Pioneering digital solutions for all: Abeth’s story

Abeth now works as bp’s VP for data & analytics platforms, but she’s worked across the business – from a chief architect in bp Trading, to IT director in bp’s artificial intelligence (AI) team. 

Her current team – the data & analytics platform organisation – provides the technology and services that connects bp with the world’s data, enabling the company to make data-driven decisions crucial to the energy transition. A sizeable task, but one Abeth finds stimulating:

No one left behind  

Abeth wants her team to become recognised industry leaders in the digital and data space: “I want us to have the best engineering to support bp’s data supply chain for advanced analytics”, she says. 

Crucial to this is growing our own internal data and platform engineering capability, and bp’s new Digital Hub in Pune in India is an important part of this – as bp increases our presence in India we want to be able to scale our operations close to our growth regions.

But beyond ensuring bp is a digital pioneer, Abeth is committed to making understanding the benefits of digital technologies a personal one. “Advancement in technology should not only apply to delivering and operating our high-profile projects, it is important that we also see it as a way of life - how we improve the way we work and our people’s well-being, and our people’s ongoing learning development”, she explains. 

A company with people at its heart 

At bp, we’re always working on interesting projects, many of which stem from a passion for leading industry transformation.

 

One of her favourite examples is bp’s pioneering deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) – whereby bp provides renewable energy to power AWS’s European data centres and Amazon migrates bp’s European data to the AWS cloud. 

 

bp’s people enable these projects, explains Abeth: 

 

It’s not just those at the top – we’re all committed to the energy transition and to lowering our carbon footprint. And at bp, everyone can make a difference. You don’t feel drowned in a big organisation, you have a voice, and bp makes sure that that voice is heard.

For Abeth, it is important that a company invests in its people, and in fact, she attributes a large part of her career development to the support she has received from her managers: “I’ve always had people looking out for me. This means watching out for opportunities that will capitalise on my strengths, helping me towards my aspirations, and also giving me challenges and honest feedback that helped me build my knowledge and grow as a leader.”

 

Reflecting on how her own experiences have influenced her approach to managing teams, Abeth says:

 

I have learned to do the same, and in my experience, when you genuinely care for your team and invest in their wellbeing and development, they do not only perform, they over-perform.