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00:00:01 Speaker 1
The Energy Pipeline is your lifeline to all things oil and gas to drill down deep into the issues impacting our industry. From the frack site to the future of sustainability, hear more about industry issues, tools and resources to streamline and modernize the future of oil and gas. Welcome to The Energy Pipeline.
00:00:24 KC Yost
Hello everyone, and welcome to this episode of The Energy Pipeline Podcast. Today our topic is global women in energy and more specifically, global women in pipelining. We're fortunate to have Rana Alnasir-Boulos, Chairperson of the Global Women's Forum, and also Director of International Business Development at Euro Institute for Information and inaudible Transfer Environmental Protection as our guest. Great titles Rana. So welcome to The Energy Pipeline podcast.
00:01:00 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Thank you. Thank you for hosting me. It's my pleasure.
00:01:02 KC Yost
Wonderful to have you here. So before we get started talking about today's topic, will you take a few minutes to share your background with our listeners?
00:01:11 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Of course. First, thank you for pronouncing my name perfectly. Not only my name, also name the long name of the institution. Again, it's my pleasure being hosted by this really wonderful podcast. And briefly to introduce myself. My name is Rana Alnasir-Boulos. My name is a combination of Arabic background and Greek name. I'm the Chairperson of the Global Women Forum and Business Development Director at the Euro Institute, which is an institution based in Hanover, Germany. The Global Women Forum has been initiated as a bridge between women from Europe and bridging the Arab culture, talking about diversity and how to empower ourselves and support each other, focusing on sectors like energy, women in STEM, and AI. Throughout my career, I've been deeply committed to promoting diversity and inclusion, especially within the energy sector, particularly in crucial areas such as pipeline infrastructure. So my journey in the energy sector began without any engineering background. In fact, I started my career as the only female in the institution, and this experience fueled my curiosity to understand why there was such a lack of gender diversity within the energy industry, despite its vast opportunities and importance in driving global progress. And I believe that addressing this gender disparity is not only a matter of equity and social justice, but also crucial for our industry. And then began to develop platforms such as Global Women Forum and Global Women in Pipelines and much more, which hopefully we'll discuss within our podcast.
00:03:02 KC Yost
Good, good. Well, thank you very much. So this is a topic that's very interesting to me as a father of four daughters, and I've got five granddaughters soon to be six. So I'm very interested in the topic, but from an old guy's perspective, I'm not a big inaudible and inclusion just for the sake of inclusion, I believe that there is a good business sense to make sure that diversity and inclusion is done from an industry perspective and a business perspective. That is, you don't want all us men involved in a project and you get the perspective of different people from different backgrounds. I am a big supporter of giving someone a hand up. Everyone deserves an opportunity. With that being said, to the importance of diversity, am I close to being right? Am I wrong? Help an old guy understand diversity and inclusion, please.
00:04:22 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Thank you. I appreciate your advices and your opinion and being a father of four daughters so well. I will focus of course on when we talk now about the importance of diversity. I will focus on the energy sector, because this is what we want to talk about. So diversity in the energy sector, particularly the inclusion of females and youth is paramount for several compelling reasons. Firstly, incorporating a diverse range of perspectives fosters innovation and creativity within the industry. So not only women, also young individuals bring unique insights, experiences, and problem solving approaches that can lead to the development of more effective and sustainable energy solutions. Secondly, increasing diversity promotes equality and social justice by promoting opportunities for underrepresented groups to participate in a historically male-dominated field. So by breaking down barriers to entry, the energy sector can tap into a broader talent pool, driving economic growth and competitiveness. Additionally, diverse teams are better equipped to address the complex challenges facing our industry, such as climate change and energy poverty by considering a wider range of stakeholders needs and interests. Furthermore, of course, fostering diversity and inclusion can enhance employee morale productivity and create a more dynamic and resilient workforce. So I hope I could have helped you by giving a general idea why is it important having more diversity within our sector.
00:06:15 KC Yost
At the end of the day, it just makes good business sense to have different people from different backgrounds participating on the same project because they bring a different retrospective, if you will, of the situation.
00:06:33 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Definitely.
00:06:33 KC Yost
Is that a good summary?
00:06:37 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
It's a very good summary.
00:06:39 KC Yost
Good, thanks. So now let's talk about the current landscape. I will tell you that I've been in the pipeline industry for almost 50 years. And I remember back in 1976 when I was working on an offshore lay barge. The company I worked with was very interested in adding inaudible to the engineering staff and did, a very sharp, intelligent lady, really, really great engineer who ended up with a fantastic career of her own. In any case, offshore barges at the time did not have facilities or ways to accommodate females on the barge, anywhere from restrooms, we called it the head, to bunks to whatever the case may be. There was no availability for that. So literally the company that I worked for at the time would put her up in a hotel in South Louisiana, then every morning early she would go out to the helicopter and fly out to the barge, offload, spend the day with us, and then just before sunset, she would get back on the helicopter and fly back to shore. And she did that for weeks as I recall, and did a fantastic job while she was there. But that was the landscape 50 years ago. It's improved somewhat from that. I know now that they have facilities on lay barges for women and inaudible growing. So talk to me about the current landscape that we're inaudible.
