Energy 101: We Ask The Dumb Questions So You Don't Have To

0:01 The views and opinions expressed by Haima Prepu are podcast guests this week, are solely their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of Microsoft. We hope you enjoy.

0:13 Welcome back to another episode of Energy 101. We are coming to you live from the Digital Altcatters podcast studio. This show, if you're new, is for all of our energy enthusiasts out there who

0:24 are maybe looking to learn more, or like us, maybe just to embarrass tasks, those dumb questions. We're here to help. I am Sydney, and we're going to check out who else we have in studio today.

0:36 I'm Jules. And I'm Julie. And we, yeah, like Sydney said, we really, Digital Altcatters mission is to raise energy IQ among society. So we're starting with our own. Yes, absolutely. And

0:50 today we have Haima, and I'm not going to try your last name because you told me not to

0:57 She is the world. Worldwide oil and gas lead-up. There we go. At Microsoft. Yes. Which is amazing. That's impressive. Yeah. It's a new role. It's a new role. Yes. I went from joining

1:12 Microsoft a year ago for America's to getting the worldwide role now. Congrats. Congrats, questions you're using. Are you based here in Houston? Yes.

1:25 Awesome. Can you tell us about your journey from, wait, let me back up I was looking at your LinkedIn today. You have a very impressive background. You started, I believe, as a field engineer

1:35 at Baker Hughes. Yes. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. And you worked there for about nine years, and then you moved on to, there was a bunch of companies. You actually founded a

1:47 company. Was that a consulting company? Yes, it was. Yes, so you've done it all. You've been in the field, you've been a founder, now you're an executive. That's really cool It just adds for

1:57 a very interesting perspective. Yes, it does. So I mean, my background is so engineer by background, always, you know, once you're an engineer, you're always an engineer, the way you think.

2:09 Yeah. But started my journey, you know, did electrical power, which was a very niche in engineering degree, wanted to build power plants with third world countries. That was always my passion

2:22 and let it up in oil and gas. Started at Baker Hughes because at that point, there was only three things I wanted in life. I wanted to travel. I want to make a lot of money. I want to go off show.

2:31 I love it. I love it. That's great. Yeah, life simple, right back then when you don't have anything else. So at that point, it was between Shell and Baker Hughes and Baker Hughes just made me

2:44 an offer that I couldn't refuse. Got on that, I would say train and traveled the world, worked in various different locations and very fast, you know, I would say it was, it was, everything was

2:56 lined up in a sense that there were very quarters and champions in my career early on that said, you know, you're done with the field. Let's move you on and let's accelerate your career development.

3:08 I feel like that's rare. It is.

3:12 I mean, I'm assuming that is a testament to you and what they saw on you. So I hope you should be very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, no, I would say it was the right time,

3:20 right place. I was invited for an event in New York City. And I did not know who was going to be there from Baker Hughes. And at that point, it was actually the senior leadership that was there.

3:32 And I honestly did not know who the senior leadership was. So having a glass of wine, you were like, well, what do you want to do with Baker Hughes? And I was like, Oh, I want to be the

3:41 president of Asia. And they said, well, this is your building block to get to where you want to. And we're going to make that happen. And that's so cool. And the next thing, you know, came

3:50 back back to Asia and they were like, okay, this is the career track you're going to be on. And from then on, you know, performance is pretty much the foundation. If you don't perform, you're

3:59 not going to be on any kind of career track. But having the awareness of where you want to go, and then having people to help you build that along the way, and being very open to things will differ.

4:15 Families happen, kids happen, and then learning to still have your not stuff, and then trying to build towards that is key. So yeah, that's, and I mean, that was the start of it, right? You

4:28 know, I've been always been a person with very, I had goals and goals with milestones. I did not just have goals without saying buy certain time. So by 30, I want to be a mom by the time I 40, I

4:39 want to be a wise president. So when I hit all those goals, and when I turn 40, we want a vacation and ask, like, Oh, so what's next? Yeah, midlife crisis Oh, great. No goals. No goals

4:51 after this. Great. So that's when I was, you know, when

4:56 It was a lot of turning points personally as well. I had to take a career break because I had few medical situations to address. And this was COVID year. Yeah, I thought, oh, it's going to be a

5:06 three months break. It ended up being a year. But during that one year timeframe, really taking the time to reflect. That's when I started my company because I just cannot sit still. And really

5:18 looking at, you know, what was going on in the world? Where was the energy industry heading to? Because my heart is in it, and then really understanding what is it that I can get paid for and

5:29 what the world needs. That's when I decided, okay, it was either going to be new energy or going to be the digitalization portion. So that was the start of my journey into tech. Great. And so

5:41 how long have you been with Microsoft since then? So no, I actually had a short stop, I would say, a pit stop at Salesforce. And, you know, it was my break into tech And today I actually spoke

5:52 to the person who hired me into Salesforce and he said, you know, I chose And he took a bet on me, right? I did not come from the tech industry and I came from the industry side, but he said,

6:04 you know, I saw the passion and you need to make this better. So that's why he hired me at Salesforce and then now he's at Microsoft. But what that really made me think is, you know, you come

6:14 from an industry, you have your entire network in that industry and it really, really matters the network out of your industry. Get to know people out of your industry because you never know when

6:25 those will come to play in your career. So that was the power of network for me that got me into Salesforce and then later on got me to Microsoft. And now here you are, just running the world.

