“Why waste a good crisis?” has long been the motto of Katie Mehnert, founder and CEO of Pink Petro, and the universe has been happy to oblige with a number of crises. A two-time cancer survivor, she also survived the wrath of Hurricane Harvey, which destroyed her home and her business. Having just celebrated the fifth anniversary of Pink Petro, launched in 2015 to coincide with International Women’s Day, and on the eve of her annual Energy 2.0 conference (formerly HERWorld), she made the decision to move forward with the event, despite several other major events choosing to cancel in the wake of the coronavirus.
Pink Petro founder and CEO Katie Mehnert's goal is to help create an industry where diversity of ... [+]
The first HERWorld conference was held in 2016 at Halliburton’s headquarters in Houston and streamed to “a few thousand people across the world,” Mehnert recalls. This year, she’s hoping to reach 100,000 people with her Energy 2.0 “un-conference,” March 10th and 11th, which includes a live event in Houston, a simultaneous broadcast in Denver, and live-streaming to online registrants.
“Energy education and engagement should to be accessible to everyone,” Mehnert asserts. “We put a huge focus on the quality of speakers and bring in speakers from within industry and external to the industry – in the past, we’ve had Randi Zuckerberg, formerly with Facebook, and Dr. Jen Welter, the first female coach in the NFL, and this year we’re going to have Judaline Cassidy, an AOL Maker” and founder and president of Tools & Tiaras.
Mehnert explains the re-branding to Energy 2.0 (equality – environment – and the new economy) by saying, “When we started this, we wanted it to be different. We celebrate differences – differences of opinion, different perspectives, diversity of thought. It’s no longer HERWorld or “his” world; it’s our world. The energy transition has arrived and we want to be a part of that conversation, and encourage conversation and action across the industry – within oil and gas, renewables, and utilities.”
At one point recently, Mehnert even considered a name change for PinkPetro. “We’ve gone beyond Pink and beyond Petro and are about being that talent platform for the energy transition.” The industry has taken notice and Mehnert says the company saw almost 100% growth last year.
She would like to see that growth spread around the world. In January, she traveled to Saudi Arabia where she had been invited to attend International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC) in Dammam. During her time there, she chose to wear the hijab “as a sign of respect.” In addition to touring the Aramco compound, she visited the women’s driving center, and also participated in a mentoring circle with a group of female university students. “We had some very courageous conversations and [talked about] how they felt about some of the recent freedoms [Saudi] women have been allotted.”
Katie Mehnert is greeted in Dammam by friend Reem Al-Ghanim, Head of HR & Support Services, ... [+]
Despite change slowly taking place even in one of the most patriarchal societies, there’s still work to be done across the globe.
According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 99.5 years to close the gender gap. “That’s just unacceptable,” Mehnert states flatly. “We need all people and all forms of energy in order to make this transition, and I’m passionate, not just about the cause around gender, but I’m passionate about the cause around climate, having lost my house and business [during Hurricane Harvey in August 2017]. My hope is that we’re going to continue to grow and provide a great service to the industry and to society, so that people understand what it takes to get into the industry, why energy is an important part of our economy, and why energy is the [basis] of our economy.”
In the midst of it all, Mehnert has published a book 20 years in the making, the focus of which changed in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. “I actually put in the Preface that the choice was either to go to therapy or finish the book – and so I did both. It really helped me get through the challenge of losing everything. I learned after Harvey, you can’t control everything; you can only control how you react.”
Grow With the Flow: Embrace Difference, Overcome Fear, and Progress With Purpose (Wise Ink; May 2020), covers Mehnert’s early career in the oil and gas industry – including her time working in the area of safety culture change at both BP and Shell – and the founding of PinkPetro.
“It’s also the story of a need for more feminine energy. Mother Earth provides. It doesn’t mean we don’t need men. We need to include everybody in the conversation around energy.”
