Category Archives: Event Recaps

President of Chevron Energy Technology Company, Paul Siegele, Shared Challenges of Oil Business with BHP Students

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Being the President pf the Chevron Energy Technology Company is no easy task, but Paul Siegle loves the challenge. He took a job as a petroleum geologist with Texaco after graduating in 1980. Texaco was later acquired by Chevron and Siegle worked his way up from petroleum geologist to his current role, moving all over the U.S. and world in the process, including five stints in Houston.

The son of a Lutheran preacher who grew up in a small town in North Dakota, Siegle never imagined he would be in the field of oil and energy. A geology professor he had his freshmen year of college sparked his fascination for geology and led him to pursue the field of study. “There is a lot of risk and excitement in the field,” he said.

Heading up Chevron’s strategy involves a long-range outlook and knowledge of an overwhelming amount of variables. The three main components of his job include looking at the financial side of research projects to see what research is actually affecting their bottom line; protecting their intellectual property; and making bets on technology that keep the company profitable in the long-term using the current outlook, or what he describes as “skating to where the puck is.”

Being in the oil business also requires a thick skin and an ability to bounce back from failure. Siegle explained that most of the time in the oil exploration business, you aren’t going to find oil and you are going to spend a lot of money looking for it, but sometimes you find a well that is so big it more than makes up for the time and money spent drilling the ones that came up dry. Siegle was fortunate enough to have been a part of such an occurrence during an assignment in the Gulf region, and said that the string of discoveries was rare and ultimately catapulted his career at Chevron.

It wasn’t just good fortune that led to his climb up the ladder. Siegle shared some words of wisdom with the students on how to be successful. “Do the best you can with the job you are given and the rest will take care of itself,” he said. “Be open to opportunity, and willing to move around if you can. Treat people well. Be accountable for your leadership responsibilities, and work hard.” When asked about his personal leadership style, he said he likes to empower his team, adding that there is a fine line between empowerment and abandonment. “Lead by example and know your team well enough to know if someone needs help.”

Fielding questions from the audience, he addressed ethical issues in the oil business. “We operate at the confidence of the public. We get results the right way. We don’t expect results at any cost.” Siegle said Chevron’s strong ethical standard has been very important to him personally and that he is very proud of the company’s social responsibility program, which invests in the communities where they operate.

UT Professor of Innovation Bob Metcalfe Shared Lessons and Rousing Stories with BHP Sophomores

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UT Professor of Innovation Bob Metcalfe Shared Lessons and Rousing Stories with BHP Sophomores

Bob Metcalfe embarked on his fifth career a little more than a year ago as Professor of Innovation and Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise at UT Austin in the Cockrell School of Engineering. Before coming to UT, Metcalfe had worked as a venture capitalist, a publisher, an executive and an entrepreneur. He is the inventor of the Ethernet and the founder of 3Com Corporation. As you might imagine, he had a lot to share with our sophomore students during their BHP Lyceum course last week.

Metcalfe describes his life as a “win-win-win-win,” and “the culmination of the American dream.” Despite naysayers and setbacks, he has had a lot of success in his myriad careers. He started his career with Xerox in 1973. On May 22nd of that year, he was given the job of installing the network in the first building full of personal computers, and it was on that day that he invented the Ethernet, which was made the industry standard in 1980. He was living in Silicon Valley at the time, where entrepreneurship was “in the water” and he felt that the time was right for him to start his own company. He started 3Com in 1979 and stayed with the company for 11 years. After leaving 3Com, he started a new career as publisher of the information technology website, InfoWorld, and internet columnist. Metcalfe then went on to work in venture capital for Polaris Venture Partners for nearly ten years before coming to UT.

Metcalfe has several specific goals in mind for this next phase of his life in Austin as a professor of innovation. One he feels strongly about is making Austin what he calls, “a better Silicon Valley.” He talked about the enormous potential that exists in Austin to connect UT students who are aspiring entrepreneurs with current entrepreneurs who can mentor them. He sees his role in innovation and free enterprise tying into this nicely. He will be working with the community of Austin and UT students to create technological innovation at scale and to learn to operate the machinery of free enterprise.

The BHP Lyceum course focuses on leadership and ethics and Metcalfe shared his thoughts on both. “My leadership philosophy focuses on communicating well,” he said. “The key is to listen. We were given two ears and one mouth for a reason.” He shared with the students that he had indeed been in situations where doing something that wasn’t right would have led to personal gain. He stressed that it is what you do when no one is looking that counts. He also talked about the gray area that exists in sales and said that exaggeration is frequently used when selling, but that one has to ask themselves if the person you are exaggerating to is damaged by what you are telling them. If the answer is yes, then that has crossed the line.

