

This workshop approaches these leadership challenges from the premise that success for women begins with negotiation savvy. Workshop participants will develop the skills to ask for the resources and support they need to advance professionally, build the collaborations so necessary for success, and achieve leadership roles across their organizations.

Using a combination of lectures, interactive exercises, videos, and group discussion, this workshop explores the internal and external barriers that can prevent women from negotiating effectively, introduces “best practice” negotiation strategy, and describes ways for women to maximize their bargaining power, set the right targets for a negotiation, and manage the anxiety they often feel around this essential workplace skill.

Author Bio

An authority on women’s leadership and the persistence of the wage gap, Sara Laschever has spent her career investigating the challenges that shape women’s lives at work. She is the co-author, with Linda Babcock, of Women Don’t Ask, the groundbreaking study that focused public attention on the forces preventing women from negotiating on their own behalf, and Ask for It, a nuts-and-bolts negotiation training primer for women struggling to overcome the barriers in their path.

A highly sought-after speaker, Sara lectures and teaches workshops to corporate audiences, colleges and universities, law firms, government agencies, and women’s leadership conferences in the U.S. and around the world. A founding faculty member of the Carnegie Mellon Leadership and Negotiation Academy for Women and formerly a Senior Fellow at the Center for Work-Life Policy, Sara also worked as Research Associate and Principal Interviewer for Project Access, a trailblazing Harvard University study of the obstacles blocking women’s progress in the sciences.