Agenda
7:00 – 8:55 a.m.
Registration open, breakfast served
Sponsorship available – contact Melissa for more information
8:55 – 9:00 a.m.
Welcome remarks
Gulf Energy Information
9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
KEYNOTE
To be announced soon
9:30 – 9:50 a.m.
PRESENTATION: The Industrial Edge: Why Your Energy Roots are the Secret Weapon in the AI Revolution
Stop fearing AI shift; start leading it. Dianne reveals how to leverage your deep industrial expertise to command authority in a digital future. You’ll gain practical strategies to overcome “transformation anxiety,” protect your mental health, and turn career turbulence into triumph.
Dianne Eldridge, AI Go-To-Market Lead, Power & Energy, Google
9:50 – 10:35 a.m.
PANEL: Thriving in Transition: Leading Through Change
Whether you’re stepping into a new leadership role, pivoting across functions, or navigating an organisation in flux, transition is one of the most challenging, and potentially defining, experiences in a career. This session brings together leaders at different stages who have navigated significant change, exploring how to stay anchored when the ground shifts, adapt without losing your edge, and use disruption as a catalyst rather than a setback. You’ll leave with practical tools for repositioning your skills, rebuilding confidence in unfamiliar territory, and approaching your next transition with greater clarity and intent.
Moderator: Angela Hernandez, President, Women’s Energy Network Houston
Panelists:
Nicole Braley, CMO / Global Head Marketing, Membership & Programs, AAPG
Desiree Cornwall, Director of Operations American Gulf, TC Energy
Brooke Donohue, Senior Director of Global Human Resources, Noble Corporation
Beth Ann Dranguet, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, Weatherford
10:35 – 10:45 a.m.
ICEBREAKER
10:45 – 11:15 a.m.
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
11:15 – 11:45 a.m.
NETWORKING BREAK
Sponsored by Coastal Chemical
11:45 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.
PRESENTATION
To be announced soon
12.05 – 12:50 p.m.
PANEL: Deepwater Development
While much of the energy industry rides the commodity cycle, deepwater plays a longer game — and right now, that game is heating up. New geographies are opening, technology is advancing fast, and operators in this room are right at the heart of it. This panel unpacks what’s driving deepwater’s next chapter, why it continues to attract serious talent and serious capital, and what the opportunities look like for professionals at every stage of their career.
Moderator: Sacha Luces, Asset Development & Subsurface Manager – GoA, Shell
Panelists: Stephanie Otema Dzandu, Reservoir Engineer, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation
More panelists to be announced soon
11.45 a.m. – 12:50 p.m.
WORKSHOP: Make Your Voice Land: Influence, Visibility and Strategic Presence
You have the experience. You have the title. You’re in the room. So why does it sometimes feel like you’re not really in the room?
This workshop is for professionals who are ready to move beyond general advice about confidence and communication, and get specific about how they influence — and where that influence gets stuck.
Using a personality-based diagnostic, you’ll get a clearer picture of your natural influence style: how you show up, how you’re perceived, and where the gaps are between the two. From there, the session moves into visibility — not personal branding in the abstract, but the practical work of making your contributions legible to the people who matter. What are you actually moving? How do you talk about it without it feeling like self-promotion? And who in your organisation will champion you, shape ideas with you, and help you build the credibility you’ve already earned?
This is a working session. You’ll leave with a personal influence profile, a sharper sense of how to communicate your impact, and a clearer map of the relationships worth investing in.
Workshop leader: Pepper Wilson, Executive Director, Talent Development, Valero Energy
12:50 – 2:00 p.m.
LUNCH
A buffet lunch will be served in the exhibit area, included in all delegate tickets
Sponsorship available, contact Melissa for more information
2:00 – 2:30 p.m.
KEYNOTE FIRESIDE CHAT
The Many Dimensions of Advocacy: Elevating Industry, Influence and Your Own Voice
In today’s energy landscape, advocacy is no longer confined to government relations or corporate messaging, it is a leadership skill. From championing the role of energy in society, to navigating stakeholder expectations, to ensuring your own perspective is heard in critical conversations, modern leaders must advocate on multiple fronts simultaneously.
Explore the evolving dimensions of advocacy through the lens of women leaders in energy: advocating for the industry during a period of heightened attention and importance; advocating internally for strategic priorities, teams, and innovation; and advocating personally — building confidence, credibility, and influence at the leadership table without losing authenticity.
Speaker: Jaimie Harding, Vice President Communications, TC Energy
Host: Molly Determan, President, Energy Workforce & Technology Council
2:30 – 2:50 p.m.
PRESENTATION: 101 Confrontation Street, Anytime, Texas
Exploring navigating conflict with confidence, authenticity, and purpose, Robin will share strategies to stay unapologetically yourself, engage difficult conversations productively, and turn friction into value positively impacting the bottom line.
