Samantha Rist
About Samantha Rist
Samantha Rist is the VP of People at Hiya and an advisor at OpenWater Group and PeopleTech Partners, with over 25 years of experience in HR and operations across various industries.
Title
Samantha Rist is currently the Vice President of People at Hiya Inc. and serves as an advisor at both OpenWater Group and PeopleTech Partners.
Education and Expertise
Samantha Rist holds a Bachelor's degree in Geological Engineering from Cornell University. She further pursued her education at Heriot-Watt University, earning a Master's degree in Management of the Oil & Gas Industry and a Postgraduate Certificate in Petroleum Engineering. Samantha has specialized expertise in transformational change management and continuous process improvement, contributing to her success in HR and operations.
Professional Background
Samantha Rist has over 25 years of experience in people and business operations, working across various industries from oil and gas to tech. She started her career at Schlumberger, holding several roles over 15 years, including Director - Product Development - Operations - Engineer. She later served as VP Hydraulic Fracturing Monitoring and VP Human Resources. Samantha then transitioned to KATERRA as Head of Self Perform Construction, Head of Human Resources, and Head of Health, Safety, Environment, and Quality. At Ekata, she served as VP People. Currently, she is the VP People at Hiya Inc. and an advisor at OpenWater Group and PeopleTech Partners.
Achievements
During her tenure at Schlumberger, Samantha Rist achieved a 1.5X growth in global revenue while ensuring scalability and efficiency. She also implemented a major organizational restructure that resulted in a 20% year-over-year increase in productivity. At Katerra, she built an HR department from scratch, significantly increasing the organization's global population from under 200 to over 5,000. Samantha was recognized for creating an environment that fosters accountability, empowerment, collaboration, and innovation. She also guided the HR function from due diligence to full integration at Ekata, which was acquired by Mastercard in 2021.