Bringing bp to Mexico: Julio’s story
Born and raised in Mexico, and with a background in engineering, Julio studied for his MBA at Imperial College London. His career at bp got started after visiting a recruitment fair and securing a place on the Future Leaders Programme (FLP)
After a few years in London, Julio returned to Mexico in 2017, as part of the strategy team tasked with bringing bp to Mexico for the first time – a project which he hails as the most challenging and most rewarding of his career.
Enabling a successful market entry
It had been 23 years since bp’s last market entry and bp was the first global brand to enter Mexico’s nationalised fuel market in 75 years. Julio praises the cross-sector collaboration which helped make the project a success. He reflects: “it was a huge effort from a multi-disciplinary team that I led. I was working with HSE, assets, operations, finance and IT to make this happen and open sites on a weekly and sustainable basis”.
Julio’s team oversaw the opening of 122 sites in 2017 and 318 sites in 2018. But what does he see as the greatest success?
“Importantly, it's not only what we did, it's how we did it. I'm really happy to say that we didn't have a single recorded injury. I'm really proud of those two years, they were extremely rewarding, and I think those are the main highlights of my career at bp so far”, he says.
Julio feels an immense sense of achievement when looking back at the market entry project. “Now Mexico has become the fifth biggest market for bp across the world. We’ve not only transformed the market, we're doing something great – diversifying our existing portfolio and bringing new opportunities to bp,” Julio reflects.
A purpose-driven approach to professional life
Building on the success of bp’s entry into Mexico, Julio’s work as Mexico’s country strategy manager is also about shaping long term thinking and business relationships in the region. “I’m looking at how we can make our network more profitable on a sustainable basis”, he says.
Safety is another crucial element of Julio’s work. Today he is responsible for delivering on the commitments that bp makes to its employees and ensuring that the people who work for bp can return home the same way that they came to work. This sense of purpose makes a big difference for Julio: “My current role is so tangible and I really love that my decisions have an impact. We want to improve people's lives, create a better customer offer and be better employees”.
The working culture has also been an important part of Julio’s career at bp, and was something that stood out from day one. “After coming back from my assessment during the interview stage, I told my wife ‘this is the company I want to work for’. bp is a company that doesn’t just say something because it's the right thing to say, it’s a company that ‘walks the walk’”, Julio says.
This stayed true during Julio’s experiences on the FLP. “I remember how personal, approachable and human everyone was”, he says. “I also noticed straight away how embedded bp’s values and behaviours are in every individual I interacted with. bp is a company that's willing to stand for what is important and this sense of commitment is what has kept me engaged ever since!”