Skip to main content
Article
People

“In the Middle of Innovation”: These Three Employees Enrich the Company by Putting Customers First

Dianna Delling
8 min read
Employees are interviewed at NYSE

Share

Keeping up with changes that support customers’ needs and increase employee satisfaction is an important part of building the future at GE Vernova. Though working from different parts of the world, these three team members — who appeared today at the New York Stock Exchange opening bell to celebrate Earth Day — share values, and each one sets an example by bringing talent and enthusiasm to their work in building relationships with people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.

 

Building Bridges for Inclusion: Julia Lima

Woman standing in front of NYSE sign

 

Like a lot of people in Brazil, Julia Lima is wild about volleyball. “I’ve been playing my entire life,” she says. “On the court, what matters is what the person brings to the table, not where we come from or any kind of differences we have as humans.”

The analogy comes in handy when Lima talks about another of her passions: inclusion in the workplace. A lawyer who’s fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, Lima is GE Vernova’s employee relations investigator for the Americas, based in Campinas, Brazil, and leader of the Latin American hub of the Pride Alliance, one of the company’s many employee resource groups (ERGs). Along with ensuring that the company’s policies and actions comply with labor laws, she’s committed to promoting a safe work environment for people of all backgrounds. 

In the workplace, as in sports, success is supported by a team with a variety of strengths and perspectives. “There are thousands of ways to solve a problem — each one of us can take a different path in order to get there, while sharing the same goal,” she says.

Lima joined GE Vernova’s legal team as an intern in 2020 and transitioned to Human Resources in 2021, when she took the role of labor and union relations specialist. As someone who identifies as LGBTQ+, she was immediately reassured by the company’s commitment to inclusion and equality. “I had only been here for a couple of years when I was invited to participate in a global summit,” she recalls. “That experience — flying to New York and talking about inclusion in front of an audience of hundreds — said to me: We’re not only talking about these things, we’re actually standing behind them.”

Working with the Pride Alliance, Lima facilitates workplace discussions about inclusion where all questions are welcome. When approached with curiosity and mutual respect, she believes, talking about our differences leads to greater understanding and builds bridges toward progress.

“It’s a willingness to overcome barriers, even when no one understands how to do it,” she says. “Barriers don’t need to stop us from moving forward. Overcoming them is what makes the journey so special.”

 

Working Together So Everyone Wins: Oguzhan Sekban

Man standing in front of NYSE sign

 

Maintaining a gas turbine over its more than 30-year lifespan requires specialized expertise. Oguzhan Sekban connects GE Vernova customers with the teams that can provide it. As a senior sales manager based in Baden, Switzerland, Sekban negotiates (and renegotiates) long-term service contracts for fleets installed throughout Europe — a job that requires not just interpersonal skills but up-to-the-moment knowledge of evolving technologies, market dynamics, and political landscapes that might affect customers. “We need to come up with creative solutions in these ever-changing conditions, and we want them to be wins for both the customer and the company,” he says.

Sekban works to build win-win situations in the workplace, too. Originally from Türkiye, he joined GE Vernova’s Gas Power commercial sales team in Istanbul in 2016, after completing the company’s two-year rotational Commercial Leadership Program. By the time he transferred to Switzerland in 2018, he was promoting causes he believes in through ERGs like the Pride Alliance, the Sustainability Network, and the Disability Advocacy Network, where he serves as a global operations leader. “Our societies are changing, and it reminds me to create a more inclusive culture, an environment where people can be themselves,” he says. “I think GE Vernova is a good place to be in that regard.”

The company’s mission aligns with his core values as well. “We’re electrifying — our customers are providing electricity to hospitals, schools in Africa, in Asia and so on, bringing a much higher quality of life,” he notes. “And we’re also coming up with solutions to decarbonize the world.” Sustainability is particularly important to him as he considers what the future will hold for his 9-year-old son. “Earth is the only place that we are living in as human beings so far,” he says, “and we need to take care of it, for our kids and for our grandchildren.”

 

A Global Vision: Rebecca Feigl-Varela

Woman standing in front of NYSE sign

 

Rebecca Feigl-Varela grew up in Puerto Rico, earned her mechanical engineering master’s degree in combustion and thermodynamics at the University of California, Berkeley, and married a German citizen. No wonder she brings a global perspective to her work. “My husband and I encourage our children to think as citizens of the world,” she says. “Anything we face, think, or improve benefits from us taking a little bit of a macro view to understand the big picture.”

As senior product manager at GE Vernova, Feigl-Varela oversees reliability for the company’s largest heavy-duty gas turbine fleet. She and her Greenville, South Carolina–based team keep installed base units up and running for customers around the world while also supporting new product introduction (NPI). “We monitor fleet operation, look at the latest technologies, and inject new designs that can accommodate the needs of customers today,” she says. “I sit in the middle of innovation.”

Feigl-Varela came to the company in 2001, when she and her husband, Markus — who also works for GE Vernova, serving as product manager for emerging technologies — moved back to the United States after three years in Germany. For Feigl-Varela, moving forward always involves reflecting on the past. “We look at what worked and what didn’t, and we set goals for what the future needs to look like,” she says. “Then it’s: How do we get there in the most effective and efficient way?”

Feigl-Varela says “there’s no doubt in my mind” that the world can meet decarbonization goals, especially if everyone is on board and allows their intellectual curiosity to run. That’s another message she’s tried to convey to her children — who are now in their 20s — and their friends.

“I encourage the younger generation to be optimistic and trust their ability to shape the future,” she says. “We can’t expect things to happen if we’re not part of the solution.”

 

This special edition of The Current comprises three stories about the 12 employees proudly representing GE Vernova at the New York Stock Exchange on Earth Day. Please enjoy these stories about our technology innovators and operational and systems thinkers

 

GE Vernova group photo 4-22-25