The practical application of science to solve real problems has always motivated me. I had a relative who we called ‘uncle’, and he spent his career working at BP as an engineer, although I never really found out what he did exactly. At the point I was thinking about A-levels and what was next, he really encouraged me to consider engineering beyond physics. He was a remarkable man who had built a steam railway in his back garden that you could ride on. As a kid, it was the most amazing experience going to visit his house, because invariably after lunch the steam train would get fired up.

I did a mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree and then did a doctorate (PhD). The latter was sponsored by BP and Statoil (now called Equinor) and was a far more practical initiative focused on the oil and gas industry. There was an understanding that it might well lead to a career in the sector. But I had to go through the graduate recruitment process like everybody else, which I did.

When I joined BP, they wanted me to go and work in the research department. But I really wanted to work in Aberdeen. So, they were quite disappointed. When I got there, I found it just incredibly exciting working in the office, which was behind the airport, because every two minutes a helicopter would be going offshore. So, within about four months of starting that role, really quickly, having said that I wanted to work offshore, they put me onto a two-and-two rotation working offshore on the Forties field. I was a production support engineer. Working at the front line with technicians that had been there for many, many years was quite a humbling experience. You certainly couldn’t swagger in as a new graduate. You had to learn how to work in that environment, be very respectful of their experience, and of course have a real focus on health and safety.

A breadth of experience
At BP I went from the North Sea to Algeria to working in a planning team, crunching spreadsheets into investor relations, competitor intelligence, into renewables (as Chief Development Officer of Alternative Energy). Most people don’t get that breadth of experience. I believe there is a maturity in how oil and gas thinks about health and safety in operating, which probably has historically been much further ahead. So, the technical work we do at the Energy Institute, I think, has been driven by the oil and gas sector and then ported over to the renewables sector.

When I joined the Energy Institute, I knew it was a professionally run organisation, but with a different kind of style of working compared to BP, which was very networked.

If I asked, ‘What's our purpose?’ I would get 10 different answers. So, we democratised the strategy process. We created a whole bunch of work streams, which anybody from anywhere in the Energy Institute could sign up to, encouraging cross-team collaboration. One of those work streams was ‘Purpose’, which led to the creation of a purpose statement: ‘Creating a better energy future for our members and society by accelerating a just global transition to net zero’. That’s where the Energy Institute’s three strategic themes came out of, and which still stand today, alongside an updated purpose statement: ‘Creating a better energy future by accelerating a just, secure and low-carbon energy transition’. That provided a sense of clarity as to where we were going and how we were doing it. Because it is one thing to have a purpose, but you need to then underpin it with activities that are going to create impact in service of that purpose.

Also, as part of that process, our major energy conference was International Petroleum Week, but to me that just didn't resonate. We agonised over changing one word –‘Petroleum’ to ‘Energy’ – but it was important we did agonise over it because it wasn’t just a rebranding, it wasn’t just changing the name, it was a reimagination of what that conference was. The fact that the whole feel and themes of that conference have moved so far without moving away from oil and gas, is something that we’ve done really deliberately and thoughtfully, with a lot of help from the International Energy Week Board.

It is one thing to have a purpose, but you need to then underpin it with activities that are going to create impact in service of that purpose.

Building credibility in data
The Statistical Review of World Energy (brought over from BP in 2023) clearly has created a huge amount of work internally, but has, I think, really given us credibility in data and made us the authoritative voice on what is happening in energy. There is still a really strong need for independent, trusted advice and data out there. The Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy and our digital magazine New Energy World, and the guides we publish, all of that, I believe, is valuable to society.

The Energy Institute’s Technical and Innovation work programme is the unsung hero of the organisation because it does so much really high-quality work. Its publications are really embedded within how the industry operates. I do think the Energy Institute has played an important role, for example in areas like offshore wind safety; through G+ we have brought together oil and gas companies and renewable companies that otherwise wouldn’t have worked together.

Developing professionals and communities
When I joined the industry, companies would invest a huge amount of time and money in their employees in terms of their professional development… today it is not quite the same, but I find it reassuring that there are still so many people coming to the Energy Institute to develop professionals through training, through continued professional development (CPD), through aspiring for different grades of membership, and really maintaining a bar for the industry… And there is a lot we do that is freely available to members, online or self-paced.

And then there are the Energy Institute communities. I think we’ve really evolved how those communities are working, not just within their own spaces, but I believe joining the dots around the world has certainly shifted the dial. The learning that these young professionals get by coming together at events, listening, speaking to one another, networking across different parts of the energy industry, is remarkable. Meeting that hunger for people to learn and develop is something the Energy Institute does through formal training, through our reports and magazine, but also through all the networking and events we do, energy policy debates, young professionals and community events – all of that, I believe, creates a rich tapestry of professional development.

I love the energy sector. It has been a privilege leading the Energy Institute and having an extraordinary breadth of overview of the global energy system across all forms of energy – from the oil and gas sector and power distribution, all the way through to some of the most disruptive companies on the planet.

I am always optimistic about the energy transition. I think it was always going to be harder than people optimistically may have, and ideologically may have, thought a few years ago. But the aspiration to get to some very low level of carbon intensity and energy is a credible path.

Meeting that hunger for people to learn and develop is something the Energy Institute does through formal training, through our reports and magazine, but also through all the networking and events we do, energy policy debates, young professionals and community events.

I believe – and the Energy Institute of Statistical Review of World Energy gives us confidence about this – that the transition is happening. But it is disorderly; it is divergent. You have got to be careful drawing too many conclusions from one year’s data, but I think there are some quite remarkable things happening in the world.

I believe the fact that last year all of the growth in electricity globally was met from low-carbon sources is something worth celebrating. That has never happened before, outside of a crisis, and that is a significant step.

Now, is that a permanent inflection point? Maybe, maybe not; we will see when we publish next year's data. But I believe the notion that the transition is not happening is completely wrong. I think we just need to get comfortable that it is not going to be orderly. I don't think it was ever going to be; every major transition in humanity has not been a smooth process, but I believe history tells us that it goes much slower to start with, and then by the end, it is going faster than anybody expected.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author only and are not necessarily given or endorsed by or on behalf of the Energy Institute.

• Further reading: ‘AI and energy: sovereignty, safety and trust’. Energy Institute CEO Nick Wayth recently spoke at the Sovereign AI for UK Energy Security Forum, held at the Energy Institute on 16 July.
• ‘Electrification and security: two big themes emerge from the latest Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy’. Leaders of the Energy Institute and partners recently discussed the findings of the 2026 Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy, which launched on 30 June.