The Oil Industrys Best-kept Secret - A book full of inspiration and advice

Where educated: US Air Force Academy BSc, University of Southern California MSc.

had sports facilities, including an ice rink, and the Olympic training centre happened to be in Colorado – so while I was there I was taught by an Olympic coach and went on to compete at the World Student Games. It’s ok to have a re-think. While I was at the academy, I probably changed my mind five times about what I wanted to major in. I looked at aeronautical engineering, for example, but fell in love with human factors engineering, which is a mix of psychology and engineering. Fundamentally, it’s about how you design things so that people do their jobs well. Step away from the comfort blanket. In the military, the training is partly about getting you accustomed to being uncomfortable. As a young second lieutenant I would be responsible for chairing committees made up mainly of highly experienced men. But I was meant to lead the

Advice to your 15-year-old self? Follow your dreams; don’t let your fears guide your behaviour. Make choices about what’s next, rather than worrying about what just happened. A moment of inspiration? Someone once told my husband they’d never have gone into leadership if it weren’t for a chance conversation with me – I’d inspired them to go ahead. You often don’t find out when you’ve inspired someone, but when you do it’s incredibly rewarding.

Seize the opportunity to follow your dreams... I moved jobs when I saw the opportunity to make a greater difference to people's lives. Part of what excites me about the oil and gas industry is that there’s a maturity around safety. I go to meetings with very senior stakeholders and they know the technical aspects of safety models. If you can get senior people to understand what really drives safety performance, then you can start to get some really important things happen in the right way so that it will be felt on the front line.

meeting, and they liked that I wasn’t afraid to ask for help – that I was very communicative and involving everybody. I built a team where everyone knew what was going on and how they contributed to it. There are mentors all around you. I’ve been lucky: I’ve always had great bosses and lots of mentors. There are many people I believe are great at what they do and how they do it. I’m not afraid to copy – to emulate the way someone else has done something.

Group Director of Safety at UK CAA

GEC-Marconi: Human Factors Group Leader

CEO HeliOffshore

2010

1992

2014

National Air Traffic Services (NATS): Group Director of Safety

2006

THE OIL INDUSTRY'S BEST-KEPT SECRET

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