As Senior Vice President of IT & Engineering, Chay Chinsethagid wants to make sure H&P remains the best in the business. “I believe we are the best because of our employees,” Chay says. “We have maintained some of the greatest and brightest people on our teams, and they are all growing as leaders. That is what will help us continue to be successful and keep our competitive edge.”
Originally drawn to the big iron engineering at H&P as an intern 20 years ago, Chay recalls how nervous he felt to work alongside experienced engineers and within a company that had such a large reputation in the industry, and how advice from his dad challenged him to lean into the wealth of experience all around him.
“I tried to pick everybody’s brain,” he says. “And I went from not even being sure I wanted to be an engineer, to wow, this is actually really cool.”
After his internship, Chay became a full-time engineer with H&P, and eventually accepted the offer to lead the IT and engineering department as Senior VP. It was in this new role that he soon realized that while he enjoyed working on designing the rig structure and mechanical construction of the company’s ‘second most valuable asset’, being a part of developing H&P’s healthy leaders and teams — what he considers the company’s biggest asset — would become one of the biggest motivators in his career.
“I love organizational behavior,” Chay explains. “I’ve found that I’m passionate about learning what gives people their ‘why’ and what makes them tick.”
Although it can be challenging navigating team dynamics, Chay embraces every opportunity to support his team members as they find out what they are capable of as individuals and as a team. Ultimately, he wants people to enjoy working at H&P, just like he does.
“I love the people I get to work with,” he says. “There is always another problem to solve, but the people you get to solve it with is what’s critically important. It’s going to be challenging, but if you like solving the problem with the people you’re with, then you’re most likely to see it through.”