Katie Mehnert

CEO & Founder-Pink Petro

Katie Mehnert
Hi. I’m Katie.

From the conference room, control room,  to the board room, I’m a People Engineer with 20 years of helping people and companies get curious, connect, share, and grow.

In 2014 I became CEO of Pink Petro™, the first and only global community built by the energy industry for women and men.  My firm, Cognovi offers strategic change management solutions and Pink Petro is a disruptive catalyst to drive a talent shift for women in energy.

My background includes a global career in two operator companies, Shell and BP and prior to that as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies and small ventures. My experience includes divestments, mergers, startups, bankruptcy, globalization of businesses, and health and safety excellence.  My career mantra:  Why waste a good crisis?

My art is people and my passion is energy. 

I enjoy connecting, sharing, and growing people.   I have a distinct passion for women in STEM that goes back to my childhood.  My dad was an engineer and my mom was a nurse anesthetist.  In the 1980s, the energy industry suffered a massive bust so the idea of becoming an engineer was very unappealing to me given that my father lost his job in the big bust.

Twenty years later I was fortunate to have a female leader pull me up.  She convinced me to go for a role in health and safety.  I have worked with the finest technical professionals in the world…engineers, scientists, technologists, former astronauts and military professionals who are finding innovative and safer ways to fuel our world.  There’s no industry quite like energy.  Our story is undervalued and it needs more women in it!

I’m Mrs. Energy with a side of Cajun.

I enjoy long running and despite my slow pace, I’m a medal holder for four World Major Marathons – London, Berlin, New York and Chicago.

I am a proud mom to Ally, my 5-year old ‘Ninja-Neer’, and wife to Mark, who is Associate General Counsel with GE Oil & Gas.

As a native Cajun, I graduated from LSU in Communications, the Baker Executive Energy Program at Rice University, and the Center for Houston’s Future.  I serve on the Board of Directors for the Junior Achievement and am a Executive Council member of Ellevate Network.

Connect with me.  Let’s make change happen!