This month, we’re highlighting the Energy Industries Council (EIC). Amanda Duhon, Regional Director for North & Central American answers our questions.

1) Describe your company and its relationship to the UK.

The Energy Industries Council (EIC) is the UK’s leading, not-for-profit, energy trade association, providing dedicated services to help its 600+ UK and global member companies to identify and win energy business globally. Established in 1943, we are currently celebrating 75 years of excellence in delivering high-value market intelligence to members who provide goods and services to the energy industry, through our online global CAPEX project and O&M databases EICDataStream and EICAssetMap, respectively, which cover the oil and gas, power, nuclear and renewables sectors. Along with this data, we publish various industry and regional market reports, business reports, a quarterly industry magazine – Energy Focus, and host events globally from our three offices in the UK, Houston, Rio Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. At many EIC events, we bring in project decision makers to provide a full, detailed picture to members around attainable business wins.

2) What’s been your biggest success at work, either personally or as a company/organization?

We are a membership organization. We are funded by and overseen through our board of directors comprising of our membership. When I began working for the EIC, which had an office in Houston for almost twenty years, we had only engaged with about 20 percent of our members in the North & Central America region. To put this into numbers, we had about 400 member companies active in the region. About 80 percent of that number had operations in Texas, and 90 percent of that were based in Houston. Over the last few years, the team and I in Houston have undertaken engagement with almost 100 percent of our members in the region.  We’ve seen a significant uptake in the number of our members utilizing EICDataStream, attending our industry events such as EIC Connect Oil & Gas USA, and day-to-day engagement around various business needs. These efforts are sure to help many more UK companies and international companies with a UK interest, to identify and win business, to create local jobs and feed into the local economy.  This is our biggest success, and we need to do more of this as Brexit is around the corner, and exporting is a key business development strategy our CEO Stuart Broadley is promoting. On a personal note, international trade is a passion of mine, and I take great pride in playing a role, either directly or indirectly, to promote this through my work.

3) What does the BABC provide to you that you can’t find anywhere else?

I have a long history of working with the BABC from my time at the British Consulate and over the last years working for the EIC.  The EIC is highly engaged with the BABC globally, serving on the regional boards and collaborating often. Here in Houston, the BABC provides an avenue for knowledge sharing across the three leading industries in the city: energy, medicine, and aerospace.  Identifying and optimizing synergies between industries are a key tool for the energy sector in ensuring we meet energy demand over the coming years. The BABC has taken the lead in Houston to facilitate discussions across industry on these topics through events such as the BABC Awards Dinner, and a membership comprised of leaders within Houston’s key markets.  Following last year’s BABC Business Awards, these synergies and innovations were clearly depicted through keynote speakers painting the links between cardiovascular surgery and pipeline engineering. Applying techniques and sharing knowledge around blockages, whether in an artery or a gas pipeline, a blockage may be resolved by some of the same methods. How fascinating is that!

4) What’s the largest thing you want to accomplish in 2019, and how can the BABC or its member companies help?

We recently launched two new levels of membership, Overseas Global Membership and Primary Americas. We want to be the leading energy trade association across the UK borders and globally, and we already have a recognized international brand.  With this being said, our membership voted to allow non-UK registered companies to become members of the organization, to further our reach to project decision makers and potential partners for UK Plc.  In 2019, we will look to engage with the energy industry globally, and build our membership base. This is my goal for 2019, and partnering with organizations like the BABC provides the EIC further credibility, and the opportunity to collaborate through initiatives like the UK Collaborative, EIC Connect Oil & Gas USA. Both are a means to further promote trade between the region and the UK.  As the EIC is a UK Strategic Trade Partner, it just makes since for us to partner as much as we can around energy supply chain trade.

5) Personally, what’s your favorite UK export?

Do I really have to pick? I love the UK supply chain across sectors, such as academia, R&D, energy, fashion, creative media, etc. However, my true love and passion is infrastructure, specifically, offshore wind! The UK offshore wind supply chain is exporting to more than 20 countries already and this is expected to quintuple over the next 10-12 years! The UK has a long history in this sector and is THE world leader with about 36 percent of installed capacity globally.  It is also strategically placed to assist in the burgeoning US offshore wind market, and I take great interest in ensuring we can fly the Union Jack in US offshore waters via the UK supply chain, providing the lessons learned and excellence from its experience in offshore wind in the UK.