Robin Evans, Director of Operations, Worley
2:50 – 3:35 p.m.
PANEL: Conflict as a Leadership Skill: From Friction to Alignment
Whether you’re navigating a difficult stakeholder, managing friction within your team, or finding your voice in a room where not everyone agrees with you, conflict is something every leader faces — and most of us weren’t taught how to handle it well. This panel shares hard-won strategies for turning tension into alignment, and disagreement into stronger, more resilient teams.
Moderator: Bobbie Hurley O’Dell, CEO, Arpco Legacy Enterprises
Panelist:
Wendy Lewis Armstrong, Vice President Internal Audit, Noble Corporation
More to be announced soon
3:35 – 3:50 p.m.
ICEBREAKER
3:50 – 4:20 p.m.
NETWORKING BREAK
Sponsored by Coastal Chemical
4:20 – 4:40 p.m.
PRESENTATION: The New Energy Equation: Leading Through the Collision of AI, Infrastructure & Grid Constraints
A practical framework to evaluate energy infrastructure opportunities, distinguish viable projects from speculative ones, assess interconnection risk, and make stronger strategic trade-offs as AI-driven demand and grid constraints reshape the energy landscape.
Carol Enneking, Executive Advisor, Eldon Land Supply
4:40 – 5:25 p.m.
PANEL: Beyond the Hype: How Energy Leaders Are Making AI Work
AI has been part of the energy industry longer than the current hype cycle suggests, but that doesn’t mean organisations are using it well. This panel cuts through the noise to explore where AI is genuinely creating value, where it isn’t, and how leaders are making strategic decisions about adoption, responsibility, and the balance between intelligent tools and human expertise. Whether you’re an AI sceptic or an early adopter, you’ll leave with a sharper framework for thinking about what good looks like.
Moderator to be confirmed
Panelist: Katherine Snyder, Head of Subject Matter Expertise, Percepto
More to be announced soon
4:20 – 5:35 p.m.
WORKSHOP: Showing Up Under Pressure:
A Hands-On Workshop to Build the Conflict Intelligence Every Leader Needs to Navigate, Grow, and Lead Through Conflict at Work
Most conflict training starts too late, after things have escalated, when the damage is already done.
You’ll learn to spot the friction before it becomes a flashpoint, recognize early friction signals and navigate conversations that prevent unnecessary escalation, and engage conflict as something you can lead and grow through, not just survive.
Facilitators Sana Manjeshwar and Jen Marr bring together expertise in relational leadership, workplace conflict navigation, and energy industry leadership to deliver a session that is research-backed and built for the rooms you actually work in, which are high-stakes, fast-moving, and rarely straightforward.
This is a practice session, not a presentation. You’ll identify the patterns and behaviors that cause leaders to avoid, deflect, fix, or mishandle difficult conversations, run real scenarios with other participants, and leave with concrete takeaways.
Those include practical frameworks for recognizing friction early and diffusing pain points that lead to conflict, de-escalation techniques you can use immediately, and practical tools for navigating tension, uncertainty, and difficult conversations that comes with leading through change.
This workshop is designed as a practical follow on from the main stage conflict as a leadership skill sessions.
Designed for professionals at all leadership levels, from those navigating their first high-stakes room to senior leaders managing complex team dynamics.
5:25 – 5:35 p.m.
ICEBREAKER
5:35 – 5:40 p.m.
CLOSING REMARKS
Gulf Energy Information
Agenda
7:00 – 8:55 a.m.
Registration open, breakfast served
8:55 – 9:00 a.m.
Welcome remarks
Gulf Energy Information
9:00 – 9:40 a.m.
KEYNOTE: Why Good Training Gets Forgotten – and What To Do About It
How to make training last beyond the session, and beyond the conference. Jennifer will share her experience and skills you need for your toolkit to maximise your training, or your time at a leadership conference! Plus, she will lead you in a table exercise to apply the training principles discussed.
What will you do differently when you go back to the office?
Jennifer Hayaman, Talent Management Business Partner, Plains
9:40 – 10:00 a.m.
PRESENTATION: Leveraging Expertise while Shattering Norms: The Lithium Example
Tomorrow’s energy mix will be different than today’s and will be more electrified. This opens opportunities for the energy industry to broaden into profitable new value chains like Lithium where we are bringing strong expertise from O&G while challenging assumptions and shattering norms.
Allison Kennedy Thurmond, Vice President North America Lithium, Equinor
10:20 – 10:40 a.m.
FIRESIDE CHAT
To be announced soon
10:50 – 11:10 a.m.
PRESENTATION
To be announced soon
11:10 – 11:55 a.m.
PANEL: Designing Your Career Journey: Beyond the Ladder
Careers in energy rarely grow in straight lines, yet many of us still measure progress against a ladder that no longer reflects how influence and impact are actually built. This panel explores both sides of that equation: what it means to design your career with intention, and what organisations need to do to make space for it. From the value of lateral moves and saying yes to unglamorous tasks, to building talent pipelines that actively widen access to the sector, our speakers bring personal stories and practical insight to a conversation about ownership, opportunity, and what the future of career development in energy could look like for individuals and organisations alike.
Moderator to be confirmed
Panelists:
Meerah Al Mulla, Manager, Corporate Planning, ADNOC Offshore
Alejandra Garcia, Commercial Manager Americas, Baker Hughes
Sandra Guerra, Head of HR North America, Siemens Energy
11:55 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
ICEBREAKER
10:50 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
WORKSHOP: The Unofficial Leader: How to Drive Change Without the Title or the Roadmap
You don’t have authority over anyone in the room. What you have is a clear point of view, the right questions, and a problem that needs solving. That’s enough—if you know how to use it.
Leadership in complex, fast-moving industries rarely waits for the title. It happens in the room where no one has tried this before, across silos that don’t naturally align, on projects where the playbook doesn’t exist yet. The professionals who drive change in those conditions do it through influence: building clarity where none exists, bringing the right people together, and asking the questions others aren’t asking yet.
Juliana Moreira, Industry Marketing Manager at Emerson, has led exactly these kinds of initiatives — building digital and CRM capabilities at NRG Energy, creating a B2B2C platform at Shell, launching L’Oréal’s first Latin American e-commerce business, and her current work in data centres. In this workshop, she shares the specific behaviours and communication practices that made those initiatives possible, and helps you apply them to a real challenge you’re facing right now.
You’ll work through practical tools for leading through influence, creating alignment across silos, and delivering impact in ambiguity, and you’ll leave with a concrete approach to a specific situation, not just a set of principles.
Relevant for anyone who has ever had to make something happen in an organisation without the authority to make it happen.
12:15 – 1:30 p.m.
LUNCH
A buffet lunch will be served in the exhibit area, included in all delegate tickets
Sponsorship available – contact Melissa for more information
1:30 – 2:00 p.m.
KEYNOTE
To be announced soon
2:00 – 2:45 p.m.
PANEL: Decision-Making Under Pressure: The Art of the High-Stakes Call
Every energy leader knows the feeling: a decision that can’t wait, information that’s incomplete, and consequences that matter. This panel brings together leaders who have navigated exactly that—sharing the frameworks, habits, and hard-won instincts that help them lead decisively without losing sight of responsibility. Whether you’re making operational calls under time pressure or steering an organisation through uncertainty, you’ll leave with practical tools for thinking more clearly, acting more confidently, and owning your decisions when the stakes are high.
Moderator to be confirmed
Panelists: Brittany Pitlik, Chief of Staff, Eclipse Energy
Kristin Ruzicka, CHRO and Sustainability Leader, Weatherford
More to be announced
1:30 – 2:45 p.m.
WORKSHOP: Break the Pattern: Identifying and Changing the Habits Limiting Your Advancement
Success in the early part of your career is built on talent, hard work, and the habits that got you noticed. But some of those same habits — waiting to be tapped rather than putting yourself forward, letting the work speak for itself, prioritising technical delivery over relationships and visibility — can quietly become the ceiling.
This workshop is built on a straightforward idea: career progression isn’t only about what you can do. It’s about acting with purpose, visibility, and strategic intent. And that means being honest about the patterns that are getting in the way.
Dolon Basak Gundoju — executive leader, 30-year veteran of large organisations including O&G, and former D&I director — will guide you through a practical process of identifying your top three limiting habits, understanding how they’re affecting your confidence, influence, and opportunities, and beginning to replace them with intentional choices aligned to where you want to go.
This is a working session: exercises, group discussion, and a personal commitment you leave with. If you opt into the pre-conference survey, you’ll arrive already knowing how your experience compares to the room.
Designed for early to mid-career professionals who are ready to be honest about what’s holding them back — and do something about it.
3:15 – 4:00 p.m.
PANEL: From Insight to Action: Leading the Change That Sticks
This panel brings together leaders who have made the shift from knowing to doing, exploring the intentional behavioural changes that transformed how they lead, influence, and show up for their teams. This isn’t a theoretical conversation. It’s a practical, honest close to two days of big thinking. Designed to help you leave with clarity on what you’ll do differently, how you’ll lead differently, and what you’ll take back to your organisation that will actually last.
Moderator to be confirmed
Panelists:
Priya Nair, Manager, Customer Support & Training, AspenTech/Emerson
Maria Rocca, Director, Inside Sales Group, Worley
More to be announced soon
4:00 – 4:10 p.m.
CLOSING REMARKS
Gulf Energy Information