Jun 19, 2014 5 min read

About 100 members of a regional group that promotes women finding jobs in the energy industry heard some good news Tuesday. The industry is hiring more females, and not just in “back office” or supporting roles.

Perhaps most surprising was that of the three women executives who spoke to them, two had degrees in liberal arts and another originally studied fashion design.

The setting was Range Resources’ auditorium, where a three-woman panel – all of whom work at the oil and gas exploration and production company’s regional headquarters in Southpointe II – offered insight.

The event was held by Young Professional Women in Energy, a two-year-old offshoot of the Pittsburgh Chapter of Young Professional in Energy.

Both groups have male and female members who work in the oil and gas, coal, wind, nuclear, electric or solar industries, as well as those who are trying to find jobs in those industries.

YPWE founder Amelia Papapetropoulos, who introduced the panelists and moderator John Applegath, senior vice president of Range’s Marcellus Shale Division, said the mission of her group is often misinterpreted as women attempting to wrest jobs held by men in an industry dominated by men.

“We simply want men’s support,” Papapetropoulos said. “We want to be the voice of an industry that’s for women and for men.”

As for Range, Applegath, a chemical engineer with decades as of experience in management in the oil and gas industry, told that group much has changed with regard to hiring women.

When he started working for Exxon in Texas decades ago, Applegath recalled, “there were no women in the main office.”

When he became manager for a pipeline company in Corpus Christi, he hired a woman from the accounting department who was passed over for several promotions, making her foreman of its pipeline operations because he saw the need for someone with her experience to manage the flow of natural gas that was owned by other production companies.

“She was a great foreman,” he said.

Perhaps the best example given Tuesday to demonstrate women can work their way up to key management jobs in the industry came from Leagha Courtney, Range’s division engineering and operations analyst, who began her career at a small energy company more than 20 years ago in Midland, Texas, after studying fashion design in Dallas.

Courtney, who originally worked in human resources and investor relations, said executives in the company approached her about learning how to analyze production from its wells “because they were trying to cut corners” by teaching a nonengineer the inner workings of the business.

“I was filling a role that was saving them money,” she said.

She credited the men in the company with mentoring her.

As a result, Courtney said, she has studied more than 50,000 wells in her career.

Laural Ziemba, Range’s director of local government affairs, came to the company last year after working 12 years at Consol Energy, where she was director of community relations.

But Ziemba, who said she began as a restaurant manager after earning a degree in communications, said she first took a job with Consol’s subsidiary Fairmont Supply Co., where she worked for two years as an internal auditor, later applying for a position in Consol’s communications department.

Kara Peterson, who heads Range’s human resources department at the regional headquarters, earned a dual degree in political science and journalism, but took a job in human resources for a nonprofit in Pittsburgh, coming to Range after 10 years experience.

When Applegath asked the panel how women with no experience in energy should approach the task of getting a job in the industry, all three offered tried-and-true methods.

“Network, network, network,” Ziemba said. “Every interview you have is a potential job interview. You’re your own best (public relations) person.”

Courtney agreed that “contacts are critical,” but also advised women to “know what your strengths are – math, science, communications, English.”

Peterson said when she learned Range had an opening for a human resources specialist at its new regional headquarters, “I kept checking the Range website, applied and got an interview.”

She also learned to deal with a temporary setback, she added, when she received a letter from the company telling her the position was frozen.

Peterson kept in touch with the people who interviewed her, and when the position was reopened a year later, she was hired.

When Applegath asked if she could quantify Range’s record for hiring women, Peterson replied the company, which directly employs about 500 people in the region, now has 30 percent female employees and 70 percent males.

“That’s pretty consistent with the industry, but we’re slightly higher” in female employees, she said.

While acknowledging most of the company’s field positions are mostly held by men, “we do have some females out there,” Peterson said, adding at least one woman is a supervisor in field operations.

Courtney drew laughter from the audience when she used an old advertising slogan in summing up how much the industry has changed its hiring practices with regard to women.

“We’ve come a long way, baby,” she said.

For more information on Young Professional Women in Energy, access the website www.ypwe.org.