00:08:32 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Yeah, it's really interesting. Thank you for sharing this story. While the current landscape in the energy and specifically pipeline sector regarding the representation of females remains challenging, but it's gradually evolving. So historically, the energy industry has been predominantly male dominated, particularly in technical and leadership roles. However, there is a growing recognition of the importance of gender diversity and inclusion in the sector leading to efforts to increase female representations at all levels. There are several initiatives that have been implemented to address gender imbalance in these sectors. Companies are increasingly prioritizing diversity in their hiring practices and workplace policies. They are actively recruiting and promoting women into traditionally male-dominated roles, including engineering, operations, and leadership positions. Additionally, also many organizations are implementing mentorship and leadership development programs, specifically tailored to support the advancement of women in the industries. But despite these efforts, significant barriers to entry and advancement for females in the energy and pipeline sector persist. So we have gender stereotypes, we have unconscious bias and workplace cultures that are not always inclusive, remain challenges to overcome. Furthermore, the physical demands and remote work locations associated with certain roles in the sector can deter some women from pursuing careers in energy and pipelines. But to address these challenges and create a more inclusive environment, ongoing efforts are needed. So this includes promoting STEM education and career pathways for girls and young women fostering supportive workplace cultures that value diversity and implementing policies and practices that promote work-life balance and flexibility. So overall, while progress has been made in increasing female representation in the energy and pipeline sector, there is still work to be done to achieve true gender diversity and support. Continued commitment from industry stakeholders, policymakers and advocacy groups is essential to driving meaningful change and ensuring equal opportunities for all individuals regardless of gender.
00:11:13 KC Yost
So I appreciate what you're saying. I will say that someone who's lived through the last 50 years and has hired a number of people over the last 30 years, the pool of women, or excuse me, the number of women in the pool of potential hires in the engineering field, that's what I am, an engineer, has been small, smaller than you say the male end of it. And again, as a father of four girls and all of that, I think this gets back to the STEM and the STEM initiatives in telling little girls that being assertive isn't being bossy. And yes, you can do these things well as any boy can do these things. And actually starting at a young age, at an early age, getting them interested in STEM products and that's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is what STEM stands for. I think is key that as we encourage more young girls to get into STEM, the representation within the hiring pool will be greater and will end up with more people to select from to grow your organization. And it becomes a self-developing process. But it all starts at the beginning, getting the little grade school girls to understand that they can act like engineers.
00:13:13 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Definitely.
00:13:13 KC Yost
Am I close? Am I close with this?
00:13:14 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Yeah, you're very close. And luckily we have more initiatives like these. I'll talk about Europe right now. So what we have in Germany, in the Netherlands, these initiatives like having really engineers and groups or organizations going to schools and really making activities with these girls, showing them what is it about in this industry? Why can I do it? What are the challenges? How can we overcome it? What are the opportunities within these sectors? So recently in the last 10 years, we really see a lot of these initiatives, which is good because we show these girls role models also. We show them real stories and success stories.
00:14:05 KC Yost
And I think in the US we're seeing the same thing with the different societies of professional engineers and the ASCE, ASME and different organizations here recognizing that in order to increase the opportunities for girls, they need to be aware that the opportunities exist.
00:14:30 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Exactly.
00:14:30 KC Yost
And not too different, if you will, from me being a boy from West Virginia, not realizing what opportunities there were in the energy industry until I moved to Houston and all of a sudden a whole new world opened up. Well, let's give these young girls an opportunity in grade school to see these opportunities. And I'm not neglecting the boys as well. I think it's very important that everyone recognize that there is a lot being offered in STEM. I will mention that only one of my four girls actually went into that field. The others have chosen other fields and that's their prerogative, but at least it was offered to them. So I think that's great. Now, as I mentioned earlier, we're into looking at if you'll a hand up instead of a handout. And so when we get into career development, we're starting to talk about mentorships and all of that. Maybe you can talk to what the Global Women Forum does and what your company does in promoting those types of areas.
00:15:57 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Yeah, so the institute, the Euro Institute as hosting yearly platform, which has been created by the institute called Pipeline Technology Conference. And April from the 8th until the 11th of April, there will be the 19th edition. So the pipeline-
00:16:20 KC Yost
Where will that be held? Where will that be held?