6:40 Now that's a lot to do with the leadership, Amanda. You know, when I came on board for America's, you know, first you're not from the tech industry, but you came from the oil and gas industry So,

6:53 plate your strength and not your weaknesses. Yes, I may not know servers and database, but I know the industry. And I know the challenges the industry's facing and how technology can help resolve

7:05 it. Yeah, it's funny you say that 'cause we talk about all the time that unless you're really in the thick of energy, it's hard to understand. There's a lot of variables and a lot of players and

7:16 just a lot going on. So I can imagine how that knowledge would be invaluable to a tech company that's trying to hire someone to work in their energy department. I think it's easier for energy people

7:31 to learn about the tech rather than tech people to learn about. Absolutely. Because as you're saying, your network is everything and that's really built over years and years in the industry and

7:44 being in the center of it. Yes, and especially if you have not walked a mile in my shoe, you don't know the challenge and especially coming from an industry that was. first we were, you know,

7:57 the top of the top, right? Oil and gas. And then we became the bottom of the bottom that you can think about during COVID years. And then the energy is rising again. I mean, the energy is always

8:06 going to be there. But oil and gas is something that is so cyclic that, like looking at it today is like, you know, how do you make this happen for the next 30, 40 years while we transition? And

8:19 this transition is not a either hydrocarbon or renewable is both. It's going to be a mix of different energy resources to make this happen because global population is going to continue growing. And

8:33 when global population continues to grow, energy demand will continue to grow as well. But how do we have a mix so that we don't leave anyone behind? Absolutely address the climate crisis that we

8:45 are in. You're preaching to the choir. We talk about it all the time. And it's, it's always weird to me because I feel like we talk to so many people internally at DW that share that view.

8:56 but then still, on the outside world, there's still so many people who don't understand that. Yes, that's, I mean, because the industry is always been painted in such a bad reputation, or we

9:07 had the biggest, you know, look at, someone made the comment, Exxon makes more money than God. Well, I wish I knew how much God was making, but - Right. But it comes down to, I mean, the

9:18 industry's always not stood up for itself. And in reality is, we have done a lot of good things for the planet that we are in. And we are truly, the product from hydrocarbon fuels the world, not

9:33 just in putting gas in your car, but from every single plastic equipment they can use. Yeah, and I think it just boils down to educating people. You know, they're just, they don't know. They

9:42 don't take the time to do the research. And, you know, so that's like the main goal why we started this podcast is just to educate people on that. Yes, I mean, this is so much by product that

9:53 people, They always think, oh, it's just your electric. your cars and you'll be fine. Where do you think the body of the electric cars come from? Yeah. Where do you think your electricity comes

10:03 from? Yeah, exactly. The power. What's going to power your car? Yes, yes. So there's a lot of awareness that needs, even I face it in the tech industry is raising the awareness internally,

10:15 raising the awareness of not just within Microsoft, but within the tech industry, and then raising the awareness to the investors as well. This is what the industry actually does, and that's where

10:28 I feel we have a bigger role to play here, and not just say this is the worst industry or this is like tobacco, but raising the awareness, because today, we have always spoken about the crude

10:41 change, the big crude change, that is happening. But when you look at the new talent coming in, even my kids, when I talk to them, they'll be like, Oh, we will never get into that industry I

10:50 was like, why not? You know, you don't, and the change is, you know, Raising the awareness that this is not a dirty industry, this is an industry that actually fuels the world, and setting the

11:02 tone that we can decarbonize that industry.

11:06 That is, I would say, where we are doing a lot more work on making hydrocarbon cleaner, and then decarbonization of reducing carbon footprint in the world, and then transitioning into new energies

11:21 I also wish that kids, you know, you mentioned your kids, knew how advanced the technology really is in the industry. Like it's really like the robotics, like I wish we could show that more.

11:34 It's really, really cool. Like there's a lot of cool things out there, and it's probably one of the most technical industries out there, like it's so complex. Before we dive into kind of talking

11:48 about technology Energy and all of that. I wanna ask a question, and this isn't me the first stupid question. That's not such thing as a stupid question. What is Microsoft's involvement in energy?

12:00 Are y'all just working with the energy companies to get them their suite of products? Or is there certain technology for companies that they use? Meh, it's funny that you asked that I'll quote my

12:14 leaders

12:17 He made a comment during Sarah, which stuck with me. He said, you know, we went from selling office products to meeting our customers where they are. And when you look at that, there's still,

12:29 you know, on the flip side being at Microsoft, when I talked to truly the C-suite, I was like, you know, what does Microsoft mean to you? And they go, Office, teams,

12:41 oh, when teams work, and then you have the cloud. And that's it I'm not gonna know, we do a lot more than that. The way we go about resolving the biggest challenges the industry phase, whether

12:50 it's decarbonization is one portion, but making your assets more intelligent because you're not getting capital investment today to put into new assets, whether it's refineries or just building new

12:51 things, as where we

13:06 can put intelligent operation in place. And we don't do it as Microsoft by itself. Microsoft's strength is the richness of our ecosystem. And I say ecosystem is partners that we have in this So

13:18 partners like Slumberger, partners like Heli Burton, those are our partners that we can actually have the fingers to resolve the industry's challenges that we are facing. Interesting, that was a

13:29 great question. That makes a lot more sense 'cause I'm just sitting here thinking office previous.

