For combining deep scientific knowledge with project management skills to deliver high value projects.

NAO Service Delivery Lead, Project Management at SLB | Texas, United States

Former petroleum geoscientist and geologist Thomas Barling says that shifting from a hard science, technical background to a project-management focus took a mindset shift.

Educated and trained in the U.K., Thomas began his career working on technical projects and steadily climbed the organizational ladder. “I worked on lots of different projects, wrote papers with colleagues, and went down technical rabbit holes. But then I started getting more interested in project management, the business impact and development side of things.”

His initial interest in project management was sparked by observing senior leadership’s focus on that aspect of the business. “People appreciated the technical side of work, but that was more about getting it done. The real crux of the business—how well we managed projects and the business impact of winning more work, that’s what kept the business going,” he says.

Thomas realized that project management have him greater visibility and more opportunities to grow. “I felt like there was simply more room for advancement,” he says. “I also wanted to be as diverse as possible. My degree in petroleum geoscience is a niche business. Project management offers a lot more. As I grew my career, having more transferable skills like this was key to advancing.”

In 2020, Thomas relocated to Texas. However, the challenges in the U.S. differed from those he had previously faced. “Here I had to manage geological mechanics, reservoir engineering, and drilling— all sorts of things I hadn’t encountered before,” he says.

A mentor advised Thomas that he would one day be managing something out of his expertise. Watching his mentor tackle unfamiliar projects that were new to him gave Thomas the tackle new challenges head-on.

In early 2022, Thomas was tasked with leading key regional projects, overseeing all other projects and project managers in North America and the Caribbean, and monitoring the compliance and performance of the area’s project portfolio. Under his leadership, the region successfully delivered over 30 projects, including a range of managed services, domain consulting, and software deployment and support. These initiatives leveraged digital technologies and expertise to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of oil and gas operations and pushed forward innovation in energy, sustainability and decarbonization.

Thomas says that his Project Management Professional (PMP)^® certification has had a tremendous impact on his career by teaching him about business acumen: How projects fit into the wider scheme of an organization, how companies choose projects, and which project management approach to use in each situation. All of these lessons have opened his eyes to new ways of working.

The other big takeaway that has really helped, says Thomas, is “the overall mindset, how to deal with people, the different stages of team building. It’s a hard skill but it’s called a soft skill, and now it’s called a power skill. How to talk to people in the right way to get the job done— it’s crucial.”

This mindset shift, combined with a track record of project success, has led Thomas’s selection as an emerging leader in PMI’s 2024 Nashville cohort of the Global Executive Council.