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When Alejandro de Castaneda joined Weatherford in early 2023, he brought along a global mindset. With an MBA and over twenty years of experience on the international stage, de Castaneda took on the role of vice president of finance for the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) function for the global oil field service company, which operates in over seventy countries.
“The best way for me to drive change is through collaboration,” de Castaneda says. “To have effective collaboration, you need to be able to build trust and strong relationships. It is important to understand the business and the people you are working with and the realities of different cultures.”
Since de Castaneda joined Weatherford, the team has been focusing in simplifying the company processes, the footprint, the service quality, and creating more value for shareholders. All of these initiatives aim to make the company more profitable, agile, and resilient.
Weatherford has seen immense growth in their profit over the past three years, as well as unprecedented cash generation.
“When I received the call to join Weatherford I had no doubts. . . . The technology has always been there, and our products and services are top notch,” de Castaneda says. “The company was already undertaking a profound change, and we had to continue executing the strategy and increasing the focus on what we can do at the company’s bottom line—how we make sure the revenue we generate has the quality to translate in returns, profitability, and free cash flow.”
“To have effective collaboration, you need to be able to build trust and strong relationships.”
Alejandro De Castaneda
Part of that process includes unifying Weatherford’s strategy across the globe. His international experience allows him to see ways of accomplishing that goal while also being aware of the particularities of different countries and regions.
Originally from Spain, de Castaneda began his university studies in Madrid and finished in Italy before earning his MBA at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. He earned a spot in General Electric’s rigorous Financial Management Program in Italy, in which he completed four-to-six-month rotations in different positions within finance in Italy and the UK.
Afterward, de Castaneda landed a role within GE Oil and Gas and was assigned to manage the finance department throughout Latin America. He was based in Houston while still reporting to the headquarters in Italy.
“I was doing a lot of business integration across the region and it was a tremendous learning experience because each country is very different from the other,” de Castaneda explains. “Argentina is very different from Venezuela, even if they speak the same language. Brazil has nothing to do with Argentina, even though they border each other. It was very rewarding from the standpoint of meeting different cultures, but also because I had the opportunity to help to integrate businesses together from different realities and gain tremendous experience as a leader.”
In 2017, de Castaneda moved on to Exterran to lead and rebuild the FP&A function. His previous experience at GE and his process-oriented mindset was critical to build the new FP&A organization, reshape financial forecasting, enhance analysis capabilities, and help grow the company through streamlining processes and connecting financial performance and operations.
“Being open to understanding other cultures helps you tremendously to shape the way you work and to become a better leader.”
Alejandro De Castaneda
His continued focus on business operations moved de Castaneda out of finance to commercial operations in 2020 to lead the North and Latin American regions of the company. During that period the Americas region achieved the highest growth, profitability, and free cash flow (FCF) generation since the spin-off. Exterran was acquired in 2022, and he helped with all the transitions to guarantee a smooth merger.
Not long after, de Castaneda got a call from Weatherford. He came on to lead the FP&A organization and help to continue simplifying processes and creating standardization for the very complex global company.
“The idea was to improve financial forecasting capabilities and overall financial analysis,” de Castaneda shares. “We wanted everyone to be accountable and to intensify the focus on returns, profitability, and cash.”
De Castaneda’s global mindset goes beyond his work. Having lived and worked in different countries for decades, his and his wife’s values have been shaped by their understanding of different points of view. The two met when they were working for General Electric in Italy and bring their combine cultures and heritage to their family.
For that reason, de Castaneda’s family decided to put their two kids in an international school to give them as much exposure to a variety of cultures as possible.
“We wanted them to learn why people think in different ways,” de Castaneda explains. “The best way is to surround yourself with diversity. Every year at their school, there is a parade called the March of Nations, and they’ve had more than eighty countries represented, which is absolutely amazing. Being open to understanding other cultures helps you tremendously to shape the way you work and to become a better leader.”