13:35 No,

13:38 we

13:43 can't be 25 trillion dollar market cabbages off. I know, I know, that's why I was like, I've gotta ask this because I know there's more technology but I've just never heard of it. Like I've never

13:50 like maybe thought it out. Yeah, I mean, not many people know about it. We do a lot of great work, but Microsoft is very known for this. We do great work, but we don't talk about it. Yeah. We

14:03 don't market ourselves in that sense. We're like, let's just go ahead and do the work. That's all that matters for us to help, really help our customers in, hey, we understand Hydrocarbon needs

14:15 to be still produced How can we help you produce more and leave less footprint? And when I say foot min is, you know, from the environmental perspective, how can we help you do that? And then how

14:27 can we help you transition as well? So transition without leaving Hydrocarbon behind. So those are the areas that we really focus on. And then, you know, and then you get all the cool stuff,

14:37 like industrial metawatts and robots and putting a robot on the rig. So those are the cool stuff that we do as well Well, speaking of transitions. Technology, I think, has evolved to transition

14:49 over the years. So one of the first things we wanted to ask you is, how have you seen in your largely - What sort I'm looking for? Storied, that's a good one, largely storied career. How have

15:02 you seen energy technology transition as you've grown? So think about, so maybe this was before your time, but you said, if you were going to censor and let it to someone used to be snail mail,

15:18 and today you could send a text globally, anywhere with WhatsApp with all these apps that you have. And that's the same thing that the industry has gone through. When I look at where I started my

15:27 career of getting data from sub-surface, it would take months from offshore rig to send the data back to onshore for it to be processed, for everyone to look at it and make sense out of it. And

15:42 today we can do it in minutes

15:45 You have all the networks. connections to offshore rigs to get this data real time, to make sense, to process it, to tell you whether this is worth drilling further, where's your landing zone,

15:58 what you should do. So technology is really evolved. And then when you look at the tools that are going underground, it's no more what it used to be. Last time we used to have tools, some had

16:07 like, you know, memories in it, today we can transmit everything up whole. And that's where I see a lot of value of data coming to play in the energy industry. And the downside of it, there's so

16:19 much data and now you need to make sense out of it. What is the noise? What is the data that is really going to drive very intelligent business decisions? We've had a lot of conversations lately

16:30 between some of our webinars and different podcasts. It seems to be that data management and data interpretation seems to be a hot topic right now. I feel like data is everywhere. Yep. And I think

16:45 it can kind of help guide

16:48 transition or addition as we like to say, how do you see that happening? How do you see data helping us kind of transition? So there's, you know, the industry, us and our competitors have been

17:01 very heavily focused on subs of his data, taking all this data, breaking down the silos, putting it together, mashing it up and then making sense out of it so you can make faster decisions And

17:13 then you have HPC behind it that can even start identifying your tidbits. I mean, that's great. But when I look at it, I'm like, you're missing the big component production. So there's a lot

17:23 like in the frack world, the shale revolution in the US, the frack data, there's a lot of data there that is being collected and we've not made sense out of it. You know, can you intelligently

17:35 start assessing, is this the frack design? Where's the frack going? And can you start formulating a plan of where, because there's a lot of reserves being left underground in the shale.

17:48 So you start, stop poking too many holes. Right. And I feel like that is pretty much where we need to move in the US. Yeah. And globally it's about, you know, the offshore international market

17:59 is, it's a sub-surface processing, being able to really identify where do you land as well, how much reserves can you get out of it? And once you get the reserves, start getting the reserves out.

18:09 How do you control the emission? How do you make sure your pipeline capacity has got enough takeaway capacity so you're not flaring? Right And then you can't even flare, but a couple of months ago,

18:19 I was flying through Middle East, no name country, but it was in the evening, and all I saw was flaring the entire way. And I was like, wow. Wow. Yeah, it's like the amount of emission, the

18:31 amount of gas that you're burning. But then when you turn on the other side, it's like Europe needs this gas, you know? Right. Not the Asian uses gas. So there's a lot of wastage still happening,

18:40 but now if you can start planning it using data and you're planning tying it together, I think we can definitely address. the energy trilema that we are in. The energy trilema,

18:52 trilema. We keep reading about that as well.

18:55 We're trying to stay educated. So now I'll turn the tables around. So tell me from your perspective, what do you see energy trilema being? In your own words. Oh God, I'm trying to remember what

19:05 I read about the last time. 'Cause we, so we have our energy conference coming up and Julie and I've been working on the agenda and topics and the trilema is one thing that we, that we've thrown

19:17 around. Wait, what is the trilema? I wanna say, I read something I wanna say was from Deloitte that put out some sort of paper on it.

19:29 And it's, you know, a dilemma, it was like two problems. Like this kind of trifecta of issues, security, sustainability, and availability. Is it something in my almost right, in my almost

19:41 right? Yes, we gotta get two out of three. Yeah, no, you actually got all three, all three. I mean, everyone names it differently, but it's essentially energy security is one, right? One

19:51 component out of it, looking at the war in Ukraine. Energy security has really become front and center for many leaders, not just here in the US, but globally. And

20:02 the second that you touch, the environmental portion. So that's sustainability. What can we do to make sure that we are addressing global warming at the same time? And the third portion is the how

20:14 do you make this equal? We cannot leave any nation or anyone behind. How do you make sure that energy is accessible, and energy is available, and affordable, on a global level? Right. So that's

20:27 the driving reliability. And I think just like Jules was saying about how so many people just don't understand where their energy comes from. I think it's the same that a lot of people don't

20:37 understand how many people still do not have access into reliable. Yes. Energy. So right now, you know, global population is 8 billion, almost a billion people don't have a reliable energy.

