2022 A&D Symposium

Bill Marko is a Managing Director of Jefferies LLC in the Energy Investment Banking Group. He has managed more than $72 billion of asset and corporate transactions. While he focuses on the United States, he also works on global projects, and heads Jefferies’ Canadian upstream activities. Prior to joining Randall & Dewey, subsequently purchased by Jefferies, Marko worked more than 18 years in various roles at Mobil Oil.

Bill is a registered Professional Engineer in Louisiana and is a member of the Board of Administrators of Tulane University as well as Board of Advisors of the Tulane School of Science & Engineering.

Robert leads US onshore research, with a particular focus on the evolution of the tight oil sector. He specialises in geologic play description, portfolio valuation, operator benchmarking, and sector trend analysis.

Robert joined Wood Mackenzie in 2005 as an original member of the Houston-based Lower 48 Upstream Research group, where he led the modelling of the Barnett, Eagle Ford, and Haynesville plays. He has worked on upstream consulting projects that range from tight oil asset opportunity screenings for the Majors, to due diligence shale gas work for private equity-led M&A. He is a frequent speaker and panel moderator at industry conferences, and an adjunct professor in the Energy MBA program at the Neeley School of Business at TCU in Fort Worth.

Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie, Robert was a geologist at a private engineering firm in Houston.

Mr. Moreno is currently Head of Acquisitions & Divestitures and Technical for the Americas, Energy Investment Banking at BofA Securities, Inc.

He is an experienced oil and gas professional with over 24 years of oil and gas industry and investment banking experience with a focus on client service, upstream and midstream property acquisitions and divestitures, valuation, mergers, deal origination and reservoir engineering.  Combined advisory experience of $45bn across the lower 48, GOM and international.

Mr. Moreno previously worked as Vice-President, Acquisitions & Divestitures, Global Natural Resources at Goldman Sachs, focusing on public and private company screenings to identify MOE, spin-merge and acquisition targets on behalf of the firm's upstream and midstream clients. He was previously Business Development Manager and Technical Advisor at Quantum Resources Management from 2011-2014 where he was responsible for the technical valuations of all potential property acquisitions for QR Energy (MLP) and QRF (private-equity fund). Prior to Quantum, Mr. Moreno worked at H.J. Gruy and Associates, Inc. from 2003 to 2011 generating reserve reports conforming to the guidelines established by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Petroleum Resources Management System for public and private clients. Mr. Moreno also worked for Torch Energy Advisors, Inc. from 1997-2003 in various property acquisitions and divestitures on behalf of Torch Energy Advisors, Bellwether Exploration and Nuevo Energy.

He is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Petroleum Engineering and holds a FINRA Series 24, 79 and 63 licenses

Jason Modglin serves as the President of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. The Alliance is an industry trade association representing over 2,600 individuals and member companies committed to advancing independent operators and the standards of the Texas oil and gas industry. Prior to joining the Alliance, Jason served as Director of Public Affairs for Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick. Previously, he was Chief of Staff for House Energy Resources Chairman Drew Darby. He also served as a policy analyst for Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples. A native of Houston, Jason holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.

Chris Atherton is the Chief Executive Officer and President of EnergyNet, Inc. EnergyNet is an technology-enabled upstream oil and gas asset acquisition and divestiture platform specializing in auction sales, sealed bid transactions and government lease sales. Chris has been part of the EnergyNet team since 2002. Chris leads a multi-disciplinary team of 50 professionals specializing in engineering, geology, land, technical, business development, marketing, IT and administration.

Mike has served as Vice President of Acquisitions & Divestitures for EnerVest, Ltd. since October 2019.  In this capacity, he is responsible for the economic evaluation of acquisition opportunities and asset sale packages for the company. Prior to this role, he served as Vice President of Planning & Analysis and was responsible for the company’s financial budgeting, forecasting and reserves reporting.  Mike joined EnerVest in 2014 as a senior member of the acquisitions team where he evaluated over $1.5 billion in assets successfully acquired on the behalf of EnerVest’s institutional partnerships.

Prior to joining EnerVest, Mike was Vice President in the A&D Advisory practice at BMO Capital Markets where he led the technical evaluation of over $1.0 billion in asset transactions.  Mike began his career at ExