Houston organization names annual energy industry award winners

who's who

ALLY Energy's eighth annual GRIT Awards and Best Energy Workplaces named its winners this week across nine categories plus several people's choice winners. Photo via ALLY Energy/LinkedIn

A Houston company identified the top players in the energy industry — with this year's honorees being recognized for their growth, resilience, innovation, and talent.

ALLY Energy's eighth annual GRIT Awards and Best Energy Workplaces named its winners this week across nine categories plus several people's choice winners.

"The GRIT Awards honor those who have shaped the industry and continue to inspire future generations. These winners have demonstrated extraordinary leadership and dedication to driving innovation across the energy landscape," says Katie Mehnert, founder and CEO of ALLY Energy, in a news release.

According to ALLY, submissions are open to the public and a group of judges evaluate and decide on each of the GRIT Award finalists, which were announced in September, as well as the winners.

The 2024 winners were:

The Professional Award - Obianuju Igbokwe, technology strategy consultant at SLB
The Executive Award - Sandhya Ganapathy, CEO of EDP Renewables North America
The Entrepreneur Award - Tara Karimi, co-founder and chief science officer at Cemvita
The Sustainability Award - Maru Williams, ESG manager at Chevron
The Best Affinity Group, Employee Resource Group, or Business Resource Group Award - Occidental Petroleum, FRIEND
The Best Energy Team Award - 1PointFive, Direct Air Capture
The Top Energy Voices Award - Kithairos Solutions
The Best Energy Workplaces Award - EDP Renewables North America
The Best Energy or Climate Startup Award - Syzygy Plasmonics

The People's Choice awards, decided by online judging, named winners, including:

The Best Affinity Group, Employee Resource Group, or Business Resource Group Award - Baker Hughes, Multicultural ERG
The Best Energy Team Award - ADNOC Offshore, Project Light PMO
The Best Energy Workplace Award - Baker Hughes
The Best Energy or Climate Startup Award - Solaires Enterprises Inc.
The Top Energy Voices Award - Sarah Magruder, Founder and President of Savvy Oil & Gas Consulting

In addition to these winners, the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Awards honorees were recognized too. The recipients were:

Vicki Hollub, president and CEO of Occidental
Jan E. Odegard, consultant and former executive director of Ion
Sivasankaran "Soma" Somasundaram, president and CEO of ChampionX

ALLY Energy celebrated over 50 honorees at its annual awards event. Photo via LinkedIn

Top Houston energy teams, individuals, and companies honored at annual awards

meet the winnenrs

The brightest stars in Houston's energy community celebrated wins at an annual awards event this week.

ALLY Energy, a company that works with its clients to make the energy industry more equitable, hosted its seventh annual GRIT Awards and Best Energy Workplaces on October 26 — and named its prestigious winners. EnergyCapitalHTX, as well as its sister site InnovationMap, was a media partner for the event.

“Every year, we are astounded at how many impressive, committed people are demonstrating leadership and grit in their work to advance the energy transition and build more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces,” ALLY Energy CEO Katie Mehnert says in a news release naming the finalists. “This year is no exception. This is the time to celebrate so many crucial achievements that may otherwise go overlooked in the energy sector and in broader society.”

In addition to naming its winners, ALLY celebrated three Lifetime Achievement Award honorees who have distinguished careers championing change in energy and climate in the private or public sector in the areas of technology, policy, and workforce: John Berger, CEO of Sunnova Energy; Rhonda Morris, vice president and chief human resources officer of Chevron; and Amy Chronis, vice chair, US energy and chemicals leader, and Houston managing partner at Deloitte.

The big winners of 2023 are as follows.

The Professional Award

Alex Loureiro, Scientific Director at EnerGeo Alliance
Crystal McNack, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisor at Enbridge Inc.
Dani Milling, Gulf of Mexico Environmental Engineer & Mexico HSE Coordinator at Chevron
Katie Zimmerman, Decarbonization Director, Americas at Wood
Mark Klapatch-Mathias, Sustainability Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls
Natalie Valentine, Director - Business Performance at Worley
Syed Fahim, Global ESG Lead at SLB
Tane Bates, Regional Operations Manager at Certarus LTD
Ujunwa Ojemeni, Senior Policy Advisor - Energy Transition & Technical Assistance Delivery at E3G - Third Generation Environmentalism