20:51 That's awful. And if you look, if you continue this trend, population will overtake where, you know, the affordability comes in and that will open up. Hey, we're gonna leave nations behind,

21:02 we're gonna leave people behind. Right. And when you look, you know, the further you look, like countries in Southeast Asia, urbanization is happening. So urbanization where people are starting

21:12 to move more to cities, energy demand's gonna grow there. So population's one, but urbanization. How do we address all of is plants coal 'cause plants, just coal to back go don't we that sure

21:20 make? And that

21:24 not where we wanna be. Absolutely. So I think this leads perfectly into our next question. I think when we're talking about the energy trilama, what's gonna be important is collaboration and not

21:35 just between energy verticals, but also between tech companies and the energy industry.

21:43 Yes. I mean, that's, that's where, you know, Microsoft is, um, takes a very big stand on this. Again, we don't talk about it too much, but we drive very strategic partnership and this

21:54 strategic partnership, we have our energy principles. And that is something I'm very proud to see Microsoft as a stand in the way we do business with energy companies beat. And, you know, you

22:05 could be in Saudi around, you could be a next on, but we have our principles. And that's the, that's our, I would say our marching orders and our not style guiding stuff. If a company has a net

22:16 zero goal, we will co-innovate with you. We will co-develop with you. That's amazing. And if you don't have that, we'll help you get there, we'll help you develop it, we'll help you get to your

22:26 net zero goal. And alongside the partnership, it evolves over time, it went from, okay, we have the technical expertise in the tech world. You have your domain expertise in what you do. How can

22:42 we. How can we bring this to the market to be a product the rest of the world can do and use so that it's not just going to be a partnership with you and be on it, but we can share it with the world

22:55 to make it much better for the entire industry. And that's what Microsoft really strives to do. That's awesome. I love hearing that in a company like Microsoft is invested and that's like you said,

23:06 and I get it. There are a lot of companies that don't talk about the good that they're doing, even the companies that are in and energy, struggle, struggle with talking about the good that they're

23:17 doing. So, I think it's very encouraging that Microsoft is playing ball and helping these companies meet their targets. I mean, I can openly talk about it. It took us, I mean, the announcements

23:31 out. It took us a long time to commit to a particular country in

23:37 the Middle East, no names mentioned, To build a data center there. And the moment the country and the biggest oil producer they're committed, we have a net zero goal. Yeah. We made the

23:49 commitment, we'll build a data center there. It's Microsoft has its den, and that's one thing I have a lot of respect for this company is, when we make a stand, we stick by it. We don't just

24:01 play with anyone, but we play with the right players. I think we try to have that mantra here as well. Yeah, I feel like we were talking about that today Just having a mission and letting that

24:12 really drive you and drive your decisions, whether it's a really small decision or a really big decision, always making sure you align with your values. I love that. And knowing Microsoft does

24:23 that is really cool. Yeah, probably why it's been a lot. Yeah, I think that's what really attracted me to Microsoft was, you know, we have a mission statement of empowering every person, every

24:35 organization on the planet to achieve more And when you translate that from an energy perspective, We are going to empower every organization to provide clean, affordable, and reliable energy. And

24:49 that would mean giving equal opportunity to everyone everywhere.

24:54 Man, can we talk about like policy changes or initiatives that we need to drive the transition forward? So you mean the carrot that is dangling in the US right there? Yeah, we can definitely talk

25:10 about the IRA policies that are out, I mean, you know, when you look at the decarbonization efforts in the US, it was very slow. And with the recent IRA bill, always stand to joke, now we have

25:23 the carrot, we have a 10-year carrot and let's try to grab this carrot as much as possible. But out of that, you know, the good part is there's billions and billions, I believe it's around 400

25:33 billion going into decarbonization and making the new energy infrastructure, those who have been in Texas seeing what happened during the winter is something we don't run into again. But at the same

25:47 time, you know, this has opened up a more competitive landscape versus a collaboration. And that's where Microsoft is taking the stand off. How can we help companies collaborate so we can start

25:59 building solutions and building and empowering customers who are getting into direct air capture or CCS to say, Hey, this is the platform. We have proven it in Europe. We have done it in Europe.

26:10 Now, let's bring that platform here and show customers hates an open ecosystem. Let's bring as many players into it so we can start doing what's right. And all of you can reap the benefit of that.

26:22 Right. And so in in your opinion, maybe not, not Microsoft's been in your opinion. Is that the best way to ensure like keep talking about that no one gets left behind? Yes. And when you look at

26:35 that, you know, in Europe, it's different They have a stick, right? You have to do this. You know, you're not, you're going to get penalized. And whereas in, in you as it became a carrot,

26:45 which is fine, but how do you make sure companies remain competitive, but still make sure that the technology is an open ecosystem that the rest of them can use? Right. And that's what we're

26:56 striving to do. Awesome.

26:59 What are some of the skills

27:02 that are needed for the future of the energy? Because it is going to become, you know, a lot different As we move forward, what do you see a gap in right now and what do we need moving forward? I

27:17 mean, there's few areas to address, right? When I look at any, whether it's an oil field service company, an oil and gas company, chemicals company, digital has to be a backbone. And the

27:30 reason I said digital has to be a backbone is because tomorrow or a month's time, oil could potentially drop to25 again. God knows, right? We always have these black swans and these black swans.

