Conscious CEO
Joel “Monty” Pemberton
Building A Mentorship Culture
Inspiring Leadership and Collaboration for the Common Good
Meet
Joel “Monty” Pemberton
a man who has been positively disrupting Trinidad and Tobago with his innovative ideas and bold undertakings. Most notably, have been his leadership of two indigenous oil and gas companies, and his support for mentorship, leadership development, and entrepreneurship. Monty believes that businesses have a duty to develop people, create future leaders, and positively influence Society. Here he shares with the Review, his journey, and what he believes is possible when people are committed to the common good.
What is the common good?
It’s very simple actually – it’s working for the benefit and in the best interest of everyone. It’s taking personal responsibility for our actions, and the impact they have on the people with whom we interact. In business, it’s ensuring that our shareholders, partners, colleagues, communities, country, and the environment all benefit fairly and justify from our activities. It can sometimes be a challenging balance act, but as individuals, and as companies, we must be always cognisant that we are a part of the whole. We must realise that all our actions, however big or small, all contribute to shaping the world in which we live.
Joel “Monty” Pemberton
Founder and CEO of DeNovo Energy Ltd.
Why is mentorship important?
Mentorship helps push boundaries to make the maybe and the impossible happen. It allows us to learn from the experiences of one, refine them and make things better for the other. Mentorship is about combining and applying knowledge and experience to new situations to achieve more than we can imagine possible on our own. Mentorship allows us to test and strengthen what we already know, explore what we know we don’t know, and identify what we don’t know and need to know, a lot faster through collaboration. The beauty about mentorship is that it’s two-way, in that both the mentor and mentee help develop the other, sometimes without even recognising it.
I have always been inspired by Steve Jobs, his accomplishments, and most notably, his concept of “connecting the dots”. It has been through the process of looking back to move forward that I have been able to reassess my failures and see that they may have actually been fortunate changes that led me to where I am today. From that process, I realised that I have always had mentors, but not necessarily by that name. Throughout my life, mentoring was organic, though not formally recognised as mentoring, and extremely valuable in helping me to synthesise ideas and take risks.
What are some of these areas where we may not traditionally notice mentorship?
When we look at our homes and communities, we can see the impact of early mentorship. Mentorship is present in how we build the concept of a leader as our children grow; in how we influence who they turn to for inspiration and direction, and how they develop into leaders. There is a disparity in the concept of leadership across our communities, and I think the first thing we need to do is recognise that leaders are not just persons in the business community or in government; there are leaders in homes, in schools and communities. In many places there is that someone who has taken up that responsibility to influence others for the common good. It is the someone who encourages you to get out of bed for school or work, or constantly pushes everyone to make the best of the opportunities presented. That person is a leader. Caring about the development of others requires effort and commitment, and those persons, I strongly believe, who are pushing others to excel because of their own life-lessons and experiences, are performing a type of mentorship that we may not readily recognise.
When I was at Trinity Exploration & Production, we adopted a school in Rancho Quemado and introduced the Virtues Project. We wanted to help the kids understand the importance and impact of values and virtues, which was easy because children naturally want to learn. We recognised that the teachers and parents were trying to do their best with what they had, so we expanded the programme to them and saw significant impacts in having a shared-values system. Teachers became better at managing situations and challenges, and greater support was provided by parents. Once you develop core values and virtues, they stay with you for life. Not just with you, but with you and your children, and their children and families. So mentoring children means understanding that parents and teachers are also part of the process, and have direct influence; they need to understand that they are de facto mentors too. More often mothers drive the process, and when the father is also involved, progress is faster. When it’s done as a community, it becomes a lifestyle.
