‘A role in the energy industry appealed to my ideals of internationalism, travel and diverse cultures’

Born in Egypt and after studying in Qatar, Yossra Osman (26) returned to her childhood home of Aberdeen to pursue a career in the energy industry. In her role with Baker Hughes, she combines her technical background with her new sales and commercial skillset to help play a key role within the company.

Whether it was designing entire LEGO cities or styling questionable hairdos on my grandma, I was always creative as a child. My favourite hobby, however, was dancing as it allowed me to combine creativity, art, self-expression and exercise all into one.

Although my childhood innocence had led me to believe that I could easily replicate one of my LEGO prototypes into the next Burj Khalifa, growing older allowed me to realise the complex realities of the engineering world. With a growing interest in facing these challenges, I decided to undertake a work placement at bp during my final year of school. I wanted to learn more about the extensive technical processes behind the energy we generate and consume on a day-to-day basis, but the energy industry also appealed to my ideals of internationalism, travel and diverse cultures.

I went on to pursue a degree in Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M, before becoming a graduate researcher and completing my MSc in Chemical Engineering. After this period of research and academic publication, I completed two leadership development programmes, initially the Graduate Management Programme at GE and then the Baker Hughes ASPIRE Sales & Commercial programme. Inspired by excellent mentors, I have continued my journey within the commercial side of the business at Baker Hughes.

In my current role I incorporate my engineering background with my newly developed sales and commercial skillset.  As a service company who thrive to meet customer demands, a solid understanding in both the technical and commercial fields is critical in allowing us to offer the best solution from our complex technology range. One project that I have recently been involved in looks at how we can become more customer-centric as an organisation through the standardisation and digitisation of our pricing processes. As the industry continues to shift and change rapidly, adapting to customer requests quickly will be more vital than ever.

The energy industry must take the lead when it comes to overcoming the challenges of climate change. Not only do we have a role to play in terms of adopting and promoting a change of mentality towards sustainability, but also through investing in cleaner energy solutions, refining pre-existing energy processes, and finally pushing new innovation frontiers. As a highly-skilled industry, I am positive that we will be able to meet the challenges of the energy transition. We are an industry that thrives though change and we know how to adapt better than any other. A change of mentality is already underway, but we must act quickly to reach our net zero goals.

My advice to those joining the energy industry is to remain adaptable to change and open to innovation. As the world comes together to solve one of its biggest challenges, this outlook will allow you to be a key asset in helping the energy industry move forward, towards a positive future.