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David Ochanda wins 2020 Outstanding Young Professional Award

This year’s winner of the IOGP Outstanding Young Professional Award (OYPA) is David Ochanda, Biodiversity Coordinator with Total, Uganda.  “David’s commitment is a prime example for leadership, innovation, and impact. His work takes our industry’s environmental awareness to the next level.  It’s a well-deserved win,” said Fawaz Bitar, IOGP Chair, at the opening ceremony of the virtual SPE HSES conference on 27 July. The Awards Committee, consisting of executives from the world’s leading upstream and contractor companies, was deeply impressed by David’s leadership, innovation, and impact in raising the awareness for the importance of biodiversity within his company but also with stakeholders.

“The timing of this award and that it goes to David in Uganda cannot be underestimated. It is a strong recognition of David’s work and it demonstrates how seriously the country of Uganda, the oil and gas industry, and its representative bodies take biodiversity in all its forms and what that means in today’s world.  We are extremely proud of David.” said Simon Byrne, H3SE Manager at Total.

Learn more about his achievement in the Pulse interview with David.

This year’s announcement of the OYPA winner was scheduled for the SPE HSES conference in Bogota, Colombia in March at, but was delayed with the conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his speech, Fawaz Bitar emphasised the high calibre of this year’s candidates from over 20 organisations from around the globe: “Learning about these outstanding individuals makes me incredibly proud of our young colleagues and I believe the future of our industry could not be in better hands.  These are exactly the kind of inspiring people we need.”

The Awards Committee acknowledged the extraordinary quality of the submissions by choosing three runners up from the selected finalists. They were:

  • Saul Moorhouse, BP
  • Delina Lyon, Shell
  • Xeniya Yurkavets, KazMunayGas

David Ochanda is the third winner of the OYPA, which was launched in association with SPE to inspire the next generation of leaders in the upstream industry.  It highlights the achievements of a professional with fewer than 10 years of E&P experience who has demonstrated outstanding talent, dedication, and leadership in the fields of health, safety, security, environment, and social responsibility.  The OYPA started in 2016 and is awarded every two years. Previous winners come from Schlumberger and BP. The 2022 award nominations will open at SPE Offshore Europe from 7-10 September 2021.

Congratulations to David and the runners up and thanks to the members of the Awards Committee for their great effort!

Watch David’s video, and highlights of the finalists, here: https://www.iogp.org/award

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