Meet our Chief Information Officer, Samantha Dickinson
With a global IT crisis in her first week, Samantha, our Chief Information Officer (CIO) had an interesting start to her career at Petrofac. We caught up with her to find out how she’s getting on three months in, and hear about the biggest challenges of working in IT.
What attracted you to Petrofac and the energy industry?
I have worked in various industries throughout my career, from IT consulting, to aviation, to steam engineering. However, I had never had the chance to take on a role in the energy sector. As an outsider, I have always believed that the industry offers a unique blend of challenges and opportunities that are highly appealing from an IT perspective.
I thrive on problem-solving and making life easier for people through the effective use of technology and as I often tell my team, "I don't do boring." Prior to joining, I had heard of Petrofac, its positive reputation in the industry, and researched the suite of tooling that is implemented across the business. I think there are fantastic opportunities to leverage the investments we have made to really help our customers and better enable our employees.
Technology is evolving at a rapid pace, yet across the energy industry the adoption of a lot of modern technology-based solutions, such as generative AI is in its infancy. To play a role in an organisation like Petrofac while both the energy and technology industry are undergoing signification changes is incredibly exciting, and an adventure I knew I wanted to be a part of.
Your first week at Petrofac was a baptism of fire having to navigate the CrowdStrike event – what did you learn about your team?
What an incredible first week it was! I never imagined that my initial encounter with some of our Executive team would be in the midst of a global IT crisis. The IT team was outstanding. Their swift and composed response to resolving the issue across the Petrofac IT landscape was truly commendable. Our ability to restore Petrofac's IT operations in under 24 hours is a testament to our dedicated and passionate team members, our loyal partners, our customer-centric mindset, and our robust IT infrastructure.
Three months in, what are your first impressions of Petrofac?
It’s the people that set Petrofac apart. I have made a concerted effort to meet as many people as I can from across the business. And I have been overcome with the honesty and kindness people have shown to me. I love how passionate everyone is about what they do, and their patience and willingness to help me grow my understanding of our business and services we offer to our clients. I feel truly honoured to be a part of such a committed team.
What do you see as the biggest challenges for the IT function?
Navigating the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) world we now find ourselves in is definitely one of our biggest challenges. It can have a direct impact on our day-to-day IT operations and strategic planning. We must be cost conscious, focused on the initiatives and objectives that align to the business needs and be super transparent on what we are doing, why we are doing it and how we will measure our success.
A second challenge is security. We need to continue to have strong collaboration between our cyber security teams, IT delivery teams, our business stakeholders and our clients. The increased convergence of IT and OT (e.g. sensor-based solutions connecting to data platforms) in particular presents us with new risks and security challenges that we need to proactively mitigate.
What are your top three tips for staying safe online?
- Never open emails or click on links in emails from unknown sources
- Select strong passwords and use different passwords for personal vs work accounts
- Always apply your security updates