When I was in Cub Scouts at Maria Regina primary school, we would learn about building camaraderie with friends, with colleagues, working together, working as a team, because those concepts were inculcated at that level. You were a pack leader! When I moved into Sea Scouts at St. Mary’s College, the team-building continued, and it became a lot more intense. To get to the house on Gasparee Island, you would have to take a pirogue and row down the islands. You were one of forty boys with one leader, surrounded by the open sea, in a boat with some boys who couldn’t swim, some who were weak rowers, no mobile phones or any form of external communication, so you had to look out for each other, and you learnt to calculate and manage risks. You were responsible and accountable for the lives of others and you learnt to take care of people. I also recall having been mentored and taught leadership by some exceptional individuals, namely Fr. Toba Valdez, Fr. Ronald Mendez and Mr. Buckmire. They were the leaders in my youth.
Those early years also taught us about collaboration, problem-solving, the importance of embracing differences, and leveraging the collective skills of your troop, because that was the culture shaped by our leaders from an institution that is over 125 years old. That was mentorship in one of its purest forms. Some boys were good at building houses or pitching tents, some were good at cooking, so you had to build on the different skillsets. If there was no food, someone would take responsibility for cooking and they would figure out how to do it, with the support of those around. That’s how you fed a troop. That’s how you learnt to be a leader.
What are some of the other “dots” in your development?
I’ve had quite some notable eye-openers and “Ah-Ha” moments in my life. When I left high school, my father sent me to learn accounting at Ernst & Young instead of sending me abroad to study. He believed, after speaking to the Managing Partner of the firm, that the best way to be an accountant was the traditional way, starting from the bottom, learning and studying, working your way up. My early mentors were Colin Soo Ping Chow and Nicholas Gomez, with Arlene Frederick and Lily B. Young playing key roles later in my career at Ernst & Young in Trinidad and Tobago. When I worked in London, Svetlana Perverzeva and Claire Fitzpatrick were influential mentors who helped me adapt to the London office. The lessons and work values I learnt from those individuals were priceless, and are still being passed on by me, to others as well. That is the power of mentorship, as leaders positively multiply their impact through others across generations.
One individual that I will single out is Mr. Thomas Evans, who stood up for integrity, even when it meant losing clients and taking financial losses. His stories became legendary as did he, as others strove to emulate his behaviour. Tommy and the other partners would sit with us in the lunchroom and talk, and that is where life mentoring happened. Those were the moments when you felt synergy – a culture of shared learnings.
When I moved to EY London, that was my first experience of formalised mentorship. The corporate mentorship programme had a strong impact on my professional growth and global outlook. The international exposure in the UK and Europe broadened my understanding of global business and operating across different cultures. This is where I developed the ability to manage change and embrace diversity.
In terms of ‘dots’, one such dot occurred as I mused from my window overlooking Big Ben. At the time life was fast and exciting, but I was beginning to feel that something more was missing, and I couldn’t quite figure out what that was.
I decided to take a sabbatical to figure out what I wanted to do in life. I confided in my parents and opted to live on my savings during this period. My father said one thing that resonated deeply with me, “Monty, whatever you do decide, just remember that Trinidad needs good people. Remember that if you decide to stay there, Trinidad will lose someone”.
So, did the Sabbatical help you find what was missing?
I would say that living away for a bit gives you a bigger perspective. I think that in any profession, it is good to see the global business and potential, and to translate that into how you contribute locally. I returned to Trinidad in 2004 and joined RBTT Merchant bank. I took on the mission to establish the Group’s overall energy strategy but ended up leaving my office in Port of Spain to enter a whole new world in Otaheite. Surprisingly enough, it was in a wooden office with a leaking roof in a rig yard that I found what I was missing. I felt that I was finally in my space. I was developing something new and different. I was forging new frontiers.
In 2005, I joined a small energy company, Ten Degrees North. There was a lot of work to be done, but I enjoyed every moment of it. I enjoyed going out into the oil fields and getting to know everyone working there. That made me feel connected with people and integrally part of the business. I was energised by the feeling that I was making a difference – not just for a business but for the people I worked with.
