Nick Tran

Nick Tran has blazed a trail in his role as head of global veterans affairs and programs at oilfield services giant Schlumberger, building the company’s veteran program to a level that is now considered best in class.

Tran held many roles during his 13 years in the U.S .Army before joining the energy industry. He began his military career in an artillery regiment and spent five years as a combat medic in Special Operations. Tran actively served as a front-line soldier in Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). His awards include two Combat Action Badges, three Army Commendation Medals, the Kuwait Liberation Medal, the Southwest Asia Campaign Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal and the Governor's Twenty Tab.

The veteran initiative that he leads was started at Cameron International in 2014 and adopted into Schlumberger in 2016, when the merger between the two companies was completed. It is credited with having had a positive impact on the lives of veterans across the U.S. and Canada, and is on schedule to expand into other countries in 2020. The program has already helped thousands of veterans to transition into sustainable and meaningful careers, but recruiting is not all it does. Under Tran’s leadership, members of the Schlumberger Veteran Empowerment Team (VET) actively and consistently look for innovative ways to help veterans transition back into society after their service comes to an end.

“I based the Schlumberger veteran program on lessons learned during my deployment in Afghanistan,” Tran said. “You have to give before you take and by embedding ourselves within the veteran community to find out what’s important for the community, what challenges they face and what we as an organization can do help will build the foundation and trust necessary to have an ongoing relationship with the community,” he continued. “Once we’ve built that positive reputation within the veteran community, our efforts to recruit veteran talent will be much more effective and productive.”

The Schlumberger veteran initiative aims to give veterans “a hand-up, not a hand-out”. The company also supports several non-profit Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) such as Combined Arms, NextOpVets, Hiring Our Heroes, SVA, Homes for Heroes, Freedom Service Dogs, VetBiz Battle, We Defy Foundation and Dress for Success.

As a result of Tran’s work on the veteran program while still at Cameron, that company was awarded the Military Friendly Employer Award for the first time in 2016. After he took over the program for Schlumberger, the organization was also awarded the Military Friendly Employer award for the first time, in 2018, going on to win it again this year. Schlumberger was upgraded to the Military Friendly Employer Silver Status level for 2019 and 2020.

Previous awards for Tran’s organizations include the ESGR/Department of Defense (DoD), Above & Beyond Award and the Pro Patria Award, which is the highest award from the Department of Defense at the state level.

Among the people that have inspired and influenced him during his career, Tran credits a former boss, Dan Domeracki, whom he describes as a “phenomenal leader, mentor and dear friend.” Indeed, Domeracki’s influence helped in the shaping of the veteran program.

“He allowed me to stretch my wings by telling me that ‘No one knows this better than you, so don’t let anyone take you off track. I’d rather reel you back than hold you back’. That was the most empowering and inspirational thing that any leader has told me,” Tran said. “To know that I had the latitude to do what I needed to do to build our veteran program the way it needed to be built and to know that he had my back against anyone within the organization made me feel as if I could move mountains.”

Tran is always willing to share his best practices and knowledge with other organizations that are looking to build a robust veteran program similar to Schlumberger.