00:16:22 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
In Berlin.
00:16:23 KC Yost
In Berlin.
00:16:24 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
In Berlin. So it is a really a leading pipeline conference and exhibition globally having leaders from oil and gas operators, technology providers, academics, young professionals coming together to discuss within three days conference, a lot of topics, having an exhibition and seminars, workshops, et cetera. And as I mentioned earlier, since I began with the institute, I noticed this lack of females and I began really with very small sessions first within the conference, called them Women in Pipeline. But the demand was really big. And this small space I have booked within this conference, it was overbooked. So this year we decided to go for a bigger one and we were making a one-day forum. So we will have the Global Women in Pipeline Forum. At the same time, the Global Women in Pipeline is an activity of the Global Women Forum, which is a known forum dedicated to bridge between women in Europe and the Arab world, focusing on energy, women in STEM, and AI. And we are focusing here on the pipeline industry. It is a dynamic gathering aimed to connect and inspire girls and women in the pipeline industry worldwide. So we are talking about diversity, we're talking about inclusion. We are talking about how to motivate the young people to step in this industry. We will share stories and discuss together what could be done. So on the 8th of April, we will come all together in Berlin, Germany to talk about them and it'll be really global. So we'll have speakers from the US, from UK, from the Arab world, from Germany, from South America, and share our stories and globally connect with each other to see what could we learn from each other. But my aim is also, and the aim of the institution is to work with the outcome. So we want to learn from all these stories and the outcome of the forum to see what could be done afterwards, what can we develop, which initiative is the right one we can develop after this forum. So this is the main idea behind it.
00:18:58 KC Yost
In fact, you and I were introduced by a friend of mine here in Houston who you invited to come as a speaker. She's not able to make it, but she said this would be a great connection for me, and here we are. Here we are. So that's great.
00:19:17 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Many greetings to her.
00:19:21 KC Yost
So with that being said, once you have the forum, how do you continue the initiative so that it doesn't die until the 2025 forum? Do you have subgroups planned or sessions planned or kind of mentoring system set up? What is your plan to keep this process going?
00:19:48 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Exactly. So we have something called Exchange Mentorship Program, and this program I will then implement within the energy sector, the pipeline sector. The Exchange Mentorship Program is a program globally connecting women and young girls together to have mentors and mentees. And this is what I was mentioning before. So we'll work on the outcome. Me, myself, I always learn of course from the experiences of my speakers and people coming together to see what is really needed, what can I really implement? Who's interested to be a mentor within this mentorship program? To be connected with somebody with a young girl from another country to mentor her, etc. So this is one thing. The other thing is to have perhaps online sessions together, together again at the end of the year to see, okay, what are the experiences we have gained after the forum? What could be added? What could be done? So these are for now the ideas and the initiatives and I don't know, after the forum, I could perhaps tell you more.
00:21:04 KC Yost
Super, super. Now you're focusing primarily on Europe and the Arab world as I understand. What if someone in the United States, or frankly the Western Hemisphere that might be listening to this, how could they participate or are you interested in branching out to the Western Hemisphere?
00:21:28 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Okay, so sorry if I haven't introduced this right, but the Global Women Forum is the original platform who is focusing on bridging Europe and the Arab world, the Global Women in Pipeline only is an initiative which has been implemented within the Pipeline Technology Conference and it's addressed globally. So speakers, I have speakers coming from Houston, Dr. Kelly Bailey, she's the owner and president of Cooper Resources, United States. She will be talking, I have speakers coming from Brazil, from Switzerland, from Canada, so it's global. So I hope now... We have Monique Robert, she's the director of PODS Association from Houston and Deborah Matthews, she's also from TC Energy Houston. So we already have them. And of course I'm calling for more and more to come. So I hope now I put it right or to put it right, the Global Women Forum is the platform who's bridging between the Arab world and Europe and the Global Women in Pipeline is really global. It is open for everybody.
00:22:43 KC Yost
Got you.
00:22:43 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Thank you.
00:22:46 KC Yost
No, thank you for the clarification. I appreciate that. So there is an opportunity for someone who cannot attend the sessions to find you and participate as a mentor or ask for help through that process.
00:23:09 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Definitely.
00:23:09 KC Yost
So we'll get to the email addresses and how they can reach out to you here in just a bit.
00:23:14 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Yes, please. Also, if somebody has any advice or something to share, today we learn from each other. So I'm very open to hear your opinions, your advices. If you have any advice or something for me, please contact me. So I'll be really happy.
00:23:34 KC Yost
Good, good. So we've talked about the global arrangement. Are there any global perspectives that you'd want to discuss beyond what we've done regarding gender diversity?
00:23:51 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
What do you mean exactly? To understand your question right.