The Executive Award

Cara Hair, SVP of Corporate Services, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer at Helmerich & Payne
Emma Lewis, Senior Vice President USGC Chemicals & Products at Shell
Jeremy Campbell-Wray, Strategic Accounts and Enterprise Growth Market Executive at Baker Hughes
Maggie Seeliger, SVP & Global Head of Strategy, Energy & Resources at Sodexo
Max Chan, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development Officer at Enbridge
Megan Beauregard, Chief Legal Officer, Secretary, and Head of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at Enel North America, Inc.
Sarah Delille, Vice President of US Country Management at Equinor
Whitney Eaton, EVP, People & Sustainability at TGS Energy

The JEDI Award

Jason Limerick, Sustainability Strategy Lead at Woodside Energy
Melina Acevedo, Associate & Partnerships Lead at DE Shaw Renewable Investments

The Entrepreneur Award

Charli Matthews, CEO at Empowering Women in Industry
Mike Francis, Co-Founder and CEO at NanoTech

The ESG & Climate Champion Award

Andrea Hepp, Deal Lead at Shell
Brittney Marshall, Senior Advisor, Climate Strategy and Policy at Woodside Energy
Gabriel Rolland, Vice President, Corporate QHSE at TGS Energy
Sandhya Ganapathy, Chief Executive Officer at EDP Renewables North America

Gritty Girl Award

Deepasha Baral, Student at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies

Best Affinity Group, Employee Resource Group Award, sponsored by ChampionX

Baker Hughes
ChampionX
Shell
TPI Composites
Women's Energy Network Houston
Wood Mackenzie
Worley

Best Energy Team Award, sponsored by Ovintiv

Advisian Material Handling
Halliburton Labs
NOV Marketing
Syzygy Plasmonics, Rigel Manufacturing & Launch Team

Best Energy Workplaces Award

Aera Energy LLC
Baker Hughes
ChampionX
EDP Renewables North America
Enel
Global Edge Group
Shell
Southwestern Energy
Sunnova Energy International
TGS Energy
Wood
Woodside Energy

ALLY Energy has named its 2023 GRIT Awards finalists. Photo courtesy of ALLY Energy

Houston energy workforce solutions company names finalists for annual awards

energy honorees

For the seventh year, a Houston-based company that's working to make the energy industry more equitable has named the finalists for its annual award.

ALLY Energy's GRIT Awards and Best Energy Workplaces, which will take place on October 26, has announced the finalists for the 2023 awards program.

“Every year, we are astounded at how many impressive, committed people are demonstrating leadership and grit in their work to advance the energy transition and build more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces,” ALLY Energy CEO Katie Mehnert says in a news release. “This year is no exception. This is the time to celebrate so many crucial achievements that may otherwise go overlooked in the energy sector and in broader society.”

The finalists are leaders, teams, and companies from around the world and across industry verticals — oil and gas, power and utilities, wind, solar, hydrogen, nuclear, climate tech startups, and academia. EnergyCapitalHTX, as well as its sister site InnovationMap, is a media partner for the event.

This year, ALLY has named three Lifetime Achievement Award honorees who have distinguished careers championing change in energy and climate in the private or public sector in the areas of technology, policy, and workforce: John Berger, CEO of Sunnova Energy; Rhonda Morris, vice president and chief human resources officer of Chevron; and Amy Chronis, vice chair, US energy and chemicals leader, and Houston managing partner at Deloitte.

This year's finalists for the award categories are as follows, according to ALLY Energy.

The Professional Award

Alex Loureiro, Scientific Director at EnerGeo Alliance
Allie Thurmond, Asset Manager at Equinor
Catherine Fuller, Senior Learning Strategy Leader at Baker Hughes
Crystal McNack, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisor at Enbridge Inc.
Dani Milling, Gulf of Mexico Environmental Engineer & Mexico HSE Coordinator at Chevron
Diego Barreto, CFO Americas Region at Baker Hughes
Gayle Bowness, Technical Director Studies at Wood
Katie Zimmerman, Decarbonization Director, Americas at Wood
Kim Sabate-Strazde, Interim DEI Programs Manager at Baker Hughes
Krithika Kannan, IT HSE & Security Manager at Occidental
Lynn Buckley, Head of Supplier Development at Baker Hughes
Mark Klapatch-Mathias, Sustainability Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls
Megan Suggs, Project Manager at BASF
Natalie Valentine, Director - Business Performance at Worley
Prajakta Kulkarni, Pricing Agreement Management Digital Platform Lead at Baker Hughes
Priscilla Enwere, Senior Well Engineer at Rano-Accrete Petroleum Development Company
Samantha Howard, Senior Organizational Development Specialist at Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline
Syed Fahim, Global ESG Lead at SLB
Tane Bates, Regional Operations Manager at Certarus LTD
Ujunwa Ojemeni, Senior Policy Advisor - Energy Transition & Technical Assistance Delivery at E3G - Third Generation Environmentalism
Yogashri Pradhan, Reservoir Engineer at Coterra

