Oil, Gas, and Mining
Professional Services
Technology, Information and Media
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Tarja Strahlman

16+ years leading GTM strategy, scaling teams, and sales & marketing growth in energy transition.

About Me

I am a collaborative and energetic commercial leader with 16+ years experience of scaling go-to-market functions across energy and industrial B2B sectors, in global corporate and venture-backed scale-up companies. I have repeatedly stepped into commercial leadership at inflection points: building sales and marketing functions from the ground up, defining go-to-market strategy and pipeline for applied AI propositions, and owning multi-million-dollar P&L through periods of corporate restructuring and rapid growth. I bring a unique combination of strategic direction-setting with hands-on delivery, budget ownership, and cross-functional team leadership, and am equally comfortable navigating ambiguity whether in dynamic scale-up or global matrix organisations.

Jurisdiction

Finland | United Kingdom

Notable Employer

  • Commercial Leadership at Capalo AI
  • Customer Director, Energy Practice at Faculty AI
  • Various Sales & Marketing at Shell

Experience

Seniority LevelDirector
Years of Experience15-20 years
Current StatusActive
Commercial LeadershipNotableCapalo AI
2025 - 2026

Owned a number of roles in the Capalo AI Leadership Team, in charge of the commercial function. - Scaled sales team from 4 to 10 in my first four months, established workflows to enable rapid but sustainable growth. Spearheaded market entry to seven new markets in addition to solidifying pipeline in the existing four: growing sales funnel by 320% and contracted capacity by 660%, surpassing 1GW of customer traded power capacity signed. - Lead marketing strategy and execution with constrained resources. Crafted marketing organisation from the ground up and single-handedly ran it for a time. Accountable for marketing delivery: content, messaging, sales enablement, events, website, social media & strategic direction. - Lead Key Account Manager team, for customers in Nordics, Baltics and CEE region (€9m rev). Accountable to largest account satisfaction. Owned customer experience, retention and growth. - Audited and built customer journey process from scratch, driving CRM adoption and continuous improvement sales excellence practices. - Leadership Team member central to building governance for risk identification and mitigation strategies, ensuring an inclusive culture and employee resilience through coaching.

Customer Director, Energy PracticeNotableFaculty AI
2023 - 2025

- Defined energy generation service line, pipeline and GTM strategy. Pipeline value £2.5m+ comprising infra funds, energy majors, solar and offshore wind IPPs. - Led consultative sales of bespoke AI solutions. Sr. oversight of ‘crown jewel’ client delivery: algorithm IP creation for DRIFT Energy (green hydrogen production / £500k rev). - Energy Practice LT member, leading cross-functional bid and project delivery (data scientists, ML engineers and PMO). Line management, recruitment, talent development.

Various Sales & MarketingNotableShell
2010 - 2023

Venture Lead. OREN Solutions (Shell), London 01 2021 – 03 2023 - Accountable for commercial & product strategy and delivery. $500k budget, pioneered SaaS sales within Shell, secured 1st paid pilot with global mining client ($50k). - Leadership stability: coached team through corporate re-organisation and a product pivot, with continued delivery. Restructured Commercial Team, resulting in tripling of sales funnel. - Positioned OREN Data Platform as the standard technology stack across Shell customer-facing use cases, saving months of development time and $100k’s in investment. Digital Services Manager. Shell Lubricants, London 05 2018 – 12 2020 - Led global Services strategy review: Digital Services portfolio, feature roadmap and GTM. Executed strategy rollout and Product deployment through hundreds of regional stakeholders, stagnant prevailing culture, processes and KPIs (90+markets/$10m rev). - Commercial Lead LubeAnalyst oil analysis platform. $3m+ budget, Product Manager hiring & global margin growth. Recognition from Shell CEO-2. Global Account Manager. Shell Lubricants, London 08 2017 – 04 2018 Bottom-line delivery for OEMs ($6m rev). Price negotiations, deal design and ops delivery. Tender & Contracts Manager. Shell Lubricants, Doha, Qatar 11 2013 – 07 2017 - Led deal structuring, bid strategy & contract negotiation with global industrial OEMs ($280m contract portfolio). Optimised deal value, compliance and contract lifetime value. - Financial Advisor for an Auto OEM ($100m rev). Winner of 5 Global VP Awards. Marketing & Sales. Shell Downstream, London & Manchester 2010 – 2013

Education

Masters of International ManagementRotterdam School of Management
2007 - 2009
Degree of Business Studies with LanguagesBournemouth University
2003 - 2007

Skills

Core skills10
Interests8
Languages2

Skills

Energy Transition
P&L Accountability
EnergyTech
GTM strategy & execution
Sales & marketing leadership
Team building & scaling
Market entry & international expansion
Change leadership
cross-functional leadership
Commercial function building

Interests

Motivation & resilience during change
Talent development in commercial teams
Scale-up commercial build-out
Applied AI in energy
Energy transition & decarbonisation
Net zero & climate innovation
transformation in complex organisations
Battery storage & flex in energy markets

Languages

English
Finnish