Steven Johnson, SUT-US Marine Renewable Energy Committee Chair

Steve Johnson retired from Chevron last year and is now the Chair of the Society for Underwater Technology, US branch (SUT-US) Marine Renewable Energy Committee (MREC). In that role he is currently encouraging networking and learning opportunities in marine renewable energy and investigating floating wind opportunities both the East and West coasts of the US. He has over 40 years’ experience of offshore engineering projects, from concept to commissioning. In the first half of his career, he worked for contractors in London on offshore design and build projects, principally in the North Sea. At Chevron in Houston, he concentrated on the early design phase and engineering management of offshore projects worldwide, including UKCS, West Africa, West Australia, Caribbean, Far East, South America, Barents Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. He has an Honors Degree in Mechanical Engineering (with Naval Architecture), is a Fellow of the SUT, Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and Member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. Steve’s hobbies include non-fiction reading, bicycling and scuba diving.

Roya Iranitalab, Project Director at Proton Technologies

Roya is formerly a 17-year veteran of Suncor Energy, she recently (7 months) transitioned her career to Proton Technologies to pivot her focus to the opportunities, not downsides, of the global energy transition.

An experienced project and operation leader, focusing on business development and risk identification. Roya is primarily known for her ability to manage risk, and to successfully execute project scopes on time, and within budget. As an innovative thinker, she regularly identifies unique approaches to optimize projects and operating costs.

Saeed Salehi, Associate Professor of Petroleum Engineering at University of Oklahoma

Previously worked as drilling and well engineer in industry, he has more than ten year’s academic experience teaching and delivering university and industry customized courses. While in academia, he has managed more than 6 million academic R&D expenditure. He has more than 100 articles published in scholarly oil and gas journals and refereed conferences. He is recipient of prestigious awards from SPE such SPE Drilling Engineering Award, SPE Health, Safety, Security, Environment, and Social Responsibility and SPE Distinguished Achievement for Petroleum Engineering Faculty award. He has leadership recognition as past chairman of SPE Evangeline section in Louisiana. He currently serves as Co-Chair, Steering and Finance Committee chair for SPE International Conference and Exhibition on Formation Damage Control.

His research interest includes subsurface energy both fossil fuels and renewable such as geothermal energy. Other areas of interest are geological carbon storage, mitigation of surface and subsurface contamination, issues of process safety and environmental protection when developing subsurface energy resources through a combination of experimentation, finite element and fluid dynamics modeling, data analytics and analytical and computational tool development. The long term goal of his research program is to provide viable and sustainable solutions for the protection of environment and enable a sustainable, affordable, and secure energy supply.

Scott Frailey, PhD, Principal Reservoir Engineer for the Illinois State Geological Survey

Scott Frailey is involved with the technical aspects of the CO2 storage and CO2 EOR programs and provides technical expertise in the areas of reservoir characterization and engineering including pressure transient analyses, core analyses, well log analyses, and reservoir modeling.  Previously, Scott was an associate professor of petroleum engineering at Texas Tech University and a reservoir engineer at BP Exploration (Alaska). He graduated from the University of Missouri-Rolla with B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in petroleum engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in Texas, New Mexico, Illinois, and Indiana.

Professor of Petroleum Engineering & Hugh Roy & Lillian Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair at the University of Houston.  Dr. Christine Economides worked at Schlumberger and taught at Texas A&M before becoming a professor at the University of Houston. Her research interests include carbon neutral crude oil, enhanced geothermal systems, blue hydrogen among many others including reservoir engineering in conventional / shale reservoirs. She received her Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is an Honorary Member of SPE. 

Dr. D. Nathan Meehan is President of CMG Petroleum Consulting, an energy advisory firm founded in 2001 and Senior Technology Advisor for Petro.ai, a leading oilfield data analytics firm.

He was formerly President of Gaffney, Cline & Associates, and a senior executive at Baker Hughes. He served as the 2016 President of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Previously he was Vice President of Engineering for Occidental Oil & Gas and General Manager, Exploration & Production Services for Union Pacific Resources. 

Dr. Meehan holds a BSc in Physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, and a PhD in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University. With more than 42 years of industry experience, he served as Chairman of the Board of the CMG Reservoir Simulation Foundation and twice as a Director of the Computer Modelling Group, Ltd., as Director of Vanyoganeft Oil Company, Nizhnyvartosk, Russia, as Director of Pinnacle Technologies, Inc., as a Director of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and as a Director of JOA Oil & Gas BV. He is an SPE Distinguished Member and the recipient of SPE’s Lester C. Uren Award for Distinguished Achievement in Petroleum Engineering, the Degolyer Distinguished Service Medal the SPE Public Service Award and has been named an SPE Honorary Member, the Society’s highest award. He recently received the World Oil Lifetime Achievement Award and Petroleum Economist magazine’s Legacy Award. He serves on the boards of the University of Oklahoma Board of Visitors for the Mewbourne College of Earth, the Energy and the University of Texas petroleum engineering department and the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences. He is an appointed member of the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission, has served on the National Petroleum Council and is a widely published author. Dr. Meehan is a licensed professional engineer in four states.