At the end of 2025, SPE announced that the eMentoring Program would be sunset as part of the Society’s broader efforts to achieve financial stability. The official rationale was clear: SPE has been navigating one of the most challenging financial periods in its history, with years of operating losses driven by its operational structure, cyclical downturns, a changing global landscape, declining revenue, and the urgent need to optimize costs.
I have long been both passionate about SPE’s role and constructively critical of its operating model. My main concern has always been the growing centralization at SPE International and regional levels, contrasted with the steadily shrinking support for the places where I believe the real impact happens: local sections and student chapters.
Over the years, I’ve also expressed frustration at watching three programs I deeply value being scaled back or deprioritized.
Ambassador Lecturer Program (ALP)
A powerful grassroots initiative in which young professionals visited universities to speak about the industry, careers, leadership, and technical topics often absent from academic curricula. In Brazil, ALP connected SPE sections from oil‑producing regions with universities located thousands of kilometers away, democratizing access to real industry exposure.
A STEM outreach program that brought energy education into schools and communities. Despite its enormous potential to inspire future talent, it has lost momentum in recent years.
SPE eMentoring Program
A program that personally motivated me to learn English, expanded my worldview, and connected me with incredible mentors—and mentees—throughout my 13‑year SPE journey.
I fully understand SPE’s financial reasoning and respect the transparency shown—especially in recent years under Simon Seaton’s leadership as CEO. Still, as someone who lived the value of eMentoring and other programs that strengthened SPE’s volunteer base, I needed time to process this loss and wanted to share why it mattered so much to me.
A Program That Quietly Transformed Careers
Throughout my years volunteering with SPE, I repeated one belief consistently: Mentorship changes everything. It shapes careers, builds confidence, and creates human connections that no technical session or conference can replicate.
I often described mentoring as “a force multiplier,” and SPE’s eMentoring platform embodied this perfectly: a simple, structured, borderless way to connect people across continents, generations, and disciplines.
A Global Bridge in an Industry of Silos
One of eMentoring’s greatest strengths was its ability to level the playing field by enabling
- Students in Latin America to connect with mentors in Europe.
- Young professionals in Asia to learn from senior leaders in the US.
- Professionals in Africa to share insights with students elsewhere.
Our industry is global, but access to people often isn’t. eMentoring helped break those barriers and democratize connection. Losing it—despite its limited usage—means losing one of the few formal mechanisms that ensured global equity in mentoring.
It wasn’t widely advertised. It wasn’t used to its full capacity. But those who used it benefited profoundly.
Why the Program May Not Have Reached Its Full Capacity
This deserves honest reflection.
To me, the tool was great. The platform worked. The concept made sense. So why wasn’t it widely adopted?
In my view, several systemic issues likely limited adoption, including
- Low visibility and inconsistent communication.
- A crowded SPE (mostly international) events calendar competing for attention.
- Limited integration with student chapters and local sections, where the natural user base exists.
- Young professionals' greater engagement with other relevant programs.
These are not criticisms of the financial decision. They are reflections on why a strong platform may never have received the ecosystem support required for it to truly flourish.
Where Can Local Sections and Student Chapters Go From Here?
If there is one message I want to leave, it is this: Mentoring does not end just because the platform does.
Local sections and student chapters can—and some already do—create their own mentoring systems as the SPE UFPel Student Chapter,, Women In Energy (WIN) Brazil, Até o Último Barril, and others have done in recent years.
These initiatives prove that connectivity can survive—and even thrive—locally, independent of SPE International.
I strongly encourage local sections and student chapters to adopt their own structured, sustainable mentoring initiatives. We cannot allow this culture of connection to fade.
And as for me, I will continue mentoring individually or as part of the new programs for as much as my capacity allows.
I urge my fellow professionals to do the same. Our industry needs this. Our students need this. Our young professionals need this. And we all benefit when experience is shared, not isolated.
Where We Go From Here
The end of eMentoring is not the end of mentoring. But it is a moment for SPE to reflect.
If the Society is to remain vibrant and mission‑driven, we must become financially healthier and shift
- From trying to embrace all energies to reinforcing our core: oil and gas.
- From event proliferation to program depth.
- From top‑down structures to grassroots empowerment.
I truly hope SPE will one day rebuild a global mentoring system—leaner, modernized, cost‑efficient, and firmly anchored in the base of the volunteer pyramid.
Because mentorship, at its core, is one of the few things that survives cycles, budgets, and reorganizations. And because we cannot afford to lose the very human connections that make this industry special.
A Personal Note of Gratitude
I am a lucky engineer who has had mentors in several instances—at work, in AAPG, in PESGB, and other organizations. But this time, I want to thank all the mentors who guided me throughout the SPE eMentoring program and helped shape who I am today: Maarten J. van Hasselt, Jorge Lopez, Mikhail Gretskiy, Mark Van Domelen, and Edgar Murphy Dos Santos.
Some of I had the pleasure to meet in person and I take the liberty to share some pictures.
And to all my mentees—many of you influenced me as much as I influenced you. Your curiosity, ambition, and resilience have been among my greatest teachers.
