By: Gilbert K. Squires
Past-president of the Miami-Dade Bar
As I reflect on what Black History Month means for me. I decided to share part of my story. From the Isthmus of Panama, I moved from engineering into international arbitration and mediation, and, as a special magistrate, followed the natural arc of my life in petroleum and energy from the wellhead to the boardroom to the tribunal.
From Engineer to International Lawyer (see my Ante Usted Television Interview in Spanish https://youtu.be/cnAbMUo42pg?si=qILF_HdrblUoMuiV). I am fluent in five languages, with formative fluency in two, for a working repertoire of 10.
I was born in Ciudad de Panamá, República de Panamá, on May 26, 1958, and am a descendant of West Indian Afro-Caribbeans from Guadeloupe, Martinique, Barbados, Jamaica, and both West and North Africa. I am the offspring of enslaved Africans who, over generations, mixed with Europeans, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and East Indians; some were traders, all bound by courage, enterprise, and faith.
[In 1997, I looked through the “Door of No Return,” renamed in 2019 to “Door of Return,” at Elmina Castle, Ghana. The portal to the Atlantic Ocean, where shackled human beings, my ancestors, were shipped in stench-filled air and their feces to the Americas.]
They came to Panama seeking work during the great “Big Dig” — the Panama Canal — an undertaking that forever changed the world’s geography and our family’s destiny. Rubén Blades captured that journey in his moving song about the West Indian man, a melody of labor, resilience, and pride. I often say, “Soy panameño germinado, parido y criado.” My heritage, built upon the sweat, resilience, and dignity of those who helped build the Canal, continues to shape who I am.
I speak of my West African lineage with great humility, pride, and reverence. Just as the Hebrews experienced their exodus from Egypt, so too did the Africans brought to this continent in bondage find their paths to liberation; not only through physical freedom but through spiritual and intellectual emancipation. In Bob Marley’s challenging and timeless words: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds. Have no fear for atomic energy, ’cause none of them can stop the time.” Those verses are more than lyrics for me; they are a philosophy of life. My family, steeped in both African and Jewish values, revered education as sacred. They taught me that what I learn can never be taken away. My grand-uncle, Uon Roper, would tell me, “Always shoot for the stars, because even if you don’t catch them, you will land on the moon.” Between Marley’s call to free the mind, my parents’ love and example, and my uncle’s insistence on aiming high, I found both direction and courage.
In secondary school, at Colegio San Agustín, I received an education grounded in faith, built on my home upbringing, discipline, and rigor. After the third year (the equivalent of a U.S. ninth-grade), I earned my Perito Comercial Diploma (which sits between a standard high school diploma and a university degree in Public Accounting, Contador Público). Three years later, at seventeen, in December 1975, I graduated with a Bachiller en Ciencias y Letras (a university-preparatory degree in Science and Humanities). That school, by G-d’s grace and my parents’ sacrifice, opened the universe for me.
After working and attending Canal Zone College from January to July 1976, I left for the United States to study engineering. I began in biomedical engineering but, through the wise guidance of my advisor, Dr. Love, shifted to mechanical engineering. A decision that would chart my future.
My preparation from San Agustín was so solid that I placed out of physics, chemistry, analytic geometry, calculus, and other foundational pre-engineering courses. I started at the University of Oklahoma in Norman and later transferred to Texas A&M University in College Station, where I completed my Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in May 1980.
At Texas A&M, I was one of the Charter Student Members of the National Society of Black Engineers under Jeane Rierson’s guidance. In the summer of 1979, thanks to a remarkable former collegiate football player, Mike Payne, I worked as a summer engineer at the Diamond Shamrock chemical plant in Deer Park, Texas. Through my mother’s ever-so-wise counsel and guidance, I wrote letters to several companies in December of 1978 seeking a summer 1979 job. Diamond Shamrock was one of those companies, and Mr. Payne read my letter. He later told me that the letter was so well written that he had to meet and interview me. I got the job. That same working summer, Mrs. Corvin, a generous friend of my stepfather, welcomed me into her Houston home, an act of kindness I have never forgotten.
