AFBE-UK Scotland Gala Awards Finalists Announced

AFBE-UK Scotland is pleased to announce the names of the finalists in the three categories of this year’s awards.

The winner and runner-up in each category will be announced at the Gala Dinner and Awards ceremony holding on Wednesday 21st November 2018 from 6.30pm at the Double Tree by Hilton Treetops Hotel 161 Springfield Rd Aberdeen AB15 7AQ.

Company of the year Award

This Award is run by the AFBE-UK Scotland with the express purpose of encouraging and recognising the efforts of companies in the area of diversity and inclusion. The winner of this award shows clear evidence of a commitment to creating a more diverse and inclusive working environment through diversity programmes at every level of the company. Such a programme is geared at enabling the career progression of female and /or ethnic minorities to positions of leadership. The winner is also a company that supports local diversity initiatives and provides diversity training for staff.

This award is proudly sponsored by Oil and Gas UK.

Baker Hughes, a GE Company

Baker Hughes, a GE company is the world’s first and only full stream providers of integrated oilfield products, services and digital solutions. Baker Hughes has a clear vision to enable a diverse environment where employees’ unique talent and perspective are valued within an inclusive culture.
The BHGE workforce comprises of 16.9% women and has about 18.8% in top management positions. There is currently a target to increase female representation by 30% come 2020 across all GE companies.

In BHGE Scotland, a new D&I hub was launched in Q2 2018 with the aim to connect, promote and support our Affinity Networks. This includes the African Affinity Forum which has run a joint careers programme at the University of Aberdeen with AFBE-UK Scotland and has supported AFBE-UK Scotland’s STEM programme, NextGen.

The team in Scotland has been recently nominated for the Children and Young People Awards / Developing Us – BHGE will attend the Diversity Career Fair in London to search for diverse talent and Aberdeen roles will be showcased. The company has also introduced a number of initiatives that makes it easier for women and working parents to balance their careers and families.

There is still time to book your ticket for the Gala Dinner and Awards 2018

Norwell EDGE

Norwell EDGE is an innovative e-learning platform that provides in-depth Oil and Gas technical training around the world. Their mission is to create a level playing field where people have equal access to world-class Oil and Gas teaching. Its focus is to drive –up standards throughout the industry, empowering emerging markets and providing an effective way to train large numbers of globally diverse people.
The partners comprise of people of diverse background and together support projects across 49 nations, 25 of which are in developing countries. They have delivered low cost professional training to more than 1,500 people, 40% of which are women. This is significantly higher than the industry representation. They also carry out advocacy on improving diversity and inclusion on various international fora.

Shell UK

Shell UK supports a number of employee networks to increase awareness in areas such as gender equality (through the BALANCE network), disability (ENABLE network), ethnic diversity (Shell African Network – SAN) and Social issues (Energy, Parenting, Graduate and Experienced hire networks). Each network is sponsored by a member of the leadership team. It partners with employee networks to carry out regular policy audits to reduce and remove bias and help deliver strategic D & I targets. Shell UK also leveraged external relationships with primary external D&I partners to promote BITC for gender and BAME, BDF for Disability and Stonewall for LGBT.

The company achieved its 2017 target of increasing women in leadership to 40% and has further revised it to 50% for the coming years. Shell UK has also started an initiative (Return to Work) to assist women back into the workforce after long term career break due to reasons such as having kids and caring for family members.

Outstanding mentor Award

This Award is run by the AFBE-UK Scotland with the purpose of recognising an individual involved in mentoring others in addition to their regular job.The winner is a successful role model that facilitates the acquisition of skills and resources, has provided published material or work placements for young people, demonstrates concern and support for the personal development of students and has a long term commitment to mentoring.

This award is proudly sponsored by Energy Institute.

Tayo Olusanya

Tayo is a Principal Technical Safety Engineer at Melios Ltd with over 18 years of experience, most of which have been acquired in the field of risk management and technical/process safety in upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the energy industry. He holds an MSc. in Safety Engineering Reliability and Risk Management from the University of Aberdeen and a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from Federal University of Technology Minna, Nigeria. He is a Chartered Engineer through the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and supports the institution as an assessor and interviewer.
Tayo is passionate about mentoring the next generation of Safety Engineers and often organises workshops/ courses to support Continuous Professional Development (CPD). He actively participates in the STEM program run in Shell for secondary schools students interested in Engineering. He has, in the past, volunteered in Rwanda and Congo to help children on the streets and ex-child soldiers acquire knowledge in schools and vocational training centres. He also sponsors and mentors some of the kids.

