Industry events raise questions about gender diversity

Despite BREXIT’s continuing dominance in the UK news, it’s all about algorithms this week as billionaires lead a search for cobalt, and sugar industry leaders invest in traders to support price predictions. In other news, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is starting to divest from non-renewable energies, Shell’s director makes his 2030 predictions and two Texas industry events create questions about gender diversity.

Here is a selection of our top news stories this week:

• Industry events raise questions about gender diversity. SXSW and CERAWeek both take place in Texas this week but with considerably different gender profiles. In Houston, at CERAWeek, only 16% of women are primed to speak, compared to 39% at SXSW in Austin. Although the percentage of female speakers has increased slightly at both events, questions have been raised about the absence of female leaders within oil and natural gas companies. Click here to read more
• Shell director unveils plans for world domination by the 2030s. Maarten Wetselaar, director of the New Energies division, revealed in an interview with Bloomberg Television, the company’s promise to double their investment into New Energies to $2 billion by 2020 resulting in a ‘total package of energy products and services’ and an 8 to 12 percent return for investors by 2030. Click here to read more
• Billionaires have invested in the search for cobalt. A group of billionaires, headed by Bill Gates, have invested in a new start-up business, Kobold Metals, which aims to explore undiscovered cobalt mines using geological data to produce algorithms. Connie Chan, a partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, one of the investors, has described the project as ‘Google Maps for the earth’s crust and below’. Click here to read more

• International sugar companies are turning to algorithms to help predict price changes. While Brazil’s Raizen and France’s Sucre et Denress have formed a partnership, top sugar producer, Alvean, are exploring in-house solutions. Algorithms incorporating supply and demand forecasts, trade flow figures and buy and sell signals are in development and could be ready as early as next year. Click here to read more
• Norway’s largest wealth fund are to reduce investments in oil and gas exploration. Predominantly focused on upstream operations, the divestment could impact 134 companies around the world, including Britain’s Tullow. Following its removal from the coal industry for environmental and financial reasons, the latest move by the sovereign wealth fund has been met with mixed reviews. Click here to read more