DEPARTMENTS • PERSPECTIVES
Jamie Elrod,
Baker Hughes:
Industry must
continue working
to improve
gender diversity
within its ranks
BY STEPHEN WHITFIELD, ASSOCIATE
EDITOR The journey to a career in the oil and gas
industry can take on many different forms.

Some people are practically born into the
oilfield, or they know from an early age
that this industry is where they want to
devote their working lives. Some people
come into the industry through fortuitous
circumstances. Jamie Elrod, Emissions
Management Commercial Leader at Baker
Hughes, falls into the latter category.

These days, Mrs Elrod serves as a voice
for the industry, pushing for greater gender
diversity through her “Flipping the Barrel”
podcast and promoting the industry’s role
in the energy transition through her work.

But growing up in Magnolia, Texas, she
did not have dreams of a career in oil and
gas. She was passionate about horseback
riding, competing in showjumping events.

She ran track and played volleyball. As a
personable teen who loved working retail
jobs, she figured that a sales career would
be perfect for her.

“I took a job at The Woodlands Mall
when I was about 16 years old, and you
had to upsell your customers, and all the
salespeople competed against each other.

There was a list where you could see who
had the best sales numbers, and I really
thrived off of that. It was something I was
just naturally good at,” she said.

Mrs Elrod attended Sam Houston State
University on a volleyball scholarship,
ultimately studying marketing and eco-
nomics at the school. Shortly after her
graduation in 2012, she was contacted
52 by a headhunter who focused on placing
college athletes into entry-level positions.

That led to a two-year stint at Vopak,
a company that offers storage services
for products including biofuels, LNG and
chemicals. She worked a number of trainee
jobs before being promoted to Commercial
Business Analyst in December 2013.

Ten months later, in September 2014, Mrs
Elrod joined Smith Bits, a Schlumberger
company, as a Field Sales Representative.

This marked her first foray into the world
of oil and gas drilling – as part of the job,
she had to assist in the development of
new marketing material and analysis for
the company’s drill bit products.

After a year, Smith Bits promoted Mrs
Elrod to Technical Sales Representative,
where she worked primarily on selling
small roller cone bits for plug-outs. Next
came a corporate sales position at Thru
Tubing Solutions and then a position as
Senior Account Manager for C&J Services
(later NexTier Oilfield Solutions), where
she focused on commercial development
in frac and wireline operations.

Promoting the industry
to new audiences
It was during Mrs Elrod’s time at NexTier
that a pair of major life events changed
things for her. First, she connected with
Massiel Diez, MCA Reservoir Performance
Sales Lead at Schlumberger, on Instagram.

The pair bonded over their shared love of
the oil and gas industry and their desire to
help make the industry more diverse.

In September 2019, they launched
“Flipping the Barrel,” providing women’s
perspectives on oil and gas. The podcast
features interviews with senior executives
and other key industry figures on a variety
of topics, such as the energy transition,
technology adoption and the challenges in
maintaining a work/life balance.

“We wanted to share with the outside
world that this is a great industry to be in,”
Mrs Elrod said. “We’re tired of just talking
about it in our circle. So, let’s start a pod-
cast and talk about how can we empower
the next generation? How can we inspire
women to join this industry?”
The second thing that happened to Mrs
Elrod during this time was the birth of her
daughter in January 2021. Her pregnancy
led her to rethink the path she wanted to
During a session on diversity and in-
clusion at the 2022 IADC/SPE Interna-
tional Drilling Conference, Jamie Elrod
stressed the need for the industry to
build environments that can help wom-
en to sustain long careers.

take within the industry, she said. “I real-
ized how much I care about our industry
and the environment. I was working in
frac, and it has this perception as a hor-
rible thing for the environment, and that’s
pretty far from the truth. I think it’s one of
the cleanest ways to get energy.”
This newfound perspective led Mrs
Elrod to switch gears. In September 2021,
she moved into her current role at Baker
Hughes, where she promotes emissions
monitoring, detection and quantification
systems, as well as digital solutions for
mitigating and preventing fugitive emis-
sions. While her job focuses on ESG, Mrs
Elrod remains passionate about promot-
ing gender diversity within the industry.

On 9 March, Mrs Elrod gave a speech at
the Diversity and Inclusion Session held
during the 2022 IADC/SPE International
Drilling Conference. She said the main
purpose of her speech was to show how
companies can encourage women to build
long-term careers in oil and gas.

“This industry has done a very good
job of seeking out more women for engi-
neering roles and bigger leadership roles,
but we still have a lot of work to do on
developing an environment that supports
women through the different challenges
and changes in their lives,” she said. DC
M AY/J U N E 202 2 • D R I L L I N G C O N T R AC T O R