Nooshin Behroyan is the winner of our 2025 YPO Global Impact Award. The award focuses on YPO members making impact outside the organization that is both sustainable and scalable, affecting people, prosperity, peace or our planet.
Lasting impact isn’t just what you do — it’s how you do it.
This philosophy was instilled in YPO’s 2025 Global Impact winner, Nooshin Behroyan early in her career, thanks to an architecture professor at the University of California-Berkeley.
“He taught us that when you build something, you’re scarring the Earth,” she recalls. “We must ensure that any impact we make is thoughtfully integrated into the environment—seamless, intentional and in harmony with nature.”
This philosophy drives her now as founder and CEO of Paxon Energy and Infrastructure — one of just 7% of women CEOs in the energy sector.
In an industry steeped in tradition, Paxon is future-oriented. Under Behroyan’s leadership, the consulting management firm focuses on improving critical infrastructure in the oil, gas and utility industries and has become the ninth fastest-growing company in the U.S., advancing both its mission to curb methane pollution for the energy sector and her impact as a trailblazing force in the industry.
Putting the question before the business
Behroyan’s success comes from never shying away from questions — or calling out problems. Early in her career as a LEED architect, she questioned a structural engineer’s decision on a job site, only to be told, it wasn’t her call. So, she got a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California, Davis. Now, she can make those calls.
Behroyan dedicated her master’s thesis to oil and gas injection well leaks. “I became really interested in the things that aren’t visible to the naked eye. You might not see it, but it exists and has the potential to cause significant harm,” she says.
She built a reputation as a sought-after engineer and helped establish the leaks management program under the pipeline safety enhancement initiative for Northern California before homing in on her next big question: How do energy companies accurately measure the amount of methane they are emitting into the atmosphere, and why is it important?
At that time, she recalls, everyone was focused on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and no one was talking about methane, though it has 80 times the detrimental warming power. Methane is the main component of natural gas.
Behroyan met with California utility executives and made her case: Soon, this measurement would be critical — EPA fines critical. She proposed a project, and they gave her the green light for USD36 million. She then incorporated Paxon in 2016.
“Building a business wasn’t so much on my mind, because as an environmental engineer I was simply driven to do what was right for the industry,” she says. “I wanted to solve another problem I had identified.”
Turning setbacks into strategy
Six months into the project, Behroyan lost the contract. A larger company came in while she was still building and questioned her credentials and persuaded the executives they needed a bigger company that could easily throw thousands of people at this problem.
“A challenge isn’t really a challenge if you can change course, and this was one of those important shifts,” Behroyan recalls.
The setback gave her time to think more on the problem, and she realized it would be disastrous if oil and gas companies came in and said exactly how much methane they were emitting into the atmosphere. “That’s when I reverse-engineered an idea: We could help clients report how much energy they were recovering that otherwise gets wasted.”
Traditionally, the oil and gas industry has relied on venting and flaring — releasing methane either directly into the air or burning it off. According to the International Energy Agency’s 2023 Global Methane Tracker, more than 260 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas is wasted through flaring and methane leaks annually.
Paxon offers a better solution with cross compression, a process that captures and repurposes methane. By compressing and storing the gas, and then converting it into liquid natural gas, Paxon’s technology captures 99% of methane that would otherwise escape. This reduces emissions and creates renewable energy — liquid natural gas — feeding it back into the supply chain. The company’s custom-designed mobile compressors also help companies transfer gas safely during maintenance, preventing unnecessary leaks, improving efficiency and cutting costs.
In 2023 alone, Paxon recovered more than 850,000 tons of methane, the equivalent of powering 4 million homes in the United States for a full year.
Behroyan compares her team’s work to surgeons within the energy industry. “We come in and identify the problem, build the solutions and solve the hardest challenges faced by the industry,” she says, citing projects as tailored as helping companies meet their ESG goals and as broad as sectionalizing the grid in Northen California, a move that helped prevent long outages for wildfire mitigation measures.
“We stay ahead of the curve and address issues ahead of time,” she says. “If there is the slightest mistake or if things are missed by the pipeline owners or electrical operators, it could cause a catastrophic event. Ultimately the work we do saves lives.”
Leading on her own terms
As a young, Iranian single mother in an industry dominated by century-old, white-male-led companies, Behroyan couldn’t afford to lead like everyone else. She built Paxon differently — self-funded, profitable from day one, and people-first in its approach.
“I think the No. 1 marker of success for me is: How are our employees doing? How are they developing their careers?” she says. “That’s just as important as other metrics. If people retire with us, or they leave for bigger roles, I’ve done my job right.”
Behroyan knows firsthand how barriers to entry stifle innovation. While talent has nothing to do with race or gender, she admits opportunity often does.
Nooshin says she knows part of her company’s success stems from the fact that she brought forth her ideas within a sector that had diversity budget to spend. “That gave me a shot. Otherwise, billion-dollar companies will always work with billion-dollar companies, and you don’t get new solutions.”
She’s spent years advocating for women in business, including serving as board president for the National Association of Women Business Owners, but she’s most proud of building a company where female engineers, inspectors and veterans feel empowered to ask tough questions and challenge norms.
Finding the balance between progress and practicality
While big tech and renewables steal the spotlight, Behroyan has made it her mission to make a case for the industry that keeps it all running — natural gas. As conversations around energy transition dominate headlines, she argues that we can’t afford to demonize the backbone of every city, town and business.
“One thing that’s not going to change is the growing demand for energy,” she says. “Natural gas is the cheapest form of energy, and if we were to eliminate it overnight, how would that be equitable? Not everyone can afford an electric car or an induction stove. We have to be realistic about how we transition.”
— Nooshin Behroyan, Founder and CEO of Paxon Energy and Infrastructure share
She points to the gap between ambition and reality: Renewables are essential, but right now they account for just 21% of the U.S. energy generation supply. Meanwhile, energy consumption is surging, fueled by the rise of data centers, cloud computing and our always-online culture.
“Take a household today versus a decade ago, with additional tablets and TVs and internet use — we are consuming a lot more energy now,” she says. “And big tech needs power. We have an exponentially growing energy demand via data centers.”
Beyond running Paxon, Behroyan is using her platform to shift the conversation. Paxon works alongside the U.S government, Public Utility Commission and other regulatory agencies to create meaningful procedural change for the energy industry. She speaks on global stages, writes op-eds, and pushes for innovation within existing energy systems while renewables scale up to meet future demand. But to make real progress, she says, the energy sector needs fresh talent, the kind often lured by the public relations machine of Silicon Valley.
Citing the significant amount of state, federal and international funding available for energy projects, she says, “We need to attract bright minds who want to make a real impact. Tech is exciting, but none of it happens without energy.”
Behroyan sees a future where energy innovation isn’t just about what’s new — it’s about making what we have work smarter, cleaner and better for everyone, and she’s doing her part to make it happen.
“I know by the time I am done with the industry, I will have left it in a better place than I found it.”
