Ed Walsingham

Ed Walsingham is Director of Operations at OPITO, the global, not-for-profit, safety and skills authority for safety-critical industries. Ed oversees OPITO's strategic operations and quality assurance activities across OPITO’s global Centres of Excellence in Europe, Asia Pacific, North and South America and the Middle East and Africa. With more than 15 years of international oil and gas industry experience, Ed brings extensive expertise in strategy, operations and stakeholder engagement. Prior to joining OPITO in 2026, he served as Head of Strategy and Membership at the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP), where he led the organisation's strategy function, coordinated the IOGP Board of Directors, advised the CEO and delivered major strategic reviews. Throughout his career, Ed has worked closely with industry leaders across global markets, including advisory roles with McKinsey & Company and Independent Project Analysis. His experience spans operational excellence, strategic planning and organisational transformation, providing him with a deep understanding of the workforce, skills and collaboration needed to support the future of the global energy industry.

Session Overview

Thursday, 5 November

10:00

Workforce & Skills Plenary Hall B 10:00 - 10:45

Skills resilience: from static frameworks to adaptive workforce systems

Energy organisations are navigating decarbonisation, an ageing technical workforce, a scarcity of digital and data skills, and rapid technology change at once. Traditional skills frameworks are often too slow and static to respond. Taxonomies exist in many organisations but frequently lack validation and currency, and workforce planning is hampered by self-reported, inconsistent or outdated data. Advanced organisations are shifting to a model where skills are inferred from actual work patterns and then validated and refined by employees over time. Embedding capability assurance, including verified skills, credentialing and auditability, ensures workforce data can be trusted in high-stakes operations. These systems increasingly underpin the ability to sense emerging gaps, mobilise verified talent and redeploy skills continuously as demands evolve. Organisations that build living workforce systems will adapt faster; those relying on static snapshots will find their capability data is always already out of date.

Attendee Insights:
Examine the shift from static skills libraries to adaptive systems learn from work patterns and understand how AI-enabled workforce intelligence accelerates validation, reskilling and redeployment while strengthening resilience.