Leadership in Energy: Driving Vision, Innovation & Empowerment

Maria Aybar is an accomplished leader with over a decade of experience in the oil and gas sector, specializing in upstream and downstream activities. She has led legal and strategic initiatives, contributed to major industry projects, and received multiple accolades for her leadership and impact in the energy industry.

In an insightful interaction with Global Woman Leader Magazine, Maria shares views on her leadership journey in the energy sector, focusing on overcoming challenges, empowering women, and shaping the industry's future through sustainability and collaboration.

 To learn more about her insights and leadership approach, read the full article below.

As a woman leading in the energy industry, what realities of this sector most shaped your leadership mindset early in your journey as a Country Manager?

When I started in the energy sector in my country, Perú, I never planned to be a leader in this sector. As a lawyer I just wanted to do my job the best I could. Sometime later I discovered that this sector was very technical, demanding and had mostly men in leadership roles. This put me in a very difficult situation because I felt that I had 3 “weakness” to develop my career in this sector- I was a woman, a lawyer and Peruvian. For this reason, I focused on improving my capabilities and pushed hard to learn everything I could, always knowing that being a woman, a lawyer or Peruvian, would never limit what I planned to do.  

This was not an easy path; however, it shaped my leadership style, based on preparation, perseverance, consistency, communication and ethics. I always knew that women can add value just as well as men.   

Which leadership challenges in energy felt uniquely complex for women, and how did you personally learn to navigate credibility, visibility, and decision-making authority?

The most difficult part is not when everybody on the table believes that you are not capable because you are a woman, the most difficult bit is when you believe that it is true. When I convinced myself that I had the capability to add value to the discussion, it was then that I began to act in said way to make others believe in me, accepting that I was able to lead on strategic topics and decision making. I needed to work coherently to build credibility, showing results and keeping clear communication even in challenging situations.  I always understood that it is very important to recognize that a leader cannot achieve his/her goals without a strong team. The latter requires building trust among the members of the team, which is a task, that demands a continues effort from the leader.

When navigating credibility and visibility in energy, how did you balance asserting authority with building collaboration, and what lessons shaped your authentic leadership approach?

I learned that having authority does not mean imposing ideas or decisions; instead, it is about gaining respect by listening to the team and building trust. For this reason,

As a leader, I knew that I needed to promote an environment in which everybody feels comfortable sharing their ideas, knowing that even when the final decision would be taken by the leader, their point of view will be considered.

As my expertise is not STEM, I always worked very close with the technical team, learning from them with humility in order to be a good leader. I never lost the opportunity to learn; this prepared me to take on challenges like the one that Hunt Oil Company proposed to me in order to take on a management position in the organization.        

As you grew into greater responsibility, how did you empower other women in energy while balancing performance pressure, cultural expectations, and the pace of change?

leadership in the Hunt Oil Company is based on talent; for that reason, I always had and still have the opportunity to work with several extraordinary women. This allowed me to build room for these women leaders in the energy sector in Peru. Together with them we were able to showcase that it is possible for women to be leaders, without putting aside other roles such as a mother, spouse or daughter. I truly believe that results need to be evaluated based on talent, not on gender, promoting equity to stop women from leaving their professional path, loosing great value for the organization.

How do you believe women leaders will reshape the future of the energy industry through values like sustainability, collaboration, and long-term thinking?

I don’t have any doubt that women in the energy sector are already reshaping the present, their view and understanding of the reality of our population will allow us to build better solutions to reduce energy poverty. Their leadership will generate responsible and innovative ideas focused on the long term and the wellbeing of the population. Having women leaders in the energy sector is allowing us to build a more sensitive view on the environmental and social aspects, which are key for the development of the activities in the energy sector. Women and men are not equal, but both add value, so we can only reach the maximum benefit if we allow them to participate in equal conditions.

LAST WORD: Advice for Women Leaders in Energy

First of all, they need to believe in themself, and then they need to prepare for the challenge and be ready to make the most of the opportunity. In the energy sector, it is very important to work hard to understand the business from a technical and commercial point of view. Once they build confidence, with humility they need to build trust with their team, then they will be able to assume a leadership role, taking risks and making difficult decisions.

Trust is built with transparency, credibility and coherence, leadership is built with knowledge, courage and respect. For women leadership it is useful to be part of a network and have mentors who will help them to grow without fear. In this case, each individual step will help to open the road for the ones that come behind.