2022 GMiS Luminary Honorees

Born in Texas to El Salvadoran immigrants, Javier Bonilla had a difficult childhood as his mother navigated financial and mental health challenges that required Javier and his sister to spend years with relatives in El Salvador.  The timing could not have been worse, as El Salvador was in the middle of a bloody civil war, and visions of artillery barrages near his grandparents’ country home when he was only five remain fresh in his memory all these years later.

After working through her challenges as best she could, Mr. Bonilla’s mother brought her children home to Houston and, through much hard work and sacrifice, created enough stability for young Javier to excel in school. He would earn acceptance to Prairie View A&M University, where he pursued mechanical engineering and graduated cum laude with a 3.89 GPA.

Mr. Bonilla joined Chevron full time in February of 2014 as a production engineer with the San Joaquin Valley Business Unit. His performance led to a series of promotions culminating with his appointment to his current position as a reservoir engineer with Chevron’s asset development division in 2019.

In just a few short years in this role, Mr. Bonilla has led multiple cross functional teams to develop and mature 10 new drilling projects consisting of over 100 new production wells and representing over $60 million in value. His efforts contributed to a new development plan that will deliver an estimated 3 million barrels worth of additional oil output.

Outside of his work, Mr. Bonilla serves as the site lead for Chevron’s Somos Latino network, where he‘s coordinated mentoring programs, back-pack drives, and STEM awareness for underserved students.