The Executive Award

Andy Drummond, Executive Vice President Exploration and Development at Woodside Energy
Cara Hair, SVP of Corporate Services, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer at Helmerich & Payne
Claire Aitchison, Executive Operations Leader at Baker Hughes
Emma Lewis, Senior Vice President USGC Chemicals & Products at Shell
Jeremy Campbell-Wray, Strategic Accounts and Enterprise Growth Market Executive at Baker Hughes
Kathy Eberwein, Chief Executive Officer at The Global Edge Group
Kim Holder, Senior Executive of Digital Technology at Baker Hughes
Leveda Charles, Director of PMO & Business Enablement at Baker Hughes
Maggie Seeliger, SVP & Global Head of Strategy, Energy & Resources at Sodexo
Max Chan, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development Officer at Enbridge
Megan Beauregard, Chief Legal Officer, Secretary, and Head of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at Enel North America, Inc.
Nikki Martin, President at EnerGeo Alliance
Pamela Skaufel, Vice President of Procurement at ExxonMobil
Sarah Delille, Vice President of US Country Management at Equinor
Shiva McMahon, Executive Vice President International Operations at Woodside Energy
Soma Somasundaram, Chief Executive Officer at ChampionX
Toby Begnaud, Chief Commercial Officer & SVP of Oilfield Services and Equipment at Baker Hughes
Trevor Mihalik, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer at Sempra
Whitney Eaton, EVP, People & Sustainability at TGS Energy

The JEDI Award

Alex Fleming, Senior Manager at Deloitte
Doug Peck, Head of Reserves at Woodside Energy
Jason Limerick, Sustainability Strategy Lead at Woodside Energy
Melina Acevedo, Associate & Partnerships Lead at DE Shaw Renewable Investments
Shengke Zhi, Director for Growth and Development at Wood

The Entrepreneur Award

Charli Matthews, CEO at Empowering Women in Industry
Mandeep Patel, Founder at ElecTrip
Mike Francis, Co-Founder and CEO at NanoTech
Nick Valenzia, Founder at Leafr

The ESG & Climate Champion Award

Andrea Hepp, Deal Lead at Shell
Brittney Marshall, Senior Advisor, Climate Strategy and Policy at Woodside Energy
Freya Burton, Chief Sustainability Officer at LanzaTech
Gabriel Rolland, Vice President, Corporate QHSE at TGS Energy
Lisa Larroque Alexander, SVP, Corporate Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer at Sempra
Misty Rowe, Global CCUS Account Manager at Halliburton
Sandhya Ganapathy, Chief Executive Officer at EDP Renewables North America

Gritty Girl Award

Deepasha Baral, Student at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies

Best Affinity Group, Employee Resource Group Award, sponsored by ChampionX

Baker Hughes, Asian Pacific American Forum (APAF)
Baker Hughes, Generation STEM
Baker Hughes, D&I Group Celle
Baker Hughes, Parenting Tribe
Baker Hughes, Pride@Work
Baker Hughes, Multicultural ERG
ChampionX, PLAN
ChampionX, PRIDE
ChampionX, RISE Gender Equity ERG
ChampionX, SEED
Ovintiv, Leveraging Inclusion, Networking and Knowledge (LINK)
Sempra, Growing Responsibilities and Opportunities for Women
Shell, WAVE - Women Adding Value Everywhere
Shell, DE&I Council
TPI Composites, LEAP for Women
Women's Energy Network Houston, Women's Energy Network Houston
Wood, Launch
Wood Mackenzie, Pride Working Group-Americas
Woodside Energy, EmBRace - Employees Beyond Race
Woodside Energy, Spark
Woodside Energy, VIBE LGBTIQ+ Employee Resource Group
Worley, PRIDE@Worley

