b'the manager, visit with the crews and attendand she remembers taking an aptitude test the meetings. As you move up and gainthat revealed her passion for numbers. As BLAZING A TRAIL FOR WOMENmore responsibility, its important to put yourthe top student in her senior class, she was efforts into your people. awarded the chance to study concurrently at a local university.IN OPERATIONS Several of Elisas positions during her H&PMedicine was the other field that would career have involved routine rig visits, but her current responsibilities demand morehave worked well for me, but it required a time off-site. Her job continues to evolvemuch longer education, she said. I didnt while supervising rig operations, maintenancewant to burden my parents with thatWhen H&P promoted me and told me Iand people. She also manages rig expensesexpense, so I pursued industrial engineering would be the first woman superintendent,and inventories that involve operations andfor a broad career related to manyIll admit I felt the pressure to prove myselfother HSE functions. engineering fields.for all women in our field, Elisa said.Fifteen years later, Elisa is stillElisa graduated with her industrial engineer-In most sectors of the energy industry, fewleading women into uncharteding degree from Universidad Autnoma women serve in leadership. Elisa said shesGabriel Ren Moreno in 2003. She accepted pleased to see more women stepping intoterritory in a male-dominated her first job as an HSE coordinator with roles shes previously held. In her career atoil and gas industry. a small company in Bolivia that provided H&P, shes worked in her home country ofelectrical services to oil and gas production Bolivia for two years before transferring toAs lead of operations for her region, Elisasites. When the company shut down two Tartagal, a city in the north province of also provides client support with operationand a half years later, she relied on a network Salta, Argentina. Currently, she is stationedupdates and rig performance reports. No dayof peers through the Society of Petroleum in Neuqun, Argentina. is ever the same, and managing personnelEngineers for a new opportunity. TheWith each new position she earns, she pushes her to new limits of leadership. organization connected her to the H&Pbecomes more confident in her abilities entry-level HSE position, which becameWomen are naturals at multi-tasking,the foundation of her career.as an engineer and a leader. Working on E lisa Villagomez was a young and a rig with men who have decades moreand that helps a lot with this job, she said.Within the past 15 years, Elisas personal There are so many things to keep track of ambitious industrial engineer whenexperience can be intimidating, but Villagomezand remember while constantly trying tolife has grown alongside her H&P achieve-she joined H&P as a health, safetylearned early to blaze her own trail by relatingimprove operations. Whether its keeping aments. She married, adopted twin boys and environment (HSE) field coordi- to employees and showing them how sherig running or preparing one to go to work,with her husband and enjoys spending nator in 2005. During one of her first daysis invested in their work. I have the responsibility of initiating thosetime with her family and five dogs. While on the job, she joined a rig operation of sometimes-difficult conversations to improvebuilding a life, shes advanced in the industry 100 people and learned she was the onlyWhen people know you care, they will return the support, she said. If they feel like youveperformance and make the most of our with H&P resources that help her shine.woman on-site. Fifteen years later, Elisa is resources.still leading women into uncharted territorygot their backs and you maintain a presenceThey didnt have to give me the job, but in a male-dominated oil and gas industry;on the rig, they will recognize it and under- In high school, Elisa knew she was destinedthey did, and I worked hard for it, Elisa said. she is the first woman to serve as an H&Pstand their supervisor is looking out for them.for a career in engineering. Her favoriteThey rewarded me for my talents andoperations superintendent. I tell my engineers to go to their rigs, talk tosubjects were math, chemistry and physics,dedication and thats something special.13EnterpriseWinter 2021 EnterpriseWinter 202114'