27:44 Yeah, nobody wishes for it. But black swans do happen. We don't have controllable over it. So before that happens, how do you prepare yourself to be more agile in the way you operate and not lay

27:55 off a bunch of people, right? Be the right size, not lay off a bunch of people. And make sure you're agile enough to to address the market changes and the uncertainty that we live in. So we have

28:07 seen this and I've and I truly believe digital can help you get there, focus the market, move move assets, move the way you operate to address that. So that's one part. And second, obviously,

28:18 everyone's heard about this AI. Right. So what's that?

28:24 Well, Chad GPT could ask you could ask Chad GPT that. Yeah. No, but you know, we are in the industrial revolution for point or right. And in the midst of it, I would say AI is where we are

28:36 today in that entire digitalization space. AI is where we are and I would definitely encourage everybody to learn a little bit about AI. You don't have to be a coder, but you need to know what AI

28:49 can do for your business. You need to know AI, what AI can do for you. You know, if you know what AI can do for you, then you can know how AI can help your company. That goes a long way. And

28:59 there is obviously a very scary, scary thing. Oh, AI is going to replace jobs. The way I look at it, AI is going to make you upscale yourself You know, it's going to take away all those routine

29:11 tasks that you have to do. So you can actually free yourself to doing more innovative things. Just start thinking out of the box. Right. I mean, I get, you know, sometimes I'll be like, God,

29:21 I wish AI could do this for me. You know, but it's not quite there. I wish you could do a digital twin and do presentations for me. We're not quite there yet. And but then you start saying, okay,

29:32 if AI takes away 20 of my time of doing all this, you know, routine tasks, that frees out for me. the bigger challenges that we are facing and how can I put this jigsaw puzzle together? So that's

29:44 the way I see AI. And right behind AI, if I had money to bet on, I would say quantum computing is gonna be coming up next. That is the industrial revolution that we are in right now. But on the

29:57 flip side, when I look at people telling me into the workforce, I said, the AI, the technology that you're learning, that is all the left side, brain thinking No computer can replace empathy.

30:11 Absolutely. No computer can replace compassionate and caring about the society you're in. So that's where, whenever I talk to new talent, people who are in college and everything, it's like focus

30:23 on that as well, because that no computer is ever gonna replace that. The high touch and being able to talk to people. So that's very important. Your soft skills. Yeah, the soft skills. Yeah,

30:35 I really like your mindset around that. It's a very abundant mindset Hey, use AI to basically outsource what you can so you can make more use of your time, whether that be learning how to innovate

30:49 or maybe just spending time with your family. Like it just frees up your time to be able to have more time which we all need. Yeah, that's right. So I love that. Yeah, Microsoft is very big on

31:02 work-life balance and that's why every time I see an article come out, we talk about productivity We talk about how we're making the tools work for us first so that we can be more productive in what

31:14 we're doing and give us more time with our family. That's very, very important in the company, in my leadership. I mean,

31:23 I have said in one meeting when I took vacation and my boss immediately texted me, vacation means we caked.

31:31 Vacation means we got your message pass. This is the only call.

31:37 And that goes a long way, you know, I came from oil and gasification did not mean vacation, right? It's not a way, yes, and you're also a founder, which vacation does not exist. I'm so I'm

31:48 sure it's a mindset flip when you're working for a bigger corporation where they like basically force it. Yes. I haven't got to that part of my career where I'm like forcing it yet, but I know I'll

31:60 need it one day. Yes, you do. I mean, because, you know, mental health is an issue. We tend to

32:07 come from a society that don't want to acknowledge it, but if you burn out happens, and if you don't take the time to rest, and when I say rest, really reset and not think about work, it is you

32:21 are going to get burned out. You are, and you're not going to be able to have those creative ideas. Yeah, absolutely. You innovate. Your brain gets fried. Yeah, it does So talking about speak

32:32 of new talent. When you were new, I know you started. as an engineer, did you always want to take it into energy or was that kind of just where you ended up and then you found this passion for?

32:44 No, so I

32:47 love maths and I love physics and I wanted to go be a professor and my dad told me I'm not gonna make any money. So you need to go do engineering and coming from a very Southeast Asian family was

33:01 either engineer, lawyer, a doctor, a young athlete. Right, right. So I was like, okay, great I'm not gonna be a lawyer. I'm definitely not gonna be a doctor. You go to school too long. So

33:11 desire to get into engineering. And from there, I realized, you know, I've always been a, I would say, I care about people generally. So I wanted to build power plants and then I was gonna go

33:21 work for UN. It's still a dream, maybe someday. But when I graduated, completed my masters, when I came back to Malaysia at that point, the industry that was hiring was oil and gas.

33:36 That's what got me into oil, I guess. And from then on, I just fell in love with what we were doing. We were not just, we were getting oil out of the ground, but why were we getting oil out of

33:46 the ground? And that went a long way for me, especially when certain of the projects that we worked on, and this was in back in Asia, the moment we hit a very big fine, I immediately knew the

34:01 people, the native people were gonna get a lot of the money out of it So that goes a long way. And these are people who live in like, you know, absolutely nothing. Yeah. So that always made me

34:12 happy when we find the oil, we know the local people will get it, so. Oh, that's like a warm and fuzzy oil and gas story. I like it. I know. So what advice would you have for people entering

34:24 the energy sector? I think a lot of our listeners are either seasoned professionals who are just interested in learning about topics outside of their day-to-day, people who are. new to the industry

34:37 and just kind of want to broaden their general knowledge. So what advice do you have for them? Our first thing is play a strength, not your weakness. Yeah, you know, know your strength, be, be

34:47 a subject matter expert with the things that really resonates with you. You can't, you can't be, you can't know all of it, right? But you can have the breadth of all of it, but really be in

34:58 depth with something that is resonates with yourself And then understand, you know, one is that that's passion and what you're good at, you know, are you good in operations? Are you good in sales?

