Katie G. Pelliccio

I attribute my success to several key mentors who shaped my path. Sister Ursula, my chemistry teacher at the all-girls Catholic school I attended in Baton Rouge, really helped me fall in love with chemistry and ignited a curiosity in me that kept me wanting to learn more. My grandfather was the first in his family to get a college degree as a mechanical engineer, and he would build me toys when I was little, which I thought was really cool. I coupled that curiosity for chemistry with my fascination for putting things together and making them work, which led me to chemical engineering. When I came to Chevron, I learned a lot from our operations team, the folks that maybe weren't necessarily degreed professionals, but really understand how our equipment works and operates. It was a very humbling experience for me, even having an engineering degree, to work alongside them nights and weekends and learn how equipment operates and how I could bring my technical knowledge to support them. Another notable mentor is Emar Bonner, who's now our Chief Financial Officer. I worked for her in my prior role when we developed the Chevron technology strategy. She was the Chief Technology Officer at the time, and to see a woman in a very male-dominated industry hold so many key critical positions around the globe, and to be able to work alongside of her directly to develop something that we rolled out across the enterprise that will continue to deliver value for decades to come was really an inspiring moment for me in my career. My educational background also played a key role, including my chemical engineering degree from LSU and my MBA from Tulane University, which I pursued to couple my technical engineering knowledge with what matters to a business.

I say do it. It's a field that is constantly changing. Every day is a new day, there's always a new challenge. It has historically been male-dominated, but there's so many examples of females who have overcome obstacles and have been able to work right alongside their male colleagues and perform, and pave the way for others to see what's possible for smart, ambitious, curious young women to do well in this industry. Another reason why I encourage people to come into the industry is it's really noble. There's really nothing in our world today, from a modern world perspective, that doesn't touch some form of energy. Our role is to ensure that that energy is affordable no matter where somebody is in the world, making it affordable, making it reliable, because it's important that the power stays on, and doing our part to improve the environment with making it ever cleaner. That is really the fundamentals that drive human progress, and I would encourage any young woman or man to consider taking on that noble cause and working in the energy industry to be able to really shape not only today, the present, but also the future. It's just such a big part of what makes the world move, what makes humans progress. And it's exciting to be able to build a career in an industry that touches so many facets of modern life as we know it today.

One of the biggest challenges I face in my field is deploying and scaling current technologies across the organization while also developing future technologies that are economically viable at scale; additionally, working within diverse regulatory environments such as Angola presents ongoing opportunities to improve efficiency and cost competitiveness, alongside the important opportunity to increase the participation of women in the industry.

The values most important to me in both my work and personal life include people development, continuous learning, and a commitment to making energy more affordable and reliable. I am also guided by a strong focus on improving environmental performance and actively supporting community engagement.