We are bringing forward the humans behind the Signol app - they're a bunch of incredibly talented and diverse people that we hope you'll be pleased to meet. In this tenth blog post, get to know Michael Linn, our Global Key Account Manager.

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Hi Michael, let’s start with your background before Signol.

I was born and raised in Burma (Myanmar), a country based in South-East Asia, that borders nearly half the World’s population. I spent a good part of a decade studying and working in the UK, graduating with a BSc in Chemistry from University of Aberdeen and an MSc in Project Management from Robert Gordon University. 

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I relocated back to Asia in 2015 to be part of the growing opportunities that were available at the time in the emerging markets. I started my career in Business Development at a boutique resource investment firm, structuring off-take agreements with local mine owners to secure long-term resource supply to global traders. I then worked in a commercial, supply & trading role for Puma Energy, part of Trafigura group, overseeing commodity financing, shipping and storing physical cargoes in South-East Asia. My most recent role prior to Signol was at Woodside Energy, Australia's largest Oil & Gas producer, where I was responsible for driving commercial negotiations with multinational energy companies and the government of Myanmar for domestic and export gas sales agreements. 

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So, how did you get involved in Signol?

I was introduced to Signol by Gavin Laidlaw, our current Chief Commercial Officer. Gavin was my former Country GM at Puma Energy and presented this exciting opportunity to join a rapidly growing company and clean-tech industry. I was immediately intrigued by the scalability of the product and understanding how behavioural change technology can deliver meaningful fuel and emissions savings in hard-to-abate sectors such as the aviation and maritime industry. 

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How has your role at Signol evolved since you’ve joined?

I joined Signol in early 2022, at the start of its scaling journey. We were in the early stages of commercial success and our main focus was to bring new contracts, onboard multiple customers simultaneously and expand our operations efficiently. It is an exhilarating experience, where from day one I was involved in developing B2B sales strategies, drafting commercial contracts and supporting our diverse corporate customers through various stages of the onboarding process. My role has not changed significantly since, but as we are onboarding more customers, my focus for the next three months will be supporting our Ops team with internal process improvements and developing robust stakeholder engagement plans. 

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What does it feel like to work in a Start-up, given your previous roles in large established organisations? 

It’s really exciting to be part of a purpose-driven company with a great culture. Everyone I work with in Signol is mission-oriented and I am proud to be part of such a talented and motivated team that is dedicated to making a real impact in decarbonisation and tackling climate change. I also enjoy the speed and agility that comes with being in a startup environment. This, I believe, is one of the key advantages of working in a small company over large traditional organisations where the decision making process can be bureaucratic and painstakingly slow., There are of course things I miss from working in large corporations such as unlimited resources, brand recognition and the financial firepower to support you with the projects. 

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How has your multidisciplinary background in working with Energy companies prepared you for this role? 

Signol’s customers are in aviation and maritime, two hard-to-abate sectors that are heavily regulated and facing mounting pressure from unprecedented changes in the geopolitical landscape. Their operations are global, decision-making processes can be extremely complex and require approval from multiple stakeholders to onboard a new product. 

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My previous experiences in working with Global Energy companies have provided me with insights and industry know-how to understand the commercial drivers and I felt uniquely placed to help Signol navigate such complexities and sell to large B2B customers. 

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What differentiates Signol from other decarbonisation solutions in the market? 

Signol is a unique software product that takes on a people-centric approach to fuel economy, creating commercial, environmental and social value at speed. In transport operations, critical decisions are still made by skilled human operators. We believe that captains and crews have the potential to drive huge carbon reductions when they are given the right data, but there weren’t any software solutions designed to influence actions across multi-modal organisations. So we created Signol - a low cost, low friction solution to greenhouse gas emissions and operational efficiency without a burdensome upfront investment and a costly hardware upgrade to your fleet. If this interests you and want to learn more about the product, book a demo with me on this link.

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And here's a little trivia with Michael: