PESA Chairman Dan Domeracki, Vice President, Government, Industry & Global Stewardship, Schlumberger, headed up an Executive Address for PESA Members and customers at Topgolf on July 26.
Domeracki shared his insights on career progression and success, which come from more than 40 years of industry experience.The event was hosted by the Emerging Executives Committee.
From taking ownership of his family business at age 16, when his father was deployed to Vietnam, to his current role at Schlumberger, Domeracki said he is an entrepreneur at heart who has looked for opportunities and executed them in a way that has lead him on a path to success in the oil and gas industry.
At age 20, while taking college geology classes, he created a device to measure how fast sediment retreats. This project gained him a full-scholarship to graduate school at the University of South Carolina.
Shortly after college, Domeracki formed a new business with three other college classmates called RPI. While working for this new company, Domeracki spent three months in 1978 in France on the Amoco Cadiz oil spill, the first major oil tanker spill. He also traveled to Chile for a long-term study on oil spills, where he built reservoir models and mapped the United States’ coast before those processes could be done on computers.
By the downturn in 1986, RPI had five energy offices. Schlumberger acquired the company, and Domeracki joined the team. He said he was fortunate enough to be able to travel the world to learn how Schlumberger operates and took on roles of increasing responsibility — navigating numerous market fluctuations and corporate downsizing, mergers and acquisitions.
Mentors helped him progress through his roles at Schlumberger, and he shared four pieces of advice with the audience:
- Mentor: If you do not have a mentor, find one. If the person you want to mentor you is unable or does not want to help you, at least emulate them. A mentor/mentee relationship is an extremely rewarding process for everyone involved. We learn from each other because we bring different perspectives and ideas to the table.
- Impactful and Inspirational People: Keep a book and list anyone that impacted your life with their contact information. You now have a toolkit of how to impact others, and you can reflect who impacted your life and how. Stay in touch with people that cared enough to take time out of their lives to help you.
- Enjoy Your Job: If you are not enjoying what you are doing, don’t do it. If you are going through a hard time, keep on going and things will get better.
- Take a Chance: At a young age, if you have the opportunity to test a skill that you haven’t done before, do it. You have nothing to lose. If you don’t try it, you’ll never know.
Highest Team Score
This event, the 14th in the series, was sponsored by Gardner Denver and Li Gear. Following the Executive Address, PESA members made connections with leading industry executives while playing Topgolf. Attendees from more than 50 different companies took a swing at the highest individual and team scores.
Congratulations to Rylan Ardoin, Gardner Denver; Ryan Dyck, Propell; Juston Festervand, Sunbelt Steel; Brandon Janda, Gardner Denver; and Jonathan Rekieta, Gardner Denver, on the highest team score and Greg Gilbert, Galtway Industries, on the highest individual score.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