35:09 Are you good? You know, some people just don't want to talk to customers. That's fine that you know where your strengths are. And then what is going on in the world and what can you get paid for?

35:18 You know, you can be really, really want to do one thing. And then you'll be like, Oh, I'm not going to get paid for that. Great. So really putting this together. So that one year where during

35:27 the COVID year that I took that year off, there is a very good book that was introduced to called Ikigai. Ikigai is a Japanese way of thinking, you know, that leads to happiness. And the way

35:39 there's these blue zones globally where people live a longer life, because they're happier. And that gave me that four pillars to look at. I know, we need to look at that. Yeah, Ikigai, it says,

35:50 you know, what you're good at, what you love, what you're good at, what can you get paid for, and what the world needs. If you can intersect us for, you can really find, you know, what is it

36:03 that you're gonna do? Because then you won't come to work thinking, Oh God, this is a job. Yeah, you can't do it. You'll never feel it's a job. You get excited doing it every day. I feel like

36:13 one of the good things that came out of COVID is I feel like whether people, it's because they were furloughed or lost their jobs or just started working from home. I think a lot of people really

36:23 like did some soul searching and kind of went back to that exact notion, finding out

36:31 what's important to you. and what kind of gets you going? And whether that was like a side hobby they picked up or they completely switched careers, I think I always think about like, I know a lot

36:41 of people that really took that time and their life kind of did a 180 for the better. Yes, and sometimes a 180 doesn't need to just happen like that, right? You could try it as a side gate, see

36:51 whether you really like it, or they can actually make some money. Right, and then you can go full blown into it. Yeah. I'm gonna sidetrack the conversation a little bit and go back to quantum

37:02 computing. Are you

37:04 gonna ask what it is? I find it, so I listened to this podcast a while back, and I, it was probably a Joe Rogan podcast.

37:13 And it was so interesting, but I would love for you to explain what it is. Okay, 'cause I'm like, I don't know. So think about, okay, so you have your computer. Think about

37:27 a supercharged computer. They can do everything much faster than you can ever think about.

37:30 quantum computing. So it's got artificial intelligence got everything you can think about with the click of a button. Will it have like an interface like a computer? Or is this that's that's the

37:40 plan? That's the vision. But it can be used for a lot of different things. We're not quite there. You know, Microsoft is invested in it, deeply invested in it. I have gone to our corporate

37:51 office in written when we get quantum computing subject met to the experts come and talk and be a poof.

37:60 I mean, the things that they're building is state of the art, testing out different things. And out of it, you know, one of the things that one of the challenges when we went up to rate when a

38:09 customer brought up, can we remove methane from hydrocarbon? And that was something they were like, Hmm, let's see whether quantum computing can resolve that. So it's very interesting to see that

38:20 the challenges that we're facing and whether quantum computing can resolve it. I was just about to ask what it does for the energy, what it means. the energy. Can we get the hydrocarbon and can we

38:34 strip out a way that methane doesn't get leaked into the environment? It's so interesting. So those are the kind of big, big challenges that we're looking at. Can quantum computing help this? You

38:46 know, can artificial intelligence help this? Right. So I would say we are still at the very start of it, but it's a journey that we have to be on. Absolutely. It's very exciting to seeing that

38:57 that's something that's going to happen within the net. And I'm sure it'll come faster than we think. Kind of like, I know AI has been in development forever, but it feels like it was just like

39:06 overnight. But with AI, I mean, honestly, that's because of chat GPT, right? The whole fun stuff of AI. But when you look at one of the AI use case, the result that is so you're as females,

39:20 we take, you know, the mammogram for breast cancer prevention, there is a use case out there that very early detection. you can start saying whether you are actually going to have a tumor or not.

39:33 Wow. Yes. Through the mammogram? Through the AI. Through AI. Through AI. Wow.

39:38 And imaging. So that's why I'm like, wow. That is game changing. Yeah. It really is. We think about five, ten years ago, oh, I feel a lump. Okay. You've got breast cancer. Now I can take a

39:49 shot and, yeah, in two years, you're going to get breast cancer And I think sometimes I forget that there are other uses for AI other than the day-to-day chat, GBT, and energy that, especially

40:04 for the medical community, I'm sure here in Houston with all the research hospitals, that it's going to do some really great things. Yeah. I mean, that's where we see, okay, if you can do this

40:16 with a scan, now can you take that put it in energy and start looking at where the frack is going to tell me if I can make more oil and open up this frack. Oh, that's very cool. Yeah.

40:28 So that's why I feel a lot of, if you can free up the non-essential task, it really makes you think open up your mind to think about different ways of using technology. Absolutely. So I guess

40:41 other than quantum computing and AI, what else gets you excited about the energy landscape over the next five, 10 years? Oh, God, where do I say it? Or is that it? No, no, I mean, that's the

40:53 call of

40:55 what we do, but there's one that really gets me very excited is the industrial meta was. If you look at kids today, I mean, so I have did a big mistake, but buying the. Oculus. Oculus, yeah.

