Wilbert Ferdinand, Jr.

Mr. Wilbert J. Ferdinand, Jr. recently retired from ExxonMobil as Risk Management Advisor at the Baton Rouge Refinery. Over the course of the past three decades, he served in numerous capacities focused on recruitment and development opportunities for underrepresented students in STEM disciplines.  For several years he served as Team Captain for ExxonMobil’s Southern University Engineering Recruiting Team and coordinated field trips for K-12 students to visit ExxonMobil facilities to improve their awareness of and foster interest in STEM career opportunities.  He served as an industry advisor for Southern University’s NSF-funded HBCU-UP program. Mr. Ferdinand continues to serve as a member of Southern University’s Business and Industry Cluster where he conducts interview skills workshops; serves as a guest speaker; and provides input into curriculum development and modifications. For the past three years he has served as a consultant and presenter on Rice University’s Capacity Building for Competitive S-STEM Proposals project, which is funded by NSF; more recently, he joined the advisory and presentation team for a similar project focused on two-year colleges in the western United States. Mr. Ferdinand is an experienced NSF reviewer who has lent his expertise to evaluate workforce development components of proposals to various programs over the past five years.