Best Energy Team Award, sponsored by Ovintiv

Advisian Material Handling
Baker Hughes, Sustainability Team
ChampionX, Asset Integrity Team
ChampionX, Brunei Supply Chain
EIC Rose Rock/Rose Rock Bridge
Halliburton Labs
NOV Marketing
Sempra Infrastructure
Syzygy Plasmonics, Rigel Manufacturing & Launch Team
TGS New Energy Solutions

Best Energy Workplaces Award

Aera Energy LLC
Baker Hughes
ChampionX
Consolidated Asset Management Services
EDP Renewables North America
Enel
The Global Edge Group
Shell
Solar Energy Industries Association - SEIA
Southwestern Energy
Sunnova Energy International, Inc (6-time finalist)
TGS Energy
Wood
Woodside Energy

ALLY Energy's annual GRIT Awards is still accepting applications — but not for long.

Deadline approaches Houston company's energy awards

A Houston company that advocates for equity and inclusion in the evolving energy sector is closing it nominations for its annual awards program on August 12.

ALLY Energy's 2023 GRIT Awards — honoring companies, nonprofits, and individuals with growth, resilience, innovation, and talent — is slated for October 26. For now, ALLY is looking for the best in the biz to honor at the program.

"We honor the energy industry’s brightest and grittiest talent who contribute to their companies, the energy industry, and their communities," reads the website. "Our awards program recognizes individuals, students, and for-profit and nonprofit organizations that have demonstrated (GRIT) growth, resilience, innovation, and talent with a focus on driving a (JEDI) just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive culture. Best Energy Workplaces℠ give recognition to outstanding energy and climate technology employers."

The nomination categories are as follows:

The Lifetime Achievement Award
The Professional Award
The Executive Award
The Entrepreneur Award
The ALLY JEDI Award
The Gritty Girl
The ESG and Climate Champion
The Best Affinity Group, Employee Resource Group, or Business Resource Group Award
The Best Energy Team Award
The Best Energy Workplaces Award

The full description and requirements for each category is detailed online.

Once applications close on August 12 at midnight, ALLY's team will decide the finalists and reveal them before September 15.

Last year's honorees included representatives from many Houston energy companies, including Baker Hughes, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Marathon Oil, Rice University, Saudi Aramco, Shell, the University of Houston, Syzygy Plasmonics, and Wood Mackenzie.

Ad Placement 300x100

Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Houston energy startups named finalists for 2026 Innovation Awards

Meet the Innovators

InnovationMap.com, EnergyCaptialHTX's sister website, has revealed the finalists for the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, and the local energy sector is well-represented throughout the awards.

The sixth annual Houston Innovation Awards program returns in an all-digital format this fall to honor the best of Houston's innovation ecosystem, including startups, entrepreneurs, mentors, and more.

Finalists were determined by an esteemed panel of judges. The panel reviewed applications across 10 prestigious categories to determine our finalists. They will select the winner for each category, except for Startup of the Year, which will be chosen by the public via online voting launching later this month.

We will announce the honoree of our annual Trailblazer Award in the coming weeks, then stay tuned as we unveil all of this year's winners on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Without further ado, here are the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards finalists:

Minority-founded Business

Honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by BIPOC or LGBTQ+ representation:

AI Made Fun
Deep Anchor Solutions
HEXAspec
Prana Surgical
Torres Orbital Mining Inc.

Female-founded Business

Honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by a woman:

Adair
ARIX Technologies
Bairitone Health
FlowCellutions
ParaDocs Health

Energy Transition Business

Honoring an innovative startup providing a solution within renewables, climatetech, clean energy, alternative materials, circular economy and beyond:

Capwell Services
FlowCellutions
Hertha Metals
Mars Materials
Solidec

Health Tech Business

Honoring an innovative startup within the health and medical technology sectors:

Bairitone Health
InformAI Inc.
Prana Surgical
Skybound MedTech

Deep Tech Business

Honoring an innovative startup providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges, including those in the AI, robotics and space sectors:

Casimir
Focis AI
Machine Saver Inc.
Square Robot
Venus Aerospace

Startup of the Year (People's Choice)

Honoring a startup celebrating a recent milestone or success. The winner will be selected by the community via an online voting experience:

Fluxworks
IronLattice
Lumino
Progress Report
Rosarium Health
Thread
TokenRoster

Scaleup of the Year

Honoring an innovative later-stage startup that's recently reached a significant milestone in company growth:

