On October 25, 2022, CWEEL hosted a panel discussion titled “Male Energy Champions for Gender Equality.”  Bikash Pandey (Winrock International), Jay Doeden (Deloitte Consulting), Quintin Pastrana (WEnergy Global Pte, Ltd), and Balaji M.K (Deloitte Consulting) served as panelists and shared about their journeys as male allies and their advice to organizations, fellow male leaders, and women.

Some of the advice shared by the panelists included the following:

To women:

• Look for opportunities to differentiate yourself. Be strategic.  Don’t doubt yourself or sell yourself short.  Be confident and let people know you are confident.
• Pick a role model and a mentor.  They have gone through the rough path and can give you a lot of interesting lessons that will help you be steadfast throughout.

To men:

• Once you get up the ladder, don’t pull it from under you, and make sure you mentor what is a growing ecosystem of women in the sector.

To organizations:

• Work with teams to be fair and inclusive and change the pipeline through deliberate actions to (ensure) representation.

Crissy Godfrey, CWEEL International Groups Committee Chair, moderated the session and shared her own experiences as a woman energy professional.