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.

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ExxonMobil may delay or cancel plans for $7 billion Baytown hydrogen plant

project uncertainty

Spring-based ExxonMobil, the country’s largest oil and gas company, might delay or cancel what would be the world’s largest low-carbon hydrogen plant due to a significant change in federal law. The project carries a $7 billion price tag.

The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act created a new 10-year incentive, the 45V tax credit, for production of clean hydrogen. But under President Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," the window for starting construction of low-carbon hydrogen projects that qualify for the tax credit has narrowed. The Inflation Reduction Act mandated that construction start by 2033. But the Big Beautiful Bill switched the construction start time to early 2028.

“While our project can meet this timeline, we’re concerned about the development of a broader market, which is critical to transition from government incentives,” ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said during the company’s recent second-quarter earnings call.

Woods said ExxonMobil is working to determine whether a combination of the 45Q tax credit for carbon capture projects and the revised 45V tax credit will help pave the way for a “broader” low-carbon hydrogen market.

“If we can’t see an eventual path to a market-driven business, we won’t move forward with the [Baytown] project,” Woods said.

“We knew that helping to establish a brand-new product and a brand-new market initially driven by government policy would not be easy or advance in a straight line,” he added.

Woods said ExxonMobil is trying to nail down sales contracts connected to the project, including exports of ammonia to Asia and Europe and sales of hydrogen in the U.S.

ExxonMobil announced in 2022 that it would build the low-carbon hydrogen plant at its refining and petrochemical complex in Baytown. The company has said the plant is slated to go online in 2027 and 2028.

As it stands now, ExxonMobil wants the Baytown plant to produce up to 1 billion cubic feet of hydrogen per day made from natural gas, and capture and store more than 98 percent of the associated carbon dioxide. The company has said the project could store as much as 10 million metric tons of CO2 per year.

EPA scraps $7B solar program, stripping Texas of hundreds of millions in clean energy funds

funding cut

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is ending a $7 billion Biden-era program that was supposed to enable low-income Americans to access affordable solar power. The program, which EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called a “boondoggle,” would have benefited more than 900,000 U.S. households.

In line with the EPA’s action, the Lone Star State is losing a $249.7 million grant awarded last year to the Harris County-led Texas Solar for All Coalition. The grant money would have equipped more than 46,000 low-income and disadvantaged communities and households in Texas with residential solar power. The nonprofit Solar United Neighbors organization said Texas had already begun to roll out this initiative.

Also slipping out of Texas’ hands are:

A more than $156 million 19-state grant awarded to the Clean Energy Fund of Texas in partnership with the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Houston’s Texas Southern University. The Clean Energy Fund is a Houston-based “green bank” that backs investments in solar and wind power.
Part of a $249.3 million multistate grant awarded to the Community Power Coalition’s Powering America Together Program. The nonprofit Inclusive Prosperity Capital organization leads the coalition.
Part of a $249.8 million multistate grant awarded to the Solar Access for Nationwide Affordable Housing Program, led by the nonprofit GRID Alternatives organization.

In a post on the X social media platform, Zeldin said the recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” killed the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which would have financed the $7 billion Solar for All program.

“The bottom line is this: EPA no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive,” Zeldin said.

Anya Schoolman, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Solar United Neighbors, accused the EPA of illegally terminating the Solar for All program. She said ending the program “harms families struggling with rising energy costs and will cost us good local jobs.”

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, joined Schoolman in alleging the EPA’s “outrageous” action is illegal. Sanders introduced the legislation that established the Solar for All program.

The senator lashed out at President Trump for axing the program in order “to protect the obscene profits of his friends in the oil and gas industry.”

New UH white paper details Texas grid's shortfalls

grid warning

Two University of Houston researchers are issuing a warning about the Texas power grid: Its current infrastructure falls short of what’s needed to keep pace with rising demand for electricity.

The warning comes in a new whitepaper authored by Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president of energy and innovation at UH, and researcher Aparajita Datta, a Ph.D candidate at UH.

“As data centers pop up around the Lone Star State, electric vehicles become more commonplace, industries adopt decarbonization technologies, demographics change, and temperatures rise statewide, electricity needs in Texas could double by 2035,” a UH news release says. “If electrification continues to grow unconstrained, demand could even quadruple over the next decade.”

Without significant upgrades to power plants and supporting infrastructure, Texas could see electricity shortages, rising power costs and more stress on the state’s grid in coming years, the researchers say. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid serves 90 percent of the state.

“Texas, like much of the nation, has fallen behind on infrastructure updates, and the state’s growing population, diversified economy and frequent severe weather events are increasing the strain on the grid,” Datta says. “Texas must improve its grid to ensure people in the state have access to reliable, affordable, and resilient energy systems so we can preserve and grow the quality of life in the state.”

The whitepaper’s authors caution that Texas faces a potential electricity shortfall of up to 40 gigawatts annually by 2035 if the grid doesn’t expand, with a more probable shortfall of about 27 gigawatts. And they allude to a repeat of the massive power outages in Texas during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021.

One gigawatt of electricity can power an estimated 750,000 homes in Texas, according to the Texas Solar + Storage Association.

The state’s current energy mix includes 40 percent natural gas, 29 percent wind, 12 percent coal, 10 percent nuclear and eight percent solar, the authors say.

Despite surging demand, 360 gigawatts of solar and battery storage projects are stuck in ERCOT’s queue, according to the researchers, and new natural gas plants have been delayed or withdrawn due to supply chain challenges, bureaucratic delays, policy uncertainties and shifting financial incentives.

Senate Bill 6, recently signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, calls for demand-response mandates, clearer rate structures and new load management requirements for big users of power like data centers and AI hubs.

“While these provisions are a step in the right direction,” says Datta, “Texas needs more responsive and prompt policy action to secure grid reliability, address the geographic mismatch between electricity demand and supply centers, and maintain the state’s global leadership in energy.”

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