Smart, Creative and Business Savvy: These Women are Leading the Way in Alberta

Tiffiny Vaxley – Roke Technologies Ltd., Canadian Solutions Manager

The biggest hurdle as a woman in the oil and gas industry and being in a leadership role is being confident in my decisions and and communicating my opinions without being self-conscious”. – Tiffiny Yaxley

Born in Quesnel, British Columbia, Tiffiny Yaxley’s passion for oil and gas related geology was sparked during a summer of field work related to modern depositional environments on the coast of Oregon during her undergraduate years. During the summer and fall of 2005, she participated in an industrial internship program at Advantage Energy Trust which led to a summer job at Talisman Energy in the summer of 2006. After graduating from the University of Alberta in 2007 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Geology, Tiffiny continued her pursuit of oil and gas geology. Armed with a year of industry experience, she secured her first job with BP Canada in 2007.

At BP, Tiffiny was exposed to formal training, which combined with mentoring, allowed her to develop an effective professional development plan. During her time at BP, Tiffiny worked on a team that was developing the Doig Phosphate in BC and exploring the potential of the Montney Formation in the same area. The Montney Formation is a major shale oil and gas play with reserves found in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin of BC and Alberta.

The most challenging part of Tiffiny’s career started with a decision to leave her job at BP in the fall 2008 to support her husband as he pursued an expat position in Denver. The timing could not have been poorer with the fall of the market in October 2008 leading to her first unemployment experience. Ironically, it was during this time, she was able to develop important career and life skills. Although she never did get an industry job in Denver, she was able to refine her resume and knew the reception staff at every oil company in downtown Denver. Through this experience, Tiffiny learned how valuable self-motivation and organizational skills can be. But most importantly, the need to develop skills to handle rejection and disappointment has been a great asset in her current position as a sales manager.

Tiffiny has been passionate about volunteering with a number of societies including the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG), Canadian Well Logging Society (CWLS), American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). Tiffiny has written a SPE paper for the joint SPE / CSUR conference last October on Roke’s technology and a core data set in the Montney, in conjunction with Seven Generations Energy.  She has found volunteering, especially with the young professional arms of industry societies, to be rewarding at both a personal and professional networking level. Her active participation in various societies has led to her technical sales position at Roke Technologies. In only two years with Roke, Tiffiny was able to secure a management position. As the Canadian Solutions Manager at Roke her responsibilities include business development, supervising the junior technical team and all Canadian sales. A natural leader, Tiffiny understands the need to connect people for their individual goals as well as their leadership aspirations.

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