Young minds help fuel bold ideas. Read how Baker Hughes empowers emerging talent to learn, grow, and lead the future of energy.
Since 2020, a Baker Hughes program designed to accelerate the progress of outstanding graduates and entry-level professionals, has topped up the talent available to Baker Hughes’ team managers. The desire of the next generation of employees to drive the energy industry forward has been channeled into satisfying results. The program is called ASPIRE.
“We are bringing in people who want to make a difference,” says Ana Hinkle, Senior Engineering and Technology Manager, and ASPIRE program leader. “The profile we’re seeking is people with energy who want to be hands on and get to work, people with a thirst for learning.”
So far, 600 early career candidates have completed the program and in the first half of 2025, 155 ASPIRE associates were at the deep end of their two-year odyssey.
Participants in the program complete three or four rotations of six months to a year in different areas of the company. Some assignments reflect their specialties developed at university; others stretch them to contribute to divisions that may be alien to them in the first instance.
Electrical engineer Eugenia Pisciella has just completed her chosen four rotations: first, in the Electrical Systems Engineering Team, she applied her master’s thesis on salt-based batteries for energy storage, completed at the Italian University of Bologna, to the development of alternatives to traditional battery technologies within the Baker Hughes product range.
Her second six months were spent working on in-sourcing production of electrical control-and-protection panels with the Baker Hughes hardware control team.
Then she completely changed direction: “I moved into the product leadership team of centrifugal compressors.” Eugenia developed an app that collates information to make a competitive assessment of the market regarding centrifugal compressor applications. “As project manager,” she says, “I also followed some New Program Development projects, so I discovered how the company works to bring the best products to our customers.”
Eugenia’s final six months on ASPIRE were devoted to improving the company’s access to control cabins. “They are a critical item for Baker Hughes. Lead times from order to delivery can be long, so we have been researching how to improve it.”
A panoply of career paths
Early career applicants can enter one of six ASPIRE streams: supply chain, digital technology, finance, sales and commercial, field engineering, and engineering and technology.
The aptitude and passions of candidates determine which stream they are channeled into. Wherever they enter, says Ana Hinkle, progress through the program is a series of very steep learning curves.
“We want to make sure they are continuously challenged,” she explains. “They never get to a plateau.” Exposure to various areas of the company is a feature of the program. Access to executives and senior leaders is guaranteed and ASPIRE associates are encouraged to build strong networks as they go. “They’re not expected to become an expert in any area, but they are expected to learn, to contribute with fresh ideas and come to work as a change agent,” says Ana.
Baker Hughes’ leaders dedicated to supporting new talent
Collaboration is essential to the success of such a program. Baker Hughes executives, managers and colleagues are keen to share critical information and take time to explain processes and procedures with program participants. The benefit of their experience is very valuable to ASPIRE employees.
Aditya Choumal, a chemical engineer and ASPIRE associate, also within the Engineering and Technology stream, says he was blown away by how generous people throughout Baker Hughes are in sharing their expertise and devoting time to helping associates on an accelerated early career path.
Before applying to join ASPIRE, Aditya completed a six-month internship with Baker Hughes in Bengaluru, India, developing blue ammonia and blue urea solutions with Allam cycle and liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) to enable the supply chain for hydrogen as a clean energy source. His work earned him a Baker Hughes Energy Technology Prodigy Award. The award, he says, is usually given in recognition of between one- and four-years contribution in a field.
Aditya particularly credits Maneesh Pandey, senior engineering technology manager at the Baker Hughes Bangalore office, as a collaborative manager with both “brilliant” technical and commercial knowledge. “Working together, we were able to register several patents that strengthen the company’s portfolio and its reputation for R&D.”
Personal development, inclusive experiences and international opportunities
In tandem with their rotations, ASPIRE participants are involved in personal development camps and conferences that focus on leadership competencies, project management, business acumen, change management and advanced presentation skills. They are also encouraged to engage in global industry events.
Aditya’s second rotation on the ASPIRE program was on the commercial side of the reciprocating compressor team in Florence, Italy – his first ever overseas experience. He says, “I was the must-win product manager. I had a cross-functional team – someone from supply chain, someone from engineering, someone from sales and so on. It broadened my horizon of contacts in the Climate Technology Solutions product group.”
He says two things come to mind when he recalls this assignment. First: “I would say the world outside is full of opportunities and good people who are ready to welcome you. Baker Hughes people are so humble and generous. Their hospitality, the way they call you for a coffee, the way they include you in their football games is very inclusive.”
Secondly, he says, while he was with the reciprocating compressor team, he read about the approaching World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. “My assignment leader at the time was the commercial director. I asked if anyone from the company was going to the summit, saying I would really like to attend. He immediately gave me the go ahead to join the team there.”
Determined to do justice to this opportunity, Aditya read up on speakers, exhibitors and attendees and prepared a list of questions. “I got there, and I explored everything. The conference led me to take my third ASPIRE rotation in electrolyzers, machines that generate hydrogen by splitting the H2 molecules from water – H2O.”
He adds, “Electrolyzers are the next big thing in the energy transformation and Baker Hughes is investing to innovate. We can do more in this field.”
Taking on the big energy challenges
Baker Hughes’ leaders are fully supportive of the mission and purpose of the ASPIRE program and regularly take time to talk with participants, says Ana. “They know it’s critical for us to advance the talent pipeline.” Exposing early career talent to various parts of the business creates a unique opportunity for breaking down silos and sharing best practice across divisions.
It also accelerates development and innovation. “If a young talent is in a meeting, discussing opportunities or next steps and the team doesn’t know the answer to a question or how to overcome a barrier, their experience may mean they can connect with someone in another department who can provide insight.”
Ana says, “The biggest industry challenges are around energy expansion and how to accelerate the process towards sustainability.” She says that as a pioneer of new energy, Baker Hughes “provides the ideal environment for emerging talent, people who have had access to new thinking and research in universities, to apply their knowledge”.
Eugenia Pisciella observes that not all development needs to be a totally new idea. Reviewing processes for design and manufacture of the electrical control panel, for instance, is an opportunity to do things better than previously. Her development of a salt-based energy storage technology is another example. “We have always supplied batteries with past established technologies for projects that need energy storage, but for some applications salt batteries can be the best solution, not only in terms of costs and sustainability – because they are totally recyclable – but they have some advantages in terms of safety and installation simplification.”
Such fresh perspectives are welcomed by team managers at Baker Hughes. “Today, managers contact me to hire from the program. They say they never imagined new talent could have such an impact,” says Ana. She sees evidence every day that “ASPIRE participants are a positive influence on team dynamics and for the approaches and ideas that they bring. Teams are loving it.”
