Michelle Boit, a Petroleum Engineering Consultant is currently a Wells Operations Engineer at Glencore (Chad) and the Board Chair of Kenyatta University SPE Chapter.

Engr. Boit holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Texas Tech University and an Executive MBA in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Dallas.

She has previously worked for BP PLC as a Production Engineer.

In 2014, she relocated back to Kenya and worked for Tullow Oil as a Senior Production Engineer, becoming the first African – Petroleum Engineer.

“One of the challenges of working in the oil and gas industry is the environment. It entails working in the field and some environments are quite harsh.”

“Second, supervising men can be tough as some still hold the attitude that a woman can’t tell them anything. There are instances where I have been in the field supervising jobs that have about 100 men and some of them would address their male colleagues assuming they are supervisors and not me, which can be quite discouraging,” said Engr Boit.

She is the founder and CEO of Michelle Boit Foundation – where she mentors young engineers and link them to opportunities.