Erock
Hertha Metals
Venus Aerospace

Incubator/Accelerator of the Year

Honoring a local incubator or accelerator that is championing and fueling the growth of Houston startups:

Activate
Impact Hub Houston
MarMo Innovation

Mentor of the Year

Honoring an individual who dedicates their time and expertise to guide and support budding entrepreneurs:

Al Danto, Rice University
Eric Rubenstein, New Climate Ventures
Jeremy Pitts, Activate
Joe Alapat, Liongard
Kyle Judah, Rice University's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Rachel Bickham, Bickham Services Unlimited LLC

Trailblazer Recipient

To be announced

Energy AI company opens first U.S. office in Houston after Halliburton deal

houston expansion

Building on its partnership with Houston-based oilfield services provider Halliburton, energy-sector AI company Shape Digital recently opened an office at The Ion. It’s the company’s first U.S. location.

Shape Digital’s workforce in Houston includes employees specializing in tech support, business development and client services. The company’s local hiring projections and headcount weren’t available. The new office will be located within Industrious at the Ion, according to Rice Alliance.

A key driver of the new Houston office: The company forecasts North America will account for more than 20 percent of its business in 2027.

“North America is a critical market for industrial innovation, and Houston sits at the center of companies driving that progress,” Caio Sene, vice president of client services at Shape Digital, said in a release. “Growing our presence here allows us to work alongside operators as they look for practical ways to turn existing operational data into clear recommendations for what to do next.”

Shape Digital, which also has offices in Singapore and Brazil, develops decision-making platforms for the oil and gas sector.

The Ion District office gives Shape Digital a presence close to Halliburton’s headquarters. In May, the two companies forged a partnership to combine Halliburton’s Digital Field Solverdecision-making system with Shape Digital’s AI portfolio.

Shape Digital layers AI software atop existing operations data rather than replacing legacy systems or adding new software.

The company’s suite of AI agents draws on more than 200 operations-monitoring algorithms, continually learning from company and industry data. The suite comprises four products: Shape Aura, Shape Lighthouse, Shape Lumen and Shape Reef.

Shape Digital says that by working with a customer’s existing operations data, it can deliver ROI in less than two months without any additional investment in equipment or infrastructure.

The company is a 2021 spinoff of Japan-based Modec. Modec builds, owns, and operates floating offshore oil and gas production facilities. Its Modec America subsidiary is based in Houston.

This article originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.

Houston energy startup names former Cheniere execs to C-suite

new leaders

Houston-based energy infrastructure startup Joulent has brought aboard a new chief financial officer and new chief operating officer—both former executives at Houston-based Cheniere Energy.

The C-suite moves come three months after Joulent raised $1.75 billion from National Grid Ventures.

Michael Wortley joins Joulent as co-president and CFO. Wortley most recently was executive vice president and CFO at Cheniere, an LNG producer and exporter.

In conjunction with Wortley’s hiring, Brian Boland, who was Joulent’s interim CFO, has been named executive vice president, chief investment officer, and head of strategy.

Corey Grindal comes to Joulent as co-president and COO. Grindal most recently was executive vice president and COO at Cheniere.

“As Joulent evolves to meet the growing demand for power infrastructure, our expanded leadership team will help ensure we continue delivering the execution certainty our customers, partners, and investors expect,” Chris James, Joulent’s founder and CEO, said in a press release.

“Corey and Michael are accomplished operators with exceptional records of building and leading world-class energy infrastructure businesses, where they have embedded a culture defined by operational excellence and disciplined execution,” James added.

Joulet builds dedicated power-generating facilities that feed directly into data centers and other power-dependent facilities. This eliminates the need for companies to draw power from grids.

“With an initial multi-gigawatt development portfolio and strategic partnerships across the energy, infrastructure, and data center ecosystem, Joulent is helping remove power constraints to enable the next chapter of American innovation and U.S. reindustrialization,” the company says.

The $1.75 billion minority investment from National Grid Ventures complements Joulent’s existing partnerships.

Joulent, founded in 2023, emerged from stealth mode this summer. The company was founded by investment firm Engine No. 1.

Joulent’s first project, the Project Kilby natural gas facility in West Texas, will be co-located with a Microsoft data center. It’ll deliver about 2.67 gigawatts of power under a 20-year deal between Microsoft and Energy Forge One, a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Joulent.

View All Listings

ENERGYCAPITALHTX EMAILS ARE AWESOME