The sixth Youth Day 2020 that has been organized as part of the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum since 2015 was held online on 3–11 December. Rob Veersma, Director for Training & Development at Gazprom International Training, participated in the event as a moderator.
50 best graduates of the Virtual Academy from 31 universities and 11 countries divided into five teams strove for victory in the business game «Subsoil Energy: Back to the Future”. The business game scenario suggested the teams develop a new brand for a notional company named Subsoil Energy and build a project portfolio taking into account the industry development trends.
Each team had a unique opportunity to consult with the experts of the partner companies: Gazprom PJSC, Wintershall Dea GmbH, N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie, OMV AG, Uniper Global Commodities SE.
The multi-day program of the Youth Day was wrapped up with a pinnacle event — meeting with the executives of leading international energy companies “Leadership in times of crisis”. The welcoming address from Sergey Khomyakov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom's Management Committee, marked the start of the event.
The panelists touched upon such topics as crisis as new opportunities, how to remain world leaders in uncertain environment, what competences to develop among employees to respond to challenges in the face of sinking demand for energy resources, and many others.
The meeting speakers — Elena Burmistrova, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom's Management Committee and Director General of Gazprom Export, Sederik Kremers, Chairman of Shell in Russia, Mario Mehren, Chairman of the Board of Wintershall Dea, Thomas Morris, Senior Vice President of OMV Russia Upstream GmbH, Han Fennema, Chief Executive Officer of N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie, Andreas Schierenbeck, Chief Executive Officer of Uniper SE — shared with the young people their visions of modern leadership and their opinions on adaptation of oil and gas market companies to new realities.
The Moderator and Host of the meeting Rob Veersma, Director for Training & Development at Gazprom International Training, underscored that the joint participation of young experts from different countries gives a fresh impetus to the entire oil and gas industry and makes it clear that the youth audience of the project is beyond political and economic differences.
Background
Gazprom International Training B.V. is part of the Gazprom EP International Group. The company was incorporated in Amsterdam in 2011 to regularly provide training in varying fields to the employees and heads of Gazprom EP International, Gazprom PJSC, and its subsidiaries. Gazprom EP International is Gazprom’s upstream operator outside the Russian Federation. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Today, Gazprom EP International operates in two dozens of counties across three continents and is involved in nearly 40 projects of varying magnitude. 2015 saw the launch of Youth Day as part of the V St. Petersburg International Gas Forum (SPIGF). After its great success that year, Youth Day is celebrated annually and makes part of the SPIGF official program. Youth Day seeks to create an interactive educational venue uniting industry experts and talented students from across the world to enable the transfer of knowledge about the energy business and the search of new ideas and solutions. From 2016 onward, Youth Day has been a project of the International Business Congress (IBC). The event is organized by the Higher Economic School of the St. Petersburg State University of Economics, sponsored by the IBC member companies, such as Gazprom, Gasunie, OMV, Uniper, Wintershall Dea, Shell, and partners with Energy Delta Institute, European School of Management and Technology, Schneider Electric, Siemens, and Verbundnetz Gas.
