Callie Hamilton
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Callie Hamilton saw the “sheer fun of the challenge” in oil and gas and wanted in. “With the constantly evolving technologies and macroeconomic backdrop, combined with the voracious need for capital, there is never a dull moment as a capital provider in the energy industry,” she says. But there are meaningful moments that offer their own challenges. “Coming back to work after having my daughter was the most daunting challenge of my career,” Hamilton says. “Sometimes in your career (and in life for that matter!) you have to take each moment, each day at a time and eventually the roadblocks that seem so unsurmountable just disappear. Over time, I gained the perspective of seeing the benefits of raising a daughter who gets to witness her mom working in a demanding role while managing to maximize both work and life.”
Which transformations do you think the industry must undertake for it to thrive in the future?
Education. Better education for the general public on the reality of the conflicting demands and challenges the energy industry faces across the globe. A more candid conversation, free of the tones of animosity and separatism, on how it will take the collective to broaden and diversify energy availability in a responsible manner across the globe.
What advice would you give other young professionals?
The best lesson I have learned over the years is that goodwill matters; give people your time in a genuine and candid manner.
How have you exercised leadership to help shape your department?
I think where I have added the most value for my group is constantly working to identify and implement process improvements where needed, proactively finding ways to operate more effectively and efficiently. In the investment underwriting process, it can be easy to get lost in the details, so I have worked with our team to develop new forms of various memo and model forms we frequently use to make our work products more efficient to draft, check for accuracy and compare across transactions. These process improvements have allowed our team to focus more time on the critical analysis and less on the creation of the internal material.
What keeps you motivated and passionate about working in the oil and gas industry?
Energy is the obvious lifeblood of the global economy and a basic necessity for all productivity so it cannot be ignored as an institutional investor looking to deploy capital. While certainly challenging, I think it is an exciting time to be working in the oil and gas industry when so many variables and considerations beyond profitability are increasingly part of the conversation.
What do you think young industry members as a group have to offer that is unique to them?
I think the younger generation of leaders has the advantage of finding their voice at a juncture that coincides with a major systemic shift in the culture of the oil and gas industry. As the oil and gas industry must evolve to survive, from a model of turning a quick profit to creating more lasting, yielding entities, the younger leaders will be able to adapt without the entrenched patterns of the past.
Take a look at the rest of the Forty Under 40 2024 winners.
