What do you do at Xodus? 

As the XAMIN Product Manager, I sit within the Digital Products team at Xodus and am responsible for the overall delivery of all our client facing software products. Leading a team of Product Owners, I support the creation of the XAMIN strategy (XAMIN is Xodus' integrated asset data management digital platform), set the roadmap, draft marketing content, lead the BD drive, and support the day-to-day development of XAMIN products.

Why did you want to be part of Women In New Energy (W.I.N.E)? 

The Women in New Energy event was a great opportunity to bring our clients and peers together in a setting designed to encourage collaboration. W.I.N.E. allowed us to take important time out of the day job and discuss big picture problems and identify potential solutions with those in the know. Speaking to those who joined us I know they felt the same and relished the opportunity to attend.

What was the topic you chose for your round table and why? 

My table discussed empowering the workplace through digitalisation, covering two key topics: learning from traditional markets and supporting women in the workplace. Starting my career in oil & gas, specifically subsea integrity management, and seeing how digitalisation is often thought about late in the asset or project lifecycle, I wanted to bring a group from across the industry together to identify how we can improve in the newer markets. Although renewable energies can be seen as the leading edge of the industry, old behaviours still exist (in some cases transferring directly with the people moving across from oil and gas), with a reluctance to change and adopt digitalisation. This may be due to the number of new start-ups or smaller outfits in the new energy market where cost is a barrier to digitisation. Over the last few years there’s been a necessary shift towards increased digitalisation, both though dedicated industry software and the day-to-day systems we all use which includes aspects like video calling and online document storage. This has led to improved options for flexible/hybrid working and work/life balance which, as women are disproportionately caregivers, has seen real benefits for women in the workplace. A really interesting point highlighted how digital approaches have given women more visibility with senior leaders by making key meetings more accessible.

What is the one thing you took away from the day?

We found some really interesting commonality between digitalisation round table and our other roundtable focused on Women’s Networks. Both groups agreed that change needs to come from the top and be implemented in a deliberate way. Champions need to communicate the value and empower people to embrace changes.

What was so inspirational about the day?   

It was an incredible experience to be in a room full of like-minded, incredibly successful women from the same industry. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been the only women in a room across my career so it was a refreshing change and wonderful to see the supportive approach that everyone brought to the day. It was the first panel that I’ve been part of and so was a little nervous, but everyone around me was incredibly encouraging and gave me the confidence to get involved.