#52 - With Dr. Naomi Boness - Stanford U. - on Women in Science, Leading with Authenticity, Difficult Conversations

MINDSETSHIFT with Mickey Feher

We dive in with Naomi Boness (Ph.D.), the Managing Director of the Natural Gas Initiative (NGI) at Stanford University. We talk about the experience of being a female leader on boards and in companies, and what it takes to remain authentic. She shares how she found her mission and purpose in the clean energy sector.

Naomi also discusses her leadership practices and creating difficult conversations that go beyond ideological and political camps. As the Co-Managing Director of the Stanford Hydrogen Initiative, she is an experienced practitioner in the energy sector with a focus on using her background in reservoir geophysics and technoeconomic modeling to develop technology solutions related to natural gas, hydrogen, and decarbonization in both the developed and the developing world. In addition to her research, she teaches classes in earth science and energy engineering, most recently co-designing a graduate class on the Hydrogen Economy. She is passionate about connecting technology developers with industry to accelerate the deployment of new decarbonization technologies at scale and is an advisor to a number of energy startups.

Prior to Stanford, Dr. Boness held a variety of technical and management positions at Chevron. She is also an independent Board Director at Aemetis, a renewable fuels company, and Babcock and Wilcox, a renewable power company; and an advisor to a number of startups in the energy sector. Dr. Boness is a member of the Renewable Natural Gas Coalition Advisory Committee; a member of the Partnership to Address Global Emissions Advisory Council; a member of the Open Hydrogen Initiative Independent Expert Panel; a past invited member of the United Nations Expert Group on Resource Classification; and a past Chair of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists Oil and Gas Reserves Committee. As an advocate for women and gender equality, she is proud to be an Ambassador for the Women in Clean Energy, Education and Empowerment (C3E) Initiative.