Where We Are 
Executive Energy Management Program
Associate professor of management Wanda Smith leads engineers from India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation through a group exercise in a recent campus workshop on advanced leadership organized by Pamplin’s Management and Professional Development office and Department of Finance.
Smith, who does research in group dynamics, diversity, and human resources retention in information technology careers and studies, led a workshop designed to enhance the participants’ global leadership skills. An experienced workshop conductor and management consultant, she gave a lively presentation that included a variety of interactive exercises aimed at demonstrating various styles of leading, following, coaching, and communicating.
The 22 engineers, all mid-level managers with 15-20 years of experience, work in various departments of ONGC, a state-owned exploration and production company. The engineers are also currently earning their MBA, with their company’s sponsorship, at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) in New Dehli. They had come to Virginia Tech for the Executive Energy Management Program, a week-long series of energy and business seminars at the university and organizations in Washington, D.C., organized specifically for the group by Frank Smith, Management and Professional Development director, and Vijay Singal, head of the Department of Finance. Singal had worked as a joint director of finance for 10 years at ONGC before pursuing an academic career and taught at IIFT for two summers as a Virginia Tech faculty member.
Management and Professional Development specializes in custom-designed, faculty-led training for organizations, including Fortune 500 companies and federal agencies. “We also offer individual consulting to meet a wide variety of organizational needs in business and state and federal government agencies,” said Smith. The program for the Indian engineers, Smith said, was unusual in being the first one developed for a foreign institution by his office and in being designed as a component of the participants’ MBA studies.
K. Rangarajan, an IIFT management professor who accompanied the engineers on their visit, said his students are enrolled in a customized and exclusive MBA program at IIFT designed to prepare them for assuming greater responsibilities in the international energy business. The Virginia Tech program is an integral part of their MBA studies. The engineers will be working in teams on course projects related to the seminar discussions when they return to India.
The Virginia Tech program, ONGC engineer George Varghese said, was aimed at providing the group “exposure to operational and strategic aspects of international business, specific to energy management.”
The program included presentations on leadership, oil and gas exploration strategies, renewable energies, and future energy scenarios by faculty members from Pamplin, the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, and the departments of geosciences, engineering science and mechanics, and electrical and computer engineering. Norris Chamberlain, an executive of Energy Systems Group in Richmond, Va., who is a Pamplin alumnus and a member of the Pamplin Advisory Council, helped arrange for a discussion on the use of landfills as renewable energy sources.
The engineers visited the Roanoke Gas Company’s control center and liquefied natural gas plant and traveled to the Washington, D.C., area, for seminars at Virginia Tech’s Advanced Research Institute as well as the World Bank, the American Petroleum Institute, and ExxonMobil. In evaluations submitted at the program’s close, the participants all gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up, citing the “enlightening” and “thought provoking” presentations; the program’s “diversity,” including its combination of learning and sightseeing activities; and the “meticulous planning and flawless execution.”
The participants praised the hard work of Smith, Singal, and Management and Professional Development assistant Karen McCollum in organizing the arrangements and their “flexibility and concern.” Their suggestions for improvement included extending the program to two weeks, which would provide more time for interactive discussions.