The Businessmakers Radio Show

Featuring entrepreneurial resources & hundreds of interviews with make it happen entrepreneurs

Women Mean Business - Sheri Roberts-Updike

Sheri Roberts-Updike

Listen Now

This text will be replaced

Extras:

Share:

Summary:

Women Mean Business host Leisa Holland-Nelson, president of ContentActive, interviews Sheri Roberts-Updike, President, Valves & Control for Tyco Valves & Control.

Video and Full Interview Text

Women Mean Business - Sheri Roberts-Updike from The BusinessMakers on Vimeo.

Leisa: Hello, I'm Leisa Holland-Nelson, and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business, where we're going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary doing extraordinary things. Today is an exciting day for me, ‘cause we're actually taping here at the Greater Houston Women's Chamber of Commerce Conference for Women for 2012. My special guest is Sheri Roberts Updike, President of Valves and Control for Tyco Valves and Control. That's a mouthful. I guess I'd love for you to tell me about what you do.

Sheri: Thanks Leisa. I run a manufacturing business that is centered on the oil and gas industry, so we make huge valves for the oil and gas industry around the world. That's been my work for the last two years.

Leisa: And what did you do before that? How did you get to run this kind of a business?

Sheri: So I've always been in the oil and gas industry. For 21 years prior to that, I worked at Shell in various roles. I had run one of our chemicals businesses before I had left Shell and joined Tyco, and before that, I had an incredible opportunity. I was CEO for one of Shell's public companies, in Africa, so that was a great experience.

Leisa: Wow. This doesn't sound like the normal place for women to work.

Sheri: No, it's not the – there are actually many women in the oil and gas industry. Not a whole lot, and it's certainly growing from the time that I joined in the industry and graduated from university.

Leisa: Have you felt especially challenged by being a woman in your role?

Sheri: I – you know, when I first started, I was interviewed when I was CEO, many years ago, and the radio interviewer had asked me, "How's it feel to be a woman in this industry?" and I thought to myself, "Well, gee, I've never really been a man," so I'm not sure that's a good comparative question, but when I first started out, there were very, very few, and I was in the wire and cable business first. That was one of my first sales jobs at Shell, and there were definitely no women, but I didn't know any different. I knew no different, so I've just grown up that way.

Leisa: Okay. So, my last question for you is, since you've arrived at this wonderful position, you are a woman, what would you tell the next generation of women, if there was someone sitting here about entering in your field?

Sheri: There's really three things. One is stick with your passion. If there is any time in your career that you don't feel the energy and the passion for whatever you're doing, change it. So I've – pick your passions and really stick with your passion. The second one is perseverance. So when things don't go so well, if you haven't picked your passion, persevere. Get through it so you can get to your next passion. And then the third one's personality, is I found that I may be a little different than some of my colleagues – not only being a woman, but more energetic and enthusiastic than your stereotypical president, so make your personality work for you. Figure out what works, what is driving that passion, and make it work for you. So those are the three things.

Leisa: Thank you very much. Thank you.

Sheri: Thanks.

Leisa: There you have it. Another extraordinary woman doing extraordinary things. I'm Leisa Holland-Nelson, President and Co-founder of Content Active, Houston's leading web and mobile technology. You can find me at contentactive.com, or follow me at Twitter @lhnelson. We'll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.

Comments and Opinions

blog comments powered by Disqus