These 4 Women of Distinction are Shaping the Offshore Industry

Karen Windsor – Chief Operating Officer, Atlantic XL Inc.

Karen is responsible for the continued success and growth of Atlantic XL of all operations and for the delivery of innovative and cost-effective solutions and services to Atlantic XL’s clients in North America. With a team of eight others at Atlantic XL, Karen heads up the team that continues to excel in the area of communications systems for Newfoundland oil and gas, mining and utilities industries.

Through her position at Atlantic XL in Newfoundland, Karen also sits on the management team of XL Group Ltd, in Aberdeen, Scotland where she is involved in business planning and quality management. This direct link into XL Group allows Karen to enable any requirement for the transfer of knowledge gained from XL Group’s decades of experience, back to the local Atlantic Canadian XL office.

Karen’s ambitions for her career have led to her success, “I believe that anyone who has a career where they are excited to go to work and are genuinely happy has found success. That being said, I am very fortunate. I have had challenging positions that required hard work and kept me moving forward, mentors that were supportive, and peers that made going to work enjoyable every day. I have two mentors, Bill Fanning and Colin Laird who were there when I needed them for guidance and support but they also gave me the freedom to carve my own way, mind you they are both still on speed dial!

Leadership is about the team Karen says, “In order to lead, you need a team. The Atlantic XL team are a talented and effective group if I do say so myself and they keep me on my toes. Each person brings something different to the table and together we are doing wonderful things. I am a firm believer in not putting all my eggs in one basket so it is important to be diversified enough that we can thrive in more than one environment, but only enough so that we continue to deliver a consistent, quality solution to our clients. Our team is able to deliver at that level.”

“My philosophy is always focus on the big picture and not just where we are going this year or this decade; where could we go by the time our children are our age. We know where we are right now, we have a fair idea of what will happen in the next decade, but what will happen two decades after that? Those are the questions worth asking”.

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