After nearly eleven years at BP, Jackie built a career across major fossil fuel projects and later low-carbon and New Energy teams. Eventually Jackie chose to step away in order to work more directly on climate solutions after she felt the limits of trying to drive change from within a major oil and gas company. Today, she applies her project delivery experience to industrial decarbonisation at Carbon Direct, supporting organisations and technologies working toward credible net-zero outcomes. Read Jackie’s story here.

After more than 20 years in bp’s oil and gas business, Colin Simpson chose to leave the industry and move into offshore wind. Colin worked on major North Sea oil and gas infrastructure projects, eventually leading large international construction sites delivering new terminals and offshore platforms. While he once believed the industry could balance fossil fuel production with climate responsibility, growing doubts about the pace and sincerity of change inside oil and gas pushed him to reconsider his future. Today, he works in offshore wind, applying the same engineering and project management skills to building renewable energy infrastructure.

In a career spanning 33 years at Shell, Lionel Clarke was directly involved in the global transition from leaded to unleaded gasoline, and the development and introduction of biofuels. Recognising the need for greater urgency, he left Shell in 2014 to develop small-scale globally distributable systems to remove carbon from the atmosphere in the form of biochar. His company works with farmers and communities in Europe and Africa to actively tackle climate change and improve soil quality, to deliver enduring food security. He aims to help individuals and groups worldwide to tackle climate change through active participation in the generation and application of biochar. This is Lionel's story.

Samantha held a twenty year career at BP as an oil trader, where she led the Global Petrochemical Feedstock Trading book. Samantha chose to leave BP at the end of 2015 to pursue a more fulfilling path to help organisations looking for strategic direction on the climate, ecological and societal emergencies. Samantha is now a Director at Business Declares and is an ex Chair of the Development Board at The Young Women’s Trust. She learnt about Bioidiversity from Great Dixter Charitable Trust and is a Fellow at CUSP (Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity). Samantha worked with the Impact Hub network, leading Town Halls for Change at Impact Hub Islington and has an M.Chem from Oxford University. Here is Samantha’s story.

Arjan joined Shell in 2018 and left seven years later. He has since co-founded a new climate movement “Employees for our Future”, catering for professionals who want to see more urgency for the transition, but are not necessarily idealistic/activistic (i.e., who understand the reality of shareholder value and geopolitics). He has two daughters, is a former fan of Formula 1 and cycling, but now mostly racing against the clock of climate change.

Jo started out in the oil industry in 2004, enjoying the work, community and career prospects. Over time, unresolved cultural issues and growing concern about the industry’s role in the climate crisis made her question whether she belonged there. A redundancy offer clarified that she needed to leave and find work aligned with her values.