We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sanya Mathura. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sanya below.

Sanya, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I was in the thesis phase of finishing off my Masters in Engineering Asset Management from The University of the West Indies and realized that the content of my report was utter crap. I decided to leave my corporate job of working with Shell Lubricants as their technical representative for the past 5 years and sit (without a backup plan!) to focus on my thesis and producing a quality report.

I started to reach out to many professionals within the Machinery lubrication industry and they were very forthcoming with information. However, the information was never readily available. It was always with a colleague who knew someone who had it or had seen it at some point in time. I began thinking, wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a hub where people could find various reliability solutions which were of a high quality. But there was one catch, it had to be Strategic!

That’s how Strategic Reliability Solutions ltd was formed in Trinidad and Tobago in 2017. I decide to take the risk, as a female in a male populated industry, to try to navigate a way forward in providing solutions to people within the oil & gas, manufacturing, chemical and power generation industries. Since forming my company, I have collaborated with other global leaders to bring various forms of reliability to all parts of the world.

Taking the risk on myself to form an engineering consultancy company was one of the most rewarding ones that I’ve done. I now have access to resources which I can bring to others to help bridge the gaps that exist in our knowledge and competency. I am proud to be part of the solution for bringing change to the industry and leading by example as a female within this sector.

Sanya, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have a very strong engineering background. Starting off with my Bachelor’s in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of the West Indies, I worked in the industry a bit but then had an opportunity to work with Shell Lubricants.

At the time, I was the youngest and only female in the Caribbean region to be recruited for their Distributor Front Line Technical Support program. This is where I really got the exposure and experience that I needed as I covered all aspects; Industrial (manufacturing plants), Consumer (Passenger cars), Commercial (larger fleets of vehicles and construction equipment) and Marine (Cargo ships to tug boats).

During this time, I pursued my Masters in Engineering Asset Management also from the University of the West Indies and begun to write my thesis on “Lubrication degradation”. As mentioned before, this is where I had my breakthrough moment and decided to form my own company, Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd, based in Trinidad and Tobago.

We provide training and consultancy services in the reliability engineering field through our global affiliates (based in Canada, Europe, Australia, USA and of course, Trinidad and Tobago). We cover courses such as Root Cause Analysis, Maintenance Planning and Scheduling, Certification courses in Machinery Lubrication, Vibration Analysis, Project Management and much more. With clients from across the globe, we continuously provide solutions to complex problems within the reliability sector.

At the start of the pandemic, (as I had a bit more downtime), I decided to write my first book, “Lubrication Degradation Mechanisms – A Complete Guide” published with CRC Press, Taylor & Francis in 2020. However, after I had written the book, I questioned my competency and authority on the subject matter. Why would anyone want to read a book published by a female from the Caribbean with no credentials to reinforce what I already knew.

So, I decided to study for the ICML MLE exam (International Council of Machinery Lubrication, Machinery Lubrication Engineer). It is the highest qualification offered by this institution and at the time there weren’t many people who achieved the certification. I undertook the training, wrote the exam and became the first person in the Caribbean to earn that certification and by extension, the first female as well. Once I had earned the certification, then I decided to give the approval to publish the book.

After that first book, things took off and I wrote 3 other technical books where I collaborated with other industry experts.

These include,
• “Lubrication Degradation – Getting to the Root Causes” with Bob Latino published by CRC Press, Taylor & Francis (2021)
• “Machinery Lubrication Technician (MLT) I & II Certification Exam Guide” with Michael Holloway published by Industrial Press Inc (2021)
• “Preventing Turbomachinery ‘Cholesterol’ – The Story of Varnish” with Greg Livingstone published by Industrial Press Inc (2022)

I’ve always been a very strong advocate for Empowering more women to join STEM and I was approached by CRC Press, Taylor & Francis to be the series editor for books dedicated to that subject. I agreed but under one condition, the purpose of the book would remain to elevate and encourage women to enter STEM fields and would not exclude male authors from sharing their experiences or make them feel villainized. It is one of the projects that is very dear to me as I get to empower people through these books and hopefully help them to create a path forward for their future.