41:13 So there've been times that come back and my son's still awake, 10, 30 at night on school night playing game. I'm like, you know, that's not what it's for. But when you look at the future of our

41:24 talk, education So today we are paying a lot of money to get into schools and then the cost of living, can we use that in the future to give them the experience to be in a classroom without paying

41:39 that price tag. And then that opens up more entry into universities. Right. And you can do it, you can be sitting in Colombia, attending an Ivy League school here not having to pay that cost of

41:53 living here You know, if you start thinking about how can we use those kind of technology to make sure that everyone gets the chance? So that's why I see a lot of the variables, the industrial meta

42:06 was that we call it industrial meta was the future of that lies. Right. And that's one thing that gets me excited. And then the partners, you know, we have we have startups that very niche

42:18 technologies, but some of the startups that I say, I'm like, yes, that's what we want. So that gets me very excited. Decarbonization technologies that are coming. with direct air capture

42:30 technologies that are coming forward, that is where Microsoft has got an entire climate initiative fund where we invest in this new start-ups. And that gets me very excited, like, how can we make

42:42 it so that it's not just one technology out there proven, how can we help more technologies so that the cost of building this gets cheaper. Yeah I'm just, I kept thinking about the start-ups and I

42:55 feel like us two here, I'd never work for a startup before. I didn't have anything to

43:02 do with any sort of startup in any industry before I started working here And. it is really exciting and you can tell, like, at our energy tech nights when there's something, just by, like, the

43:13 questions people are asking after some of these companies pitch that you're, like, this is going to be a thing. Like, people are already excited about it Like, this is obviously something that is

43:22 needed, and that, I mean, our hope, obviously, is that they walk out of that event with. either meetings or potential clients or investors, something that's kind of always our goal, but it's a

43:34 really fun seeing them come to fruition. So I'm excited to see which of our

43:43 pitch applicants and companies start up to work with. I'm excited to see where they are in five years and who's making up a million dollars who's changing the world and. I can't wait. And in this

43:55 process, I've met people who could have retired, could have just absolutely nothing and been fine. But the good ones never hurt. The good ones come back because hey, I want to make an impact.

44:07 And that's the drive, that's why they can't quit. 'Cause I haven't made a big enough impact and they know they can do more. Yes, I mean, there's one, they are the very well-known brothers in the

44:21 US in the oil and gas side and they sold their company, Could every time I decided, no, coming back to make an impact. Yeah, and we all know who it is, but - We love those brothers, yeah. We

44:35 do, we do. So I'm in the camera, 'cause when I look at this, I'm like, oh yeah, you guys need to write a book about this. Oh, for sure, yeah. The impact that they're looking to do on

44:45 decarbonization and providing zero carbon electricity to the grid here in the US, and then decarbonization of the rest of the world. Those are the things that, those are what legacies are built on,

44:58 right? Absolutely. It's not how much they sold their first company for, but the impact that they're making. And that's what, you know, that's where I feel the people really can drive that change.

45:09 And today, it's normal about just generations before, it's about how much money can I make. And today, it's about how much impact can I make? Yep, absolutely. Well, I'm gonna, I think Chuck

45:21 will be happy plug his YDC rose, there's a charity event this fall, that all of those brothers. are the guests of honor that we'll all be getting roasted. For charity. So you should go, I'll be

45:33 there. Yeah, they're quite something. Yes, they are, they are. So

45:41 I think, yeah, to wrap up, we have three rapid fire questions that Jules always takes. This is her favorite segment. We touched on this earlier, but number one, why should we care about the

45:56 energy industry? Because that's the fuel for the world. And do you wanna go back living on the houses and hunting for your food with a spear? Nothing. Nothing for you. Nothing for you. I mean,

46:10 that's, and then wearing, you know, lying cloth or whatever. It's a no, so I mean, it fuels the world, right? That's the thing, we forget the byproducts. It fuels the world. That's why you

46:20 have to care about it. Right, and then number two was what's the number one misconception about the energy industry? that it doesn't fuel the world. It thinks. I know this to go hand in hand.

46:30 Yeah, all you think it's, Oh, it's providing a gas to my car. No, it's not. It does a lot more than that. That's the first misconception about it. And the second is, they think we are causing

46:39 damage to the environment every time. That's not true. Yeah. And then last one, what's your most embarrassing story in your career? Oh boy, where do I start? Oh boy, where do I start? We've

46:50 had some good lines. We have what we should do at the end of the year. We should go back and rank everyone Yeah, make a compilation of all that. Where do I start? There's been way too many

46:60 embarrassing ones.

47:03 Oh, um. I feel like everyone has one come to mind and they're like, oh, I

47:21 can't even tell that one. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

47:22 no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, embarrassing was you know when I so when I first started my career is and junior I

47:26 straight when working offshore. And I never knew that I was going to be the only female on the offshore reef for 28 days straight. That's a long time. Yeah. So with that came many challenges,

47:42 including do not ever go to a TV room. Oh,

47:47 yeah. I heard. Yeah. Don't accidentally open the door. Don't just stay in your rooms. Yeah. So that was, I would say, my most embarrassing thing that happened was like, oh, I walked in. No,

47:55 I actually, I was in the TV room and then they had a cruise change and they didn't know I was in there. Then they started playing certain kind of movie. Oh, no.