By 2008, I was the youngest CEO of an upstream company. We eventually rebranded Ten Degrees North to Trinity Exploration & Production, which is part of a great story about a local energy company that continues to be a success today. It was shortly into my tenure that oil prices crashed. What stood out during my time there was the response of our people. During these difficult times, I discovered that by really working together with people we could survive and overcome our challenges and that people will rally behind a leader who cares for them. When I went out to the staff, everyone was saying, “Monty don’t worry, we’re gonna cut costs, we’re gonna work with you, we believe in you”. That pushed me into a new realm of leadership – inspiring others during a downturn in business. My response mirrored their enthusiasm and passion. I was determined to do better, be better and to support every person in staying the course.
But you left?
Yes, despite all that we had been through, I left Trinity – some would say abruptly; but I needed to do so for personal reasons – and I did so on principle. Many people blamed me for Trinity’s crash, which is the responsibility that comes with being the CEO. It was a very difficult point in my life, and I spent a lot of time trying to understand where I failed and where I did well, what mistakes I made, and what I could have done better. I could not blame anyone, because as the leader you are ultimately responsible. I did however learn from that experience and decided to build a new company that would bring the learnings and experiences of the past to create a new future. That’s how DeNovo was birthed.
Holding to my values and being resilient became extremely important for building a new company, because while a lot of people supported me in this new venture, many more did not, including people whom I had considered friends. We did however manage to build an exceptional team, and everyone rallied to make DeNovo a success. Through it all, I think that it is integrity and shared values that sustain us, and I believe that is why DeNovo enjoys so much interest and support today.
Building an organisation from the ground up during an economic downturn, leveraging local leadership and global collaboration, and calculating and managing risks as a team, helped us to build and develop a strong mentorship culture as we grew. That mentorship culture guides all that we do today, and we see the value of it in our continued evolution.
How can mentorship become ingrained in organisation cultures?
There are many models for mentorship, and I think that every organisation should find what works best for them. The key, I believe, is to promote collaboration, openness, sharing, and an appreciation for people and diversity. Everyone brings a unique experience to an organisation and leveraging that in a team yields powerful results.
At Trinity, our sustainability concept was based on two-way mentorship and relied on the “Three Ts” for CSR activities – time, talent and treasure. For any programme in which we engaged, the treasure or money would come from the organisation, but the time and talent would come from our people as active participants in the initiative. I do believe that giving back is a characteristic of good leadership. We worked with the Heroes Foundation to develop and deliver the first Big Brother Big Sister Corporate Workplace Model, and other programmes where we could enable the Three Ts, and the two-way mentorship concept which proved most effective in enhancing the experience and lives of everyone involved.
I have seen how the biggest impact on operations and communities come through human interactions, which is why a core belief when we started DeNovo was that CSR begins with investing and developing our own people. Starting from new allowed us to invest in our people while we invested in our project. We have a relatively young team with bright minds and big ideas, so we connected them with local and global experts and advisors to support their professional and personal growth. We identified a high performing group, and each was engaged as a direct mentee of an Executive Manager. We then got them engaged in a one-year leadership development programme with one of the best global firms and supported their transition into the organisation’s leaders. With our shared- learning culture, the lessons from these engagements are being transferred to the wider team, and their families at home, which by extension has a wider impact on our country. We have formal and informal mentorship arrangements, and with learning and development occurring both ways, we are constantly amazed at how our people and the organisation continue to evolve.
What is the vision for your own life?
My big dream is to help revamp the education system in Trinidad and Tobago to create leaders, not just knowledgeable professionals. We need leaders who are willing to accept responsibility and accountability for their teams, families, companies, and communities. In retrospect, we are seeing that the way we grew up a generation or two ago is disappearing, and with it, the learnings we acquired through that informal mentorship in extended families, teams and communities seem to be fading as well. I hope to have a positive influence on that.
I made some fortunate choices that led me to where I am today. With increasing awareness, I am continually connecting those dots in my life – where I was mentored, where I was willing to take risks, where I made mistakes, how I recovered, who was there to help and support me, and how I enable the development of others. At DeNovo, I want to continue to inspire people to collaborate and become the leaders that our future needs. I want to keep inspiring the team to continue evolving to meet the needs of our changing industry and society, for the benefit of all stakeholders and the common good.
