06/17/2026
I’m an engineer–a problem solver. But, managing
teams of contractors wasn’t one I expected.
When I started working with Shell, my boss
handed me over 120 contracts to manage.
The task: “Figure it out”.
Um…that’s not what I do.
And…how am I supposed to do what I’m
supposed to do when I’m doing this instead.
I didn’t know what else to do, so I started breaking
the problem down into steps…like a good engineer does.
I sorted the $35M worth of contracts.
I had high, medium, and low-risk ones.
I had low-impact and high-impact ones.
I had operational, safety, compliance, and capital ones.
Now, with them sorted, I could get to work.
I went through the process of hiring.
Sourcing and vetting contractors took time.
Then the days of negotiation started.
Eventually, I had a team of contractors,
consultants, and vendors all working to help
me get the projects done.
I could align their work.
Find redundancies.
Eliminate rework.
Save money.
Save time.
This is what I do for professional services contracts now.
I manage a portfolio of headaches,
so my clients don’t have to.
And when I’m done they get 1 invoice instead of a stack.
