Innovative thinkers

Louise Goetz

Having grown up on a farm northwest of Aberdeen, Scotland, Louise Goetz is no stranger to hard work and grit. Like many kids in her small town, she had difficulty deciding what to do after graduation. She considered joining the military, but was intrigued by the idea of becoming an engineer after attending a summer camp program for girls. The program was designed to interest young girls in careers in science and engineering. Goetz said, “I realized that mechanical engineering would allow me to go into almost any field.”

Inspired to enter into a career in which women are a valued minority, she later earned a BEng degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK.

Goetz took her first position as projects engineer with aircraft manufacturer Rotortech Ltd. in Cambridge, England, where she was responsible for the design and development of the helicopter overhaul shop.

It wasn’t until Goetz took a position as manufacturing engineer, with Vetco Gray, that her career began to shift in the direction of oil and gas. There, Goetz was tasked with establishing a standard cost baseline for subsea wellhead equipment, and was gradually introduced to the engineering side of the industry.

For 15 years, Goetz held various positions with Vetco Gray and Vetco International, covering everything from internal sales to training.

In 2007, Goetz joined GE Energy, where she climbed her way to global engineering drilling lead. Responsible for the direction and the professional guidance of the drilling engineering organization for the broad drilling portfolio of GE products servicing the oil and gas industry, Goetz oversees the execution of major company projects around the world.

One of these projects, 20K PSI Drilling Systems, has been an ongoing venture for the company. Under Goetz’s direction, GE designs, tests and manufactures new 20-ksi BOPs, risers and other smart technology products. With this groundbreaking technology, operators can explore deepwater basins that would otherwise be inaccessible with conventional 15-ksi hardware. The technology permits deepwater equipment to efficiently operate in HPHT reservoirs.

Maersk Drilling has already ordered four BOPs and two risers to be used in the Project 20K with BP, a joint study agreement to develop conceptual engineering designs for a new class of progressive technology drilling rigs.

The project also includes the SeaONYX Surface Control System, which is specifically designed for offshore drilling operations, and SeaLytics BOP Advisor software, a data analytics system that allows troubleshooting, prediction and identification of impending complications. These programs offer a large support network, robust diagnostics and an enhanced user interface, which benefit operators by enabling preventative maintenance, decreasing downtime due to repairs, and ensuring reliable controls for deepwater drilling systems. This advanced technology will offer new degrees of reliability and performance to the equipment used in offshore exploration.

After joining GE, Goetz saw an opportunity to encourage young women to pursue careers in science and technology, as she was once inspired to do as a young girl. Not unlike the program that she had participated in as a child, Goetz became the co-lead for the GE Girls initiative, an educational outreach project now sponsored in nine cities across the U.S.

The program, meant for middle school-age girls, aims to excite and retain interest in STEM fields. The GE Women’s Network created the summer program, not only to share GE’s technology brand, but also to facilitate important interactions between career role models and students. Goetz said, “I think this program is so important. I don’t know what I would be doing if I hadn’t attended that camp. By volunteering with this program, everything has really come full circle.”