Claire Hayward

Claire is a senior leader in BP and has over 19 years of experience in the upstream oil and gas industry . She is currently the New Well Delivery Team Lead for Clair Area, North Sea. She holds an MSc in Petroleum and Geology from University of Aberdeen and a Bachelor’s degree in Geology from Edinburgh University.
In her drive to help develop professionals working in the industry, Claire trained as a CTI Coactive coach and supports colleagues both within and outside BP. She is also the Co-chair of the BP-North Sea Women Network (WIN) Business Resource group where she hosts events to develop and retain women in the business. An Alumna of the Duke of Edinburgh Commonwealth Strategy conferences /Leadership group, Claire helps organise conferences to share knowledge within the member states of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Dr Azzam Younes

Azzam is a Principal Safety Consultant at ABB Ltd – Aberdeen and holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Cranfield University. He is a fellow of both the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM). With over 34 years of experience working as a Process and Safety Engineer, Azzam has worked for a number of companies which include BG Group, Genesis Oil and Gas Consultants Ltd and ABB Ltd.
In addition to his role as a Safety Consultant, Azzam is passionate about supporting the Engineering community and mentoring young professionals. This interest saw him hold numerous roles as Chair, Vice Chair, Principal Mentor, Engineering Ambassador and Assessor for IChemE. He also mentors students at the University of Aberdeen where he volunteers as a visiting lecturer.

Young BME Professional Award

This Award is run by the AFBE-UK Scotland with the express purpose of encouraging and recognising an outstanding young engineer from the BME community. The winner is a professional of under 10 years experience, under 35 years old and of BME origin who works in an engineering or related field. The winner has demonstrated clear evidence of technical competence, leadership, resourcefulness, innovative ability, a commitment to the engineering professional e.g. through active participation in their professional engineering institution and social impact outside their regular work. This award is proudly sponsored by The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

Mopelola Oyetunji

Mopelola is a Corrosion Engineer and works for CAN Offshore Limited. She holds an MSc in Corrosion Control Engineering from the University Of Manchester Institute Of Science and Technology and a Bachelor’s degree in Material Science and Engineering from University of Sheffield.
Mopelola has worked on a number of projects over the last 6 years which includes the Bonga Field in Shell Nigeria (S.N.E.P.C.O) where she led a team of 5 to review / audit maintenance spare records for over 2500 equipment. In addition to her duties as a Corrosion Engineer in CAN, she was part of a team that developed a database system to better manage asset integrity of pressure systems and structures.
Mopelola is also a fashion entrepreneur and contributes to charity events to support underrepresented communities.

Lina Lusadisu

Lina works in Shell as a Production Technologist and holds a first class Master of Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering.

Lina has been responsible for the delivery of multiple projects from short-term production facilities through to identification of optimisation and restoration opportunities for wells.

In the course of her graduate trainee programme, Lina was once faced with a flowline blockage problem. She took the initiative to address it in the absence of the Process Engineer. She used her knowledge of Chemical Engineering to develop a novel 2 –way depressurisation method to address flow blockage in a production well. This innovative approach was recognised within the Shell flow assurance community and adopted across other Shell platforms.

Lina is an active member of the Shell African Network (SAN) where she supports STEM outreach programmes to promote engineering careers and the Oil and Gas Industry to BME students across the UK.

Samuel Elegbede

Samuel is an enthusiastic Telecommunication Engineer and holds a MEng in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from University of Leeds. He works for WSP as a consultant responsible for planning, designing and delivering rail telecommunication services on a large and complex rail and highways projects. Since joining the team, he has delivered two major high level projects: the specification for the Tag and Trace survey on the £124m Wokingham Major Highways programme and the detailed design for the telecommunication systems on the Cardiff Metro station improvement project. This project was awarded “Transportation project of the year” by the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation Wales. Samuel is currently developing a telecommunication system master plan to integrate the new HS2 Euston Station.

Samuel is also passionate about supporting the underrepresented communities build a career and volunteers for AFBE-UK, Prince’s Trust, Professional Growth Network (PGN) and Royal Academy of Engineering.

Judges

We would like to thank our community of judges for bringing their excellent knowledge and experience to bear in assessing and selecting this shortlist from our finalists. It was a great pleasure having the support of experienced professionals from industry. AFBE-UK Scotland is grateful for the support received.

Mopelola Lamond is a project manager at BP with a background in Mechanical Engineering. Mopelola graduated with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Aberdeen in 2003 and has for over 15 years worked for a number of service providers and Oil and Gas majors including Chevron, Marathon Oil and BP in operations and project roles. Mopelola holds an MBA from the Aberdeen Business School (2009). Mopelola lives in Aberdeen with her two children and writes poetry in her spare time.

Denis Pinto is a Flow Measurement and Hydrocarbon Allocation Consultant with extensive commercial and engineering skills in hydrocarbon measurement for the oil and gas industry. He has been working in the oil and gas industry for over 30 years, during this time he worked in a number of engineering posts within the Burmah Oil Company, British National Oil Corporation, Britoil and BP.

Denis left BP in 1994 to join Rhomax Engineering Limited as Head of the Consultancy & Manpower Division. In 1999, he left to setup his own company, Caledonian Flow Systems Limited. He has worked for a number of new operators in the North Sea, helping them to take on mature platforms and extend life and value for the remaining field life and to bring new oil fields on line. He has worked both in the UK and overseas. Currently he is the Measurement and Allocation Technical Authority, UK Business Unit for Premier Oil.

