Her Story
About Paola
Paola McClernon serves as Senior Catering Director of the Chevron Portfolio. In this role, she oversees every catering department and event from units across the Chevron portfolio in Texas, Louisiana, and California, with recent expansion to additional accounts such as Exxon and BP in the South Division energy region. She has 23 years of experience in food and beverage, beginning after culinary school, and has spent the past 10 years specializing in events and catering. Her career path includes starting as an executive chef before transitioning to corporate events and catering as a catering assistant at a Spanish-speaking BBVA unit, then returning to Chevron where she advanced through unit-level roles to her current portfolio oversight position. Paola earned her foundational education at a culinary school focused on business administration in Queretaro, Mexico, followed by 1.5 years of study in Barcelona emphasizing business administration with a culinary focus. She is fluent in Spanish and English, having adapted to additional languages during her training. She attributes her professional success to resilience and drive, along with the values of dependability, responsibility, and transparency that have supported her growth. Paola has shared that she prioritizes creating opportunities for advancement in the events field, where career ladders are limited, and she draws on advice from her sister to always pursue new positions rather than accept limitations.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Paola
01What do you attribute your success to?
Resilience and drive. Just having the drive and wanting to continue to grow. Not every day is going to be there but overall if you have the drive and you want to continue to improve.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
My sister always tells me, you already have the no, so if you never try something, it's always going to be a no. Sometimes you go for the position, you go for the promotion, and then the experience and the knowledge, you seek for it, and it will come. If you don't apply, if you don't try to move forward, it's already a given no. So you always have to try. Eventually, you will succeed. You should never accept the no.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's difficult to have it all. I heard an interview recently... she said I don't. I do not do it all. Whenever I'm driving at work, I feel like I am missing things at my family. Whenever I'm driving with my family and with my kids, I feel like I'm constantly missing things in my career. So I will find ways to delegate, I will find support... we cannot do it all. But you can. Some things will fall through. But it's about prioritizing, at the moment, what you need to do. If you want to have family, and you want to continue growing in your career, you can. It's just going to take a little bit extra planning, it's going to take a little bit more flexibility... Accept that some days you're going to be traveling in a field, when in the other field, you're going to have to sacrifice a few things.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Catering and events is often seen as an afterthought. It's easy to just have it as a given. So event planners, event coordinators, there's different titles that you have to put on a hat every day to do our job. I work with a lot of chef managers that get to be event planners for a day... sometimes you don't have just one hat, you have to put on a lot of hats... we don't get the chance or the time to plan properly. There's not a lot of fields in carrying on events where you can pursue a career and just continue to move up the ladder. I feel like I have to fight to create positions for me to continuously improve.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Dependability. One of the skills that have gotten me where I am is being dependable, responsible, and being transparent. I will always say the things how they are, and of course with touch and with empathy, but being transparent, being dependable, and being responsible go a long way. And that's what is ultimately have gotten me where I am.
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