This year marks my 14-year anniversary with SLB, a milestone that makes me reflect on how much I’ve grown throughout that journey.

I joined SLB immediately after graduation, at the age of 22, during the early stages of the company’s return to Iraq. I was among the first Iraqi technical engineers hired as operations were being rebuilt in the country. It was a true startup environment: expectations were high, structures were still forming, and ownership mattered more than job titles.

My early career began with a narrow technical specialization, but over time, through assignments in different locations and exposure to increasingly complex projects, I developed expertise across multiple domains. What started as focused technical work gradually evolved into broader subsurface leadership, and later into roles spanning technical leadership, digital, AI, sales, commercial strategy, and business development.

Reaching *principal* level this year marked an important milestone in that progression—one that came with greater responsibility to help align technology with client needs, business objectives, and broader national priorities. Today, much of my work is connected to decisions at scale: how to develop major fields, adopt technology, position digital and AI capabilities, and convert technical insight into commercial and strategic value.

But you know what I’ve learned? Technical work is never just technical. And I’m continuously motivated by our industry’s potential for impact when done responsibly. In a country like Iraq, for example, energy development is directly linked to economic stability, national capability, and long-term growth. I’d like to see the energy sector continue to strengthen energy security while improving efficiency, reducing emissions intensity, and building local capabilities, so that more technical decisions can be made, owned, and sustained within the country.

SLB has provided me with the structure, freedom, and learning environment to grow from a young specialist into a cross-disciplinary leader. More importantly, it has given me the opportunity to contribute to how energy is developed, transformed, and delivered in complex environments such as Iraq.

In that sense, my journey reflects what SLB has done for a century: investing in people, transferring knowledge across generations, expanding the role of technology, and building local capabilities that last.