Holli Sims
Site Director
Teledyne Geophysical Instruments
Houston, TX
Length of Service
5 years
Tell us a little about your current role and what you enjoy most about it?
I manage the Geophysical Instruments group. We build products that support the commercial oil & gas exploration market, specifically seismic instruments. Additionally, we also do a bit of defense work. This group has been around for 50 years, and I am honored to lead it. I enjoy getting to do a “bit of everything” from sales to finance to operations, etc. The team here is amazing.
What are you most proud of in your life – career, accomplishments, etc. ?
I have worked in the seismic industry since 1993, and I was one of the first females to work offshore and manage a large scale deep-water seismic research vessel. A female having this role in the 90’s was unheard of, but I truly enjoyed every minute of it. This experience gave me the valuable operations experience on which I build the rest of my career. And this experience made me uniquely qualified to join the Geophysical Instruments group in 2017. And almost exactly 4 years later in July of 2022 I became the first female to run Geophysical Instruments.
What are some of the biggest challenges that women face today? How will these change in the next 20 years?
I think one of the biggest challenges women fact today is unconscious bias. You can’t change that with law or company policy – individuals have to be willing to look inside themselves objectively to identify unconscious bias and then work to be continuously aware of it. I think as unconscious bias becomes a bigger part of the diversity discussion more people will be aware and can address it. While I hope this improves over 20 years, I’m afraid this is something that will always exist at some level. Another challenge for women is representation in STEM fields. To address this we have to start in grade school and earlier really promoting STEM professions to girls and boys. We really have to encourage enrollment in STEM courses in high school and college. THEN greater
Numbers of women will have the skill set to enter STEM fields – and in time into management.