00:23:57 KC Yost
What efforts and best practices for gender diversity are you looking at from an international perspective?
00:24:06 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Yeah, so I think there's already a lot have been done, but there's still a lot to be done. I think if we talk about career development strategies, we can do more globally. When we work on goal setting to make it more in global way, skill development to make it more perhaps focusing on intercultural topics and of course networking, networking globally.
00:24:43 KC Yost
So it comes back to skill building, career advancement, looking for the mentors, the mentees to work on international level to help young girls more prominent in the energy industry and specifically in the pipelines, right?
00:25:07 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Right.
00:25:08 KC Yost
Okay. All right, good. Sounds fantastic. Sounds like quite a challenge for you.
00:25:16 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Yeah, no, gender diversity and inclusion are global imperatives that require collaborative efforts across borders and industries. So when we share best practices and collaborate on initiatives and leverage international networks, we can accelerate progress toward a more inclusive and diverse energy and pipeline sector. So forums, international forums and conferences such as Global Women in Pipeline provide valuable opportunities for a knowledge exchange and collaboration. And we hope to drive positive change on a global scale.
00:25:55 KC Yost
Fantastic. I know you've got goals set out there and I know that they're a good distance away and there's a lot to be done, but I love the enthusiasm and the idea of doing this one step at a time, knowing that each step you're getting closer to the goals that you're looking for and I find that very exciting, again, for my four daughters and five granddaughters. I think this is great. Again, I think of that engineer back in 1976 and how she did certain things to make it easier for female engineers to come in later on and build on, and everyone getting on each other's shoulders to help promote and build. And what you're doing with this initiative is a great catalyst of getting those who have gone before to get with those who are starting their journey to learn from and not make the same mistakes and how to develop and encourage. So I find that fascinatingly exciting.
00:27:09 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Thank you. Yeah, exactly. So we have an interactive workshop actually, so it's called Leadership Skills for Success, integrated within the forum. And I have three speakers and they want to exchange their own experience. It's really all about storytelling, and they will meet youngsters, really young engineers, ladies who have already started now, recently started their careers. And it's all about exchanging experiences and what to learn from each other and it's fantastic.
00:27:47 KC Yost
Outstanding. Okay. Well, we're getting close to our time, so I wanted to just check and throw out, is there anything else you'd like to add that we haven't discussed?
00:28:04 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
We can really talk a lot about so many things, but I really appreciate the time you have offered me now within your podcast time to introduce the idea and the background and the aim we want to reach. So I really want to thank you so much for hosting me and giving us the chance to talk about this.
00:28:24 KC Yost
Absolutely, absolutely. And we'll make sure that you come back again after the forum.
00:28:30 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Thank you.
00:28:30 KC Yost
And you can tell us all about it. I know Anastasia is very anxious to hear how things work out there, so that's great.
00:28:38 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
It would be my pleasure.
00:28:41 KC Yost
Well, thank you again for taking the time to visit with us today. And for our listeners for more information on the Euro Institute for Information and Technology Transfer in Environmental Protection, that is one heck of a organization title, you need to go to www.EITEP.de. Rana, is there another website that you'd like for the listeners to be sent to as well?
00:29:20 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
I can have a look on the Global Women Forum website. I don't know, shall I share it later with you or-
00:29:30 KC Yost
Please.
00:29:30 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Shall I... Yes.
00:29:30 KC Yost
You can do it right now and Anastasia will put it in.
00:29:31 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Perfect. So it's global.women.forum. And you can also reach... Yes, please.
00:29:38 KC Yost
global.women.forum.
00:29:41 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Exactly.
00:29:42 KC Yost
Is it.com?
00:29:43 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
No, no .com. So this is the website. It's just global.women.forum.
00:29:53 KC Yost
Excellent, excellent. That's perfect.
00:29:56 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
And you can reach me on LinkedIn also if you need any information.
00:30:02 KC Yost
Yes, very good. Very good. And that's what I did when my friend gave me the contact information.
00:30:07 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Exactly.
00:30:09 KC Yost
All right. Very good. Very good.
00:30:13 Rana Alnasir-Boulos
Thank you.
00:30:13 KC Yost
Thank you. Thank you. And thanks to all of you for tuning into this episode of the Energy Pipeline Podcast, sponsored by Caterpillar Oil and Gas. Questions, comments, or ideas for podcast topics, free to email me at kc.yost@oggn.com. I also want to thank my producer Anastasia inaudible everyone at the Oil and Gas Global Network... Find out more about other OGGN inaudible OGGN... KC Yost saying goodbye for now. Have a great week and keep that inaudible.
00:30:53 Speaker 1
Come back next week for another episode of The Energy Pipeline, a production of the Oil and Gas Global Network. To learn more, go to OGGN.com.
