Strategic Optimization 1440 (1440-how many minutes are in a day) is an initiative that I have designed for companies in the process of corporate development. The energy industry is challenged with the global energy transition dialogue.
This is the first of a series based upon the theme of “Strategic Optimization 1440.” I interviewed José Beceiro for the National Energy Talk podcast, which aired on October 2nd. The following is an excerpt from that interview.
(José Beceiro serves as the Senior Director of the Global Energy 2.0 initiative for the Greater Houston Partnership. José is the founder and CEO of Beceiro Strategies. He has worked in the cleantech and high-tech industries for 15 years. His background and areas of expertise include clean energy project development, site selection, university research collaboration, economic development strategy, and corporate business development. As an economic developer, he helped grow Austin’s cleantech industry to over 250 companies and 20,000 jobs.)
Mark Stansberry: Where does the oil and gas industry fit in? Where do all forms of energy fit in? You’re seeing that in the oil and gas capital of the world and that’s happening in Houston. Tell us from 2012 on, this great journey you’ve had.
José Beceiro: Back in 2012, when I was working for the Austin Chamber for the Austin Texas region, we were focused on diversifying our regional economic pace and leveraging our tech industry, our IT software industry, computer industries...to try to diversify into new, what we call next wave industry sectors. Cleantech renewables was really the target of the program I was working on in Austin. But, what’s interesting, you fast forward to today and my work throughout the decade...I worked for two different universities on energy research programs, I’m working for the greater Houston partnership right now, I’ve done my own project development work as a consultant to build solar farms in Texas. But, what’s really interesting is regions around the nation and especially in Texas, that have focused strengths in certain areas. In Houston its energy, primarily. But, what you start to learn is that every industry is going through a revolution right now. Energy is no exception. When we talk about energy transition or energy 2.0, we’re talking about the entire energy industry, we’re talking about renewable energy, we’re talking about battery energy storage, electric vehicle infrastructure, we’re talking about oil and gas as well. But, one interesting thing is we’re seeing this trend of not just the energy sector, but health care, life sciences, the space industry, manufacturing, you name it, all going through this digital transformation, dealing with more data in real time, adding more digital technologies to make decisions more quickly, more efficiently, to reduce errors and calculations and predictions judgment. So, that’s really what we’re seeing in the energy sector today, including oil and gas, is truly an automation digitization and that’s what energy 2.0 really means. It’s really about bringing new advanced digital technologies to Houston, to the doorstep of the global energy industry, especially oil and gas companies. Really trying to create a convergence of technology and energy to help the industry transition accelerate the transition to a low carbon energy. And, that’s really the ultimate goal. In Houston today, we want Houston to remain as a global energy capital, which it is. We have eighteen Fortune 500 energy corporate headquarters, we have over 250 thousand direct energy jobs. When you add indirect and induced jobs, it’s over a million jobs in Houston that are tied to the energy sector. So, we want Houston to continue to be this global energy capital, but we realize in order to remain this global energy capital, we have to lead the world in energy transition. So, it’s really about understanding what’s happening and the transformations happening inside the energy sector. That’s really what we’re focused on.
Please go to the National Energy Talk podcast to hear the full interview with José Beceiro.
