NEWS & INSIGHTS | Opinion
We have to push further and faster on representation of females
Colette Cohen OBE
Colette Cohen is the Chief Executive Officer for The Net Zero Technology Centre and has worked in the oil and gas industry for more than 25 years. Colette successfully launched The Centre in 2017 and has established it as the ‘go to’ technology centre for the industry. Since starting her career offshore with bp in 1991, Colette has worked for ConocoPhillips in the North Sea, Norway, the US and Kazakhstan, where she received a Jubilee Medal from the Kazakh Prime Minister in recognition of her contribution to the country’s oil and gas industry. Prior to joining the centre, she was Senior Vice President for Centrica Energy’s Exploration and Production business in the UK and The Netherlands.
Colette has previously served on the board of Offshore Energies UK and the OGA Decommissioning Board. She currently sits on the Boards of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation Delivery, Deep Ocean, NORECO, Technip Energies and the Technology Leadership Board. She is also a Commissioner for the Just Transition Commission for Scotland, an active champion for the industrial transition of the oil and gas industry to a net zero future and a committed role model for women in industry.
Colette is a chemistry graduate from Queens University Belfast, has a Masters in Project Management and Economics from Ceram University, an honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen, and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Institute of Directors.
As an ambassador for POWERful Women, I’m passionate about the need for industry to embrace a fully diverse workforce and have a gender-balanced environment. I’m delighted to see an improvement in the numbers of women on both boards and executive teams. It’s encouraging to see progress, but it’s clear there’s much more to be done.
We must push further and faster – 79% of companies with no female executives in 2020 is unacceptable.
A fully diverse executive not only better represents the company demographic and establishes strong role models, it also creates better performing teams.
This is a pivotal time for the oil and gas sector as we continue to work towards ambitious decarbonisation targets during a global pandemic.
We must evolve quickly and create the strongest possible workforce to address the biggest challenge of a generation.
We also need to be careful as we emerge from this pandemic that women – often seen as the carers at home – are not unfairly disadvantaged with new “normal” ways of working.
Embedding a true culture of inclusivity into our organisations, alongside gender-balanced leadership teams will be critical to our long-term success.
We have a tremendous pool of talent and expertise which is currently underutilised. Why wouldn’t we want to maximise this experience and ensure we have a world class workforce that becomes the envy of other industries? This is not about the practicalities, such as flexible working and childcare, but about changing a bias which is still geared towards men.
It is outdated to believe women cannot lead, manage, negotiate and build a business with the same skill and success as our male colleagues.
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