Currently, we have 3 books which have been published in the series. These books highlight the journeys of women and men in STEM from across the globe spanning various industries. Here are the books published thus far by CRC Press, Taylor & Francis:
• Empowering Women in STEM – Personal Stories and Career Journeys from Around the World (2022)
• Empowering Women in STEM – Working Together to Inspire the Future (2024)
• Empowering Women in STEM – Pioneering Pathways to Shape the Future (2025)
At the time of this interview, a 4th book is underway and should make its way to shelves by mid-2026.

Being the first female / person to achieve something is not new for me. In addition to becoming the first person in the Caribbean to earn the ICML MLE certification, I was also the first female in the world to earn the ICML VIM & VPR badges (specialty certification for equipment which experience varnish – think a sticky material which causes things to stop working). Currently, I am also the only female instructor for Mobius Institute for their Field Lubrication Analyst Category I course.

Recently, I earned my Engineering License from the Board of Engineering in Trinidad and Tobago. However, when I applied, they told me that they can’t find a category which aligned with my field. So, they created one and I am the first registered Machinery Lubricant Engineer in Trinidad and Tobago.

I’ve also picked up a few accolades along the way, being named the “Industry person of the Year, 2020” and “Engineer of the year, 2024” from Empowering Pumps (based in the US). Currently, I serve on a few international boards, namely; the editorial board for Precision Lubrication Magazine and Reliable Magazine, the Advisory board for the Lubricant Expo North America & The Bearing Show North America, and the Technical Committee for Mobius institute Field Lubrication Analyst exam. I am also a digital editor for the STLE TLT magazine.

Essentially, I keep very busy with lots of technical content (writing articles, presenting at conferences or training) while also trying to balance what I give back to the community through my work with empowering more people to get involved in STEM.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

There have been quite a few close calls! These near misses happened early on in the business when I was now starting up. I remember one in particular which almost cost me the business.

I had partnered with a trainer who said that he would deliver a course for some of my clients in Trinidad. We made the arrangements, locked in the date of the training, the location and the customers had sent in their purchase orders. However, I was now starting up, so I didn’t have the capital to splash around nor did any of the customers decide to pay for the training in advance for me to use the funds to cover the expenses.

The trainer was internationally based, so flights, accommodation and other expenses had to be taken care of me. I had decided to take out a loan to cover the expenses and, on the day, before I had to make the deposit I asked for confirmation from the trainer. He dodged me for the entire weekend and then concocted some story. Then, he raised his prices by the exact amount of an extra airline ticket to Trinidad!

At that point, I was shocked, couldn’t believe I had been duped and honestly thought that I couldn’t deal with all the stress that came along with running a business. On top of that, my company was a very new business and I had somehow managed to get these bigger companies to trust me to deliver a training session to them. With the new twist with the trainer, they wouldn’t trust me again for future sessions. I was really contemplating getting out of entrepreneurship and going back to the corporate world where the checks come in steadily at the end of the month.

I decided to follow my morales and be honest with all the customers and cancel the training. To my surprise, they understood and were still willing to work with me in the future. I had gotten a new lease on their trust and decided firmly to have contracts in place with fixed prices for trainers in the future.

This taught me that even though you may be fair in business and want to deliver the best to your customer, not everyone has the same interest at heart. You must use your morales to guide you to do what is best for the interest of the customer at the end of the day even though it may hurt your business for a bit.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I will be honest, I was never a fan of social media and to this day, I still don’t have a personal Facebook account! But LinkedIn on the other hand was a game changer for me. I started off on LinkedIn just as I was leaving the corporate world with a handful of connections. Then, I realized the power of LinkedIn. I could connect with professionals in all parts of the world and ask them questions that I had about my thesis. That’s how it started.

From then to now, I’ve grown to 25k connections, and it keeps growing every day. My purpose remains clear, it has always been to be that bridge to bring information to those who may not have ready access to it. Through my platform, I try to disseminate information in various ways and forms to help bridge those gaps. Whether it’s through a podcast, webinar, articles or training options, I try to provide that type of content every day.

I also try to ensure that my content is purposeful, especially for the work I do with empowering more people to join STEM industries. I provide a platform where their voice/purpose is amplified so that they can in turn help others. Content is not always about yourself but it should remain true to your morales and your pathway.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://strategicreliabilitysolutions.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strategicreliability/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/strategicreliabilitysolutions/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanya-mathura-mle-362438129/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8xwauLqWt9eSdVQ9z8QKnA