Denis Pinto is also very actively involved with the Energy Institute where he was Chairman of the Aberdeen Highlands and Islands Branch and helped to grow the membership of the branch. In 2011, he developed The Energy Institute Young Professional Network and helped reshape the Energy Institute Constitution to have a Young Professional Network. He is currently helping to develop young members in all Energy Institute’s UK and International Branches. At present he is Chairman of the Hydrocarbon Management (HMC 1) Upstream Technical Group developing Energy Institute guidelines/standards and also joint guidelines/standards with API.

Denis Pinto is also a member of Robert Gordon University Industry Board for the School of Engineering where he has been involved with helping to develop industry relevant courses. He has been actively involved with the AFBE-UK since it formed its Scottish Branch and regularly participates in AFBE-UK Transition Events. Denis Pinto is also a mentor to the World Petroleum Youth Committee with mentees in several countries. In 2008 he worked with the International World Petroleum Youth Committee to run successful Youth Events at the 19th World Petroleum Congress (WPC).  This has helped to cement Youth Events at successive WPC events worldwide.

Since 2012, he has been involved with the World Heavy Oil Congress. He is also involved with Student Energy and has been on the board of two successful International Student Energy Summits in Norway and Indonesia and an European Student Energy Summit in Aberdeen. He is also a member of the Axis Network where he is responsible for the Mentoring Programme.

Denis is currently the Area Leader for North East Scotland for the Federation is Small Businesses.

Ian Phillips has over 30 years’ experience in the upstream oil and gas industry, including 18 years with oil operating companies (Shell, BP, Marathon and Ramco) and 6 years with a major service company (Halliburton).  He worked up from being a reservoir engineer involved in exploration and field development projects to being a Project Director responsible for full field development programmes. In 2007 he became a founding Director of CO2DeepStore Limited, one of the first companies specifically seeking to provide the service of CO2 capture, transportation and deep geological storage to alleviate the worst effects of climate change.

Since September 2014 he has been the Chief Executive of OGIC – the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre – a Scottish government backed research funding agency that is entirely demand-led.  OGIC provides grants to support company-led research and development in Scottish Universities.      Ian is the chairman of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Aberdeen Section and of the OAA Organising Committee.  He is also Chair of Young Enterprise in Grampian.

He obtained an M.Eng. in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot Watt University in 1983, and an MBA through the Open University in 1994.  He is also a Fellow of the UK Energy Institute and is a Chartered Petroleum Engineer.

Dr Alix Thom joined Oil & Gas UK in December 2011 as Skills and Employment Issues Manager. In her current role at Oil & Gas UK, Alix is responsible for facilitating the development of an industry-wide workforce engagement strategy including both on and offshore workers, and trade union liaison. Alix also covers any skills challenges the UK oil and gas sector faces which involves both efforts to retain talent in the industry but also support those who are displaced as well as playing a key role on the Steering Group of the Oil and Gas Technician Apprenticeship Programme. In addition Alix formulates policy on other employment issues such as immigration, working time and other areas of employment law. Alix is an experienced employee relations specialist with a proven track record in major and independent exploration and production companies, including BP and Cairn Energy as well as Wood Group and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA). A Fellow of the CIPD (awarded the Distinguished Badge of Merit), Alix is also a member of the Executive Board of the IPA (Involvement and Participation Association) and an Alumni of the Advanced HR Executive Programme, Michigan University. Alix lives in Aberdeen with her two children and beloved westie called Ollie.

Ugo Uzu has over 15 years of industry experience. He is a Civil Engineer who after a brief stint in construction, joined the oil industry working with Schlumberger in Norway working offshore. He worked up from being a Directional Driller offshore to the Drilling Services Manager position responsible for several key Drilling projects for the Oil & Gas Majors in the North Sea. In 2011, he moved from Aberdeen into a development role as HR Manager for Schlumberger Drilling Segments in West Africa based in Nigeria. In this role he developed HR policies, workforce engagement strategies; drove local content development and ensured talent management and retention of over 600 employees in 5 countries – Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Ivory Coast & Ghana. He returned to the North Sea in 2013 as General Manager for the Smith business unit in Norway where he was tasked with the technical and commercial integration of the newly acquired business into the Schlumberger drilling group portfolio. Through his career, he has held various field, technical and managerial roles. In his current role as Operations and Resource Manager for the Schlumberger Drilling businesses in Europe, he is accountable for the technical and commercial delivery of all the well placement projects in continental Europe and offshore UK. He served as the chairman of the Gender Diversity committee for Schlumberger UK and is passionate about diversity and inclusion in in the Oil & Gas industry.  He holds a BEng in Civil Engineering and an MSc in Oil & Gas Management from Heriot Watt University. Ugo lives in Aberdeen with his wife and two children and is a keen squash player in his spare time.

Many congratulations to all of our finalists!