Ali Masoudi
President 2025–26
MSc Biomedical Engineering candidate at the University of Glasgow and Biomedical Sciences graduate of Brunel University London.
Senergy Young Leaders Club Leadership is learned on the job.
SYLC is the young leaders club of Senergy Ltd. Students and early-career professionals in energy, engineering, biotech and medicine lead club projects, hold the club’s executive roles and are backed by principal-level fellows. Leadership gets practised long before it becomes a job title.
The Senergy logo with SYLC, Young Leaders Club, beneath it.
20members, officers and fellows in the founding cohort
9universities represented, from Glasgow to the LSE
~70%of leadership learning comes from challenging work, in CCL’s 70-20-10 guideline
Octeach year a new President and Vice President take office
2025founded on 21 September under Senergy Ltd
Who we are
A think tank that hands young people the keys.
We are an inclusive, cross-disciplinary young leaders club of Senergy Ltd, the UK energy and biotech start-up. Members take a think-tank approach to real challenges, from subsurface energy and carbon storage to cancer diagnostics, and grow as leaders by leading the work.
Most leadership programmes start in a classroom. SYLC works the other way round: members are given responsibility first, then coached through it by fellows who have led field developments worldwide, sit on the board of a global technical society and build companies.
- Voluntary, inclusive and cross-disciplinary
- A bespoke development pathway for every member
- Networking, mentorship and live, real-world projects
- Built to scale with partner organisations in the UK and beyond
Where our members already work
Where our members and fellows already work and study.
SYLC members and fellows are active across professional societies, industry and academia. A conversation at a club meeting can lead to an introduction or a research idea. These links run through individual fellows and members rather than formal partnerships, and membership does not include or promise paid work or placements.
SPESociety of Petroleum Engineers. Fellows serve in technical leadership, including the SPE board.
PetroxinSister company to Senergy in petroleum engineering consulting and technology distribution.
SenergyOur parent company: energy and biotech start-up and home of the club’s live projects.
University of GlasgowPostgraduate study, a fellow who leads a research group, and routes into PhDs and spin-outs.
Universities across the UKSouthampton, Warwick, Edinburgh, King’s, LSE, UCL, Brunel and Bayes.
Our philosophy
Bespoke, on-the-job development, backed by research.
Decades of leadership research point the same way. The Center for Creative Leadership’s 70-20-10 guideline holds that around 70% of what leaders learn comes from challenging assignments, 20% from the people who develop them and only 10% from courses. The ten-year CEO Genome study by ghSMART, reported in Harvard Business Review, found that 97% of executives who reached CEO fastest had made at least one bold “catapult” move, such as a leap into a role well beyond their experience.
So SYLC gives each member a bespoke, on-the-job opportunity: a live project, a club portfolio or an executive role, with a fellow who sponsors them through it.
Source: Center for Creative Leadership, 70-20-10 framework (opens in new tab).
The October handover
Every October, the club changes hands.
Each year a new President and Vice President take over SYLC. The roles are not ceremonial: the executive sets the agenda, runs club meetings, leads the officers and reports to the board, whose meetings the Chairman chairs. Each term lasts one year and nobody is re-elected to the same role, so the next emerging leader gets the same stretch. The board appoints the 2026–27 executive; from 2027 members elect the President and Vice President each April.
This is how we help young talent get ready for start-up CEO roles, like our first President, Ali Masoudi, as well as managerial and project-lead roles.
Our projects
Stretch projects with a young leader in charge.
Every SYLC project is a development exercise built on public, synthetic or sanitised material, with a member who leads it and a fellow who coaches them.
Case study · Biotech
BioCelliX
A research-stage Senergy venture exploring whether the physics of dividing cells could one day help flag cancer risk. Members work on a sanitised version as a case study.
Energy · SimulationSubsurface in 3D
Interactive reservoir and geothermal models for the web, so engineers, investors and students can explore an asset in a browser.
AI · EnergyAI co-pilot for reservoirs
Machine learning and agentic AI for integrated reservoir management: history matching, what-if scenarios and decision dashboards.
Pathways
Women in science. Glasgow research. Founders in the making.
Women make up 27.2% of the UK’s core STEM workforce and just 11.1% of engineering professionals (WISE, September 2025). SYLC counters that with sponsorship from fellows, executive roles open to all, an EDI lead on the officer team and role models across engineering, biomedicine, data and law.
Our links to the University of Glasgow, where our founding President studies and our academic fellow leads a research group, give members a realistic view of MSc and PhD research. And because ideas should leave the lab, members practise the spin-off playbook on sanitised venture case studies: validation, IP, grant funding and boards.
People
Led by young leaders. Backed by fellows.
Sanli R. Dizaji
Vice President 2025–26
Business Analytics student at the University of Southampton, focused on data-driven decision-making, AI and innovation.
Fellows: Dr Hadi Parvizi (Chairman), Dr Rahim Masoudi, Dr Khalil Nourafkan and Dr Roghaieh Parvizi. Meet everyone.
Membership
Apply to join
Typically under 30 and ready for responsibility?
We welcome students and young professionals in industry, engineering and medical fields who want to lead, and senior professionals who want to coach.