48:03 So I wonder if they still do that to this day. I'm sure they did. Oh, that was, that was almost 20, 25 years ago. So that was back in Asia. So that was even worse. So I'm just very, yeah.

48:15 And I'll have to ask Colin. Yeah That was, that was, I would say my most embarrassing, but it was even more embarrassing for the people who are doing it. Oh, shit. I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah, they

48:26 aren't used to women. No, no, at that point. No. Nope. And just, you know, if any of you are wearing a cowl roll, just just be very careful. Why don't you wear it under the cowl roll?

48:41 I think we've talked to enough people to know that we are not meant for Riggs. No, I need to degree.

48:52 I would love one day as a rough neck. I'm from Midland, by the way. So I'm from Florida. Very much like,

49:01 you'll be wrestling alligators. Right. And like, and I have six brothers, so no, we didn't live on a hot short break together, but our house clothes.

49:10 Yeah, but you know, well, I mean, out of a lot of, that's my embarrassing stories, but it's not constant to build your character. You know, sure. And someone tells you, I do, you don't,

49:20 you know, you.

49:22 give up. I said, well, you know, been around the block many times. Yeah. Yeah. One way or another, we find a way. Yeah. And it's, I mean, it is a complex, complex issues that we're facing

49:33 complex challenges. And that's what it builds you correctly. If you're only on a read, like, Oh, no, the officer's not for me, I'm going to cry. And then he's just not going to build the kind

49:42 of person that you are. Yeah. I may be able to do it for one day as long as it's not in Canada We had someone on the podcast recently who did that in Canada and the letter and it sounded. Yeah,

49:53 like it if you were just frozen the whole time. Oh, no, I was in Scotland and I got chicken pox on the rate. Oh, my God. In the winter, mine. Oh, my God. Yeah. So do they have going off

50:04 topic a little bit? Do they have they have like medical staff? I was just, oh, yeah, no, they have like full blown medical stuff, a chopper can't get you. And I didn't even know it was getting

50:13 chicken pops. I've never had chicken pops and I was like, oh, you know, something's eating and he was like snoring. And I was like, Oh no. It can't be the snow. I'm not allergic to snow.

50:23 You got chicken pox and I'm like, Oh great, on the rig. In Scotland, in the winter months. Yeah. Oh no. Oh man. Oh man. What a story. I feel like, do you tell these stories to your kids?

50:34 No. No. Save them the green.

50:38 How old are your kids? Oh, my son is 13 going on 65 and my daughter is 10 going on 16, so. Okay Yeah, I have, my kids are similar ages, so I was gonna ask, but yeah. We, they don't really

50:54 care about our careers at this point. No, my, my, you know, my son, he is like a wise old man. He goes, I don't want to make lots of money. I'll just want a small house and I want to save the

51:06 planet. Oh. Then my 10 year old girl, she goes, I'm gonna be very, very rich or I'm gonna live in the forest and hunt for my food.

51:15 There's no one between me Yeah, knowing between is like. Either this or this. All of mine, besides the youngest, he's like your typical young child, youngest child. They all want to be

51:27 entrepreneurs and they all want lots of money. But my youngest is like, I'm never leaving you and I will not work.

51:34 That's hilarious. He's like being grown up sucks. I don't want to do it. Just Mary Ridge. There we go. I'm telling that. Mary Ridge. Jules, there's still time for you. I know Back to the day.

51:48 Mary Ridge. You should do it. Back to the day tip of the day. Someone's got to do it and it's got to be you. Hit me up.

51:58 I love it. This was a great episode. I'm really excited. I am too. It's fun. Thank you very much. I'm on. Definitely, I'm in that. We've been off script completely, but you know. Is there

52:08 anything else you'd like to - No, my only thing is advice to people Keep an open mind, the energy industry is not the devil. We have been called that many, many times. We're not. And the tech

52:21 industry is not the devil's, too, because when I left the oil industry to get into tech, they were, Oh, you went to the other side of the devil. I'm like, No, neither one are the devils. We

52:33 just need to learn to work together and make it better. Yeah. They're green, right? Well, if people want to learn more about you, where can they find you? Oh, LinkedIn. Perfect. LinkedIn's a

52:44 part of Microsoft. That's what you guys found each other It is a part of Microsoft. So, literally, I figure it's definitely LinkedIn. In every sense of the word, and that's where you guys found

52:53 each other. Yes. Yes. Yes, and you know, I try my best. There's a lot of people who reach out. I need just time to know how you did it, and I try my best to respond. But sometimes it takes me

53:06 time, because of the transition I'm going through to, but I try my best But you know, and one thing is be very clear of your ask. And while you're asking that, you know, some people, I can, I

53:21 can, I read people pretty well. And I know when they're not being forthcoming. And some, some are very forthcoming. This is what I want. And I just want to learn from you, which is great, but

53:30 some are not. So just be very honest with yourself, right? So yeah, it's great. All right. Thank you guys for listening. Don't forget to like and subscribe. If you want more information on the

53:41 company or any of the podcasts, you can and find us at digiowalkatterscom or on

53:47 LinkedIn or on our socials, managed by Jules. The one and only. And follow us all on LinkedIn. Yes, and follow us on LinkedIn. Jules and Linked Angels. Hima. Hima, especially Hima. We'll see

53:57 you next time. Bye. Bye.