One of the best and most engaging stories of the day came from a student question regarding an incident where Metcalfe literally ate his words in the form of a column smoothie. One can reference Wikipedia for the full tale, but hearing the story first-person was quite a treat. It was yet another instance of how Metcalfe managed to turn things around and create another win out of a not-so-great situation, resulting in stellar publicity.

Facebook’s Doug Wolfe Shares Journey with BHP Students

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Doug Wolfe, the head of Online Operations for Facebook in Austin spoke to the BHP sophomores last week during their lyceum course. He captured the students’ attention with riveting tales of his time in the military and sound career advice. His path is anything but typical, but he explained that there is a common thread, even if it may not be fully apparent at first glance.

Wolfe attended Officer Candidate School when he was an undergraduate and spent nine years as a U.S. Marine Corps Officer. His specialty was in logistics and he went on multiple deployments, including Operation Iraqi Freedom. He then earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, while simultaneously serving as a Naval ROTC instructor at the school. He then spent four years at Morgan Stanley & Co. in institutional services. When he realized he didn’t want to do investment banking anymore, he spent many sleepless nights trying to figure out what it was that he wanted to do. He finally focused on doing what he loved to in an industry he found compelling, finding an operations and organizational leadership role at Facebook in 2010. He recently assumed the position of head of online operations for Facebook’s Austin office.

So what is the common thread? Chaos said Wolfe. He talked about the chaos that exists in serving in the military, where you are consistently faced with new challenges; the chaos that exists in the financial markets; and the chaos that ensues from trying to meet the needs of billions of Facebook users. “I like working in chaos, with some amount of control. The environment keeps you agile. There is value in inefficiency and the space it creates to innovate and learn.”

Leadership and ethics are the two focus areas for the lyceum course and Wolfe said his philosophies on both were heavily shaped by the Marine Corp.

As a leader, he tries to find the best position for someone based on their skill sets, shape them in that role, and then give them the autonomy and practice they need to execute on their own. He stressed the importance of understanding people’s motivations, so you can emotionally connect them to what they are doing.

When talking about ethics, Wolfe recounted the old motto of, ‘You are what you do.’ “Integrity is a bridge between your words and actions,” he said. He explained that Facebook has five values, and one of those is to build trust. He takes that seriously and said that seeing the consistent reflection of Facebook’s five values in their actions is part of what attracted him to working for the company.

Several students asked questions alluding to criticism that Facebook has faced from their users over the years in response to changes made to the platform. “We are user-driven, not necessarily user-led,” said Wolfe. “We have a ship-evaluate-change-ship again philosophy. If you aren’t trying something new, someone else will, and you will lose your position as the market-leader.”

Students Get to Know Professors on a Different Level during DWAP Events

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Every semester BHP professors volunteer to participate in a program coordinated by the Honors Business Association, called Dinner with a Professor (DWAP). DWAP was started five years ago and has become one of the most popular events for students and professors alike. Students from the program are invited to dinner with a BHP professor at a location of the professor’s choice.

William O’Hara, a professor with the Department of Accounting, and his wife, Beverly, took around 60 students to Dave & Buster’s last semester for a dinner and dessert buffet as well as games. According to O’Hara, the students were as competitive playing games as they are in the classroom. At the end of the night though, they all came together and surprised him by pooling the tickets they won from their games to buy him an enormous Clifford The Big Red Dog to thank him and his wife for hosting the event.

When asked why he enjoyed hosting the event, O’Hara said, “Even with the smaller class sizes of BHP, it is still hard to get to know your students well. I think the education process is better when you know them better and unless they come to office hours, it is hard to do that. This provides that opportunity.”  O’Hara noted that the event developed a camaraderie that translated to the classroom. “I noticed a difference afterwards that some of the students who didn’t participate much in class before, were now participating.”

For students, the appeal of these events is that they allow students to get to know their professors on a personal level and see them in a different environment than they usually do. Prabhudev Konana, a BHP MIS professor, has hosted a DWAP at his house every year for around 70 students since 2008. He admits that is a lot of work for him and his wife, but says he wants to expose students to their culture. They serve Indian food, expose them to Bollywood and Bollywood dance, and show them the Indian artwork in their house. Courtney Brindle, a junior BHP student who participated in Dr. Konana’s DWAP last year, had heard about the impromptu Bollywood dance parties beforehand, but being a participant last year, she thought it was, “really cool to have fun with Dr. Konana and see another side of him.”

HBA plans around five DWAPs per semester. Forrest Ripley, president of HBA, thinks these events are important for the BHP culture. “Professors are at the core of what makes BHP so great. Giving students a chance to bond with their professors on a personal level is one of the best services that HBA can offer students.”

Professor O’Hara said he and his wife Beverly will definitely be hosting a DWAP again this year. “Beverly is very interested in education and she wants to be involved. She still talks about what a great evening it was. We heard comments from students that the event was the perfect break during a tough time of year and allowed them one night to be a kid again. We will be on board to do it again this year!”