Dive Brief:
- Baker Hughes Co. appointed Nancy Buese as its new finance chief, effective Nov. 2, according to a company release. Buese is jumping over from Newmont Mining, where she also held the CFO seat.
- Buese is succeeding Brian Worrell, who will be moving to the role of strategic advisor on Nov. 2. He is set to leave the company in the second quarter of 2023, the release said.
- The appointment comes a month after the oilfield-services company announced plans to restructure the organization into two segments – Oilfield Services & Equipment (OFSE) and Industrial & Energy Technology (IET) – in order to cut costs, according to a Sept. 6 release.
Dive Insight:
Buese, 52, is set to receive an annual salary of $900,000 at Baker Hughes and, come the new year, she will be eligible for short-term incentive awards with a target bonus of 100% of her base salary, according to an Oct. 14 SEC filing.
Prior to taking the financial helm of Baker Hughes, since 2016 Buese has been the executive vice president and CFO of Newmont Mining Corp., a Denver-based gold producer. Buese also previously was CFO at Abbott Nutrition and MarkWest Energy Partners, according to her Linkedin profile.
The Houston-based oilfield services giant on Wednesday reported third quarter revenue rose 5.4% to $5.37 billion from the year-earlier period. While CEO Lorenzo Simonelli cited inflation as an ongoing headwind he also said he remained positive about the outlook for the sector, according to the company earnings release.
“The macro outlook has grown increasingly uncertain as the global economy is dealing with strong inflationary pressures, a rising interest rate environment, and sizeable fluctuations in global currencies,” Simonelli stated. “Despite these economic challenges, we remain positive on the outlook for oil and gas. We believe the fundamentals remain supportive of a multi-year upturn in global upstream spending.”
As part of its recently announced reorganization, Baker Hughes is aiming to deliver at least $150 million in cost reductions, according to a company statement. “Our updated structure will allow us to deliver the technologies that the energy transition will demand by further strengthening our existing customer relationships and allowing more operational flexibility, maintaining size and scale to maximize technology investments and capital returns to our shareholders,” Simonelli said in the statement.
Previously many big oil CFOs on second quarter earnings calls signaled they were bracing for inflation even as many reported strong or even – in the case of Exxon – record profits.
