Margaux Moore, Head of Energy Transition Research and Venture Investment for Trafigura, mentions that shipping will represent a large demand for low carbon fuels as the industry decarbonizes and she is excited to be part of the entire lifecycle – from incubation to deployment. Margaux values the time she invested in practicing her communication and public speaking skills and advises us ‘not to take things too personally’, in business.
Margaux believes that a global price on carbon for marine fuels is essential for the maritime decarbonization. When it comes to climate change, what happens between now and 2030 will set the tone for emission reduction over the rest of this century. ”There’s no time like today to make a change and decarbonize.” Margaux highlights.
SAFETY4SEA: How did it come about that you joined the shipping industry and your field of expertise specifically?
Margaux Moore: I joined Trafigura, as part of the graduate programme. We were given the opportunity to live abroad and to rotate across different roles within the company, from operations to risk management and finance. I started in Montevideo, Uruguay in 2015 in the operations team for industrial metals. This was my first interaction with the shipping world. In 2016 I moved to Singapore to be part of our operations team in Asia Pacific, complementing my bulk shipping experience with container shipments.
S4S: What about your current job/role most excites you and why?
M.M.: In my current role I identify new opportunities for research and investment in the energy transition. I am very passionate about the work I do and in the past 3-5 years have seen a real shift in the level of attraction and interest the energy transition is receiving, and rightfully so. We are a generation that will see the changes we orchestrate now. What I find most interesting is building our investment thesis, evaluating the potential of the start-ups, and once we’ve invested, working with the companies to help them reach commercialization and deployment. Ultimately, we are aiming to build new trading flows for low carbon fuels such as ammonia and hydrogen. Shipping will represent a large demand for low carbon fuels as the industry decarbonizes. To be part of the entire lifecycle – from incubation to deployment – is what I find most exciting. When I worked in operations I was responsible for a cargo to be loaded, shipped and delivered to the specification the customer ordered, a process that usually took around 45 days. I have the same satisfaction now although the projects I’m working on take a lot longer than 45 days!
S4S: What is the most worthwhile career investment (in energy, time, money) you’ve ever made?
M.M.: When you’re starting your career, your time and energy are the most valuable things. I learnt – piece by piece – the areas of the Energy Transition I thought could be of interest to our company. Recognising that this wasn’t a focus of today, but was going to be essential for tomorrow and building the expertise and skills to help with that – that’s the best career investment I’ve made. Investing in communication and public speaking skills – practice really does make perfect – has also been very valuable for me and for my confidence in effectively communicating my viewpoint. Eventually, energy and time are not the only thing you can offer your company – and that’s when you know it’s finally starting to pay off.
S4S: If you could give a piece of advice to your 18-year-old-self what would it be and why? What piece of advice should you ignore?
M.M.: Don’t worry if you don’t know what you’ll be doing five years from now. No one does. Good positioning is the best you can do – don’t fuss about the things that you cannot control. I’d ignore the advice I was given to “be patient”. I think there’s a fine line between doing your job, learning and observing, effective positioning and just waiting for opportunities to be offered to you because you work hard. If you want to maximise your luck, your success – you have to position yourself – do your homework, be proactive and figure out what you can do well for your company.
S4S: In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your business life?
M.M.: Not to take things too personally. Not everything you do will be a success, not everyone you work with will like you. You need endurance in this business and building a thicker skin is a good way to achieve that.
S4S: What would you like to change in the current maritime landscape and your area of expertise specifically and why?
M.M.: I want to see shipping decarbonize. It is one of the most efficient ways of transporting the vast majority of the goods our societies consume. I would like to see a global price on carbon for marine fuels, this is key. Also lifecycle measurement of emissions instead of just onboard – so that we decarbonize upstream emissions as well as those emitted on board of vessels. And finally, ambitious decarbonization targets not just for 2050, but also for 2040 and 2030. This is the only way we will truly achieve deep decarbonization of shipping. When it comes to climate change, what happens between now and 2030 will set the tone for emission reduction over the rest of this century. There’s no time like today to make a change and decarbonize.
The views presented hereabove are only those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
