2021 GMiS Luminary Honorees

As a strategy-focused Petroleum Engineer, Carolina Diaz Vargas has been recognized for delivering critical high-value deepwater projects safely, on time and on budget with a rapidly increasing scope of responsibility and financial accountability.

Her current assignment on Shell’s VITO Subsea Project gives her direct financial accountability for up to $46 million worth of the project’s scope while overseeing contractor engineering, coordinating design reviews, schedule management, cost control and numerous other responsibilities.

Growing up in Bogota, Colombia as the daughter of a college computer science/math professor and an elementary school teacher mother, Ms. Diaz Vargas arrived in the U.S. at the age of 10 when her dad went to get his master’s degree at the University of Oklahoma.

It wasn’t long before she was attending the same university to earn her B.S. in Petroleum Engineering. Joining Shell after her graduation, Ms. Diaz Vargas rose quickly through the engineering ranks to reach her current position in the company.

Besides her challenging technical role, she has also taken on significant leadership roles within two Shell employee resource groups: Women Adding Value Everywhere, for which she has held multiple volunteer roles since 2016, and the Shell Hispanic Employee Network, where she currently serves as Houston chapter president.