My stepdad, whom I call Dad (Lt. Col., Army Retired, M. Herman “Bo” Bell), blessed me with his friendship and counsel. My biological father died from a car accident when I was fourteen. I often say that my biological father, “Dady,” chose a husband for my mother, Geneth, and a father for my brother, Andrés, and me.
The foregoing experiences taught me both the technical craft of engineering and the quiet strength of community and hospitality.
By my senior year at Texas A&M, oil prices soared, and the oil industry was booming. I received job offers from Shell, Exxon, Mobil, and Tenneco, as well as unsolicited offers from Schlumberger, a Master’s in Materials Science scholarship offer with a position at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I chose Exxon.
In late August 1980, fresh from a European backpacking trip, I began my career in New Orleans, Louisiana, as an Offshore Drilling Engineer. I came to the oil industry “by accident,” knowing little about petroleum when I left Panama. Still, life had quietly prepared me for it through discipline, curiosity, and a willingness to step into the unknown.
Even as I worked full-time, Bob Marley’s call to “emancipate [ourselves] from mental slavery” and my granduncle Uon’s exhortation to “always shoot for the stars” stayed with me. From 1981 to 1983, I attended business school at night, seeking to understand the commercial logic that underpinned the engineering projects I was helping design and execute.
In late 1984, Conoco recruited me from Exxon, and in January 1985, I started as a Sr. Drilling Engineer and Assistant Drilling Manager in Ventura, California. In September 1987, Conoco merged the Ventura and Oklahoma City Divisions and sent me to Oklahoma City as Area Engineering Manager for California Operations.
In 1988, I began law school at night while working at Conoco. Balancing a demanding job with evening classes required endurance and faith, but the notion that “none but ourselves can free our minds” and my ancestral heartbeats pushed-lifted me forward.
Later, I was transferred to Houston as Chief of Staff to the Group Vice President of Production Engineering and Research. I had not completed the MBA, but I did finish night law school in December 1992 and received my Juris Doctor in May 1993. That degree marked another reinvention, uniting my technical, business, and legal understandings into one integrated calling.
As my global business career developed, I moved increasingly by desire, commitment, and performance into the international sphere. My engineering background allowed me to understand the technical realities behind drilling programs, production facilities, and field development plans. My business training helped me see the commercial logic of risk allocation, pricing, and long-term investment. Law brought structure to it all: concessions, production-sharing contracts, joint operating agreements, MOUs, AMIs, pooling agreements, oil leases, and cross-border ventures. I was promoted to Sr. Acquisitions Advisor for Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East. The more I worked on complex projects, the more I found myself at the intersection of geology, geopolitics, and global commerce. I was invited to join the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators. Also, I had already received my Professional Engineer Registration — Petroleum in Texas.
During 1993, anticipating the U. S. Congressional ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Conoco decided to re-examine re-establishing a corporate presence in Mexico and undertook a corporate-wide strategy management analysis: Corporate Planning, Upstream, Midstream, Downstream, and Dupont leveraging. I was named the Upstream team lead.
In 1994, we presented the strategy management analysis to Conoco’s C-Suite. They decided to set a presence in Mexico City, and named me President of Conoco Mexico Ltd., where I served from 1994 to 1996. I was humbly honored.
International arbitration and mediation emerged as a natural continuation of that arc. Having lived the industry from the inside and negotiated its contracts, I became drawn to the neutral ground where complex energy and commercial disputes are resolved.
From engineering calculations to legal pleadings, from offshore production and exploration rigs to international hearing rooms, my journey has been and remains about building bridges between disciplines, cultures, and perspectives. And through it all, I have tried to honor the wisdom that shaped me: Bob Marley’s insistence that true freedom begins in the mind, and my Uncle Uon’s reminder that if you “always shoot for the stars,” even if you miss, your landings on the moon will be blessed. Indeed, I am blessed.
Wait for another installment here or in the book.
