Today, as manager of ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge Refinery, Regina Davis proactively seeks opportunities for growth when mistakes happen.
“To paraphrase Michelle Obama,” the industry executive says, “success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives. Don’t get me wrong—we’re in a business. I want to have the safest, most reliable and most profitable operation. But the primary motive of a servant leader is to help people get to their full potential and to provide them with the means to get there.”
Davis is being honored today as one of Baton Rouge Business Report‘s Influential Women in Business.
At a personal level, Davis understands the impact one person can have on another. She wouldn’t be where she is today without someone else’s help. “During a summer camp in middle school, several ladies in the community took their time to tell us about their careers,” she says. “It ultimately put me on the path to becoming an engineer, even though at the time I didn’t really understand what an engineer did.”
A Louisiana native, she would go on to earn a degree in chemical engineering at Louisiana Tech University as a first-generation college graduate, then land her first gig at ExxonMobil’s Chalmette Refining as a process contact engineer. While there, she would be promoted to roles of increasing responsibility, while also earning her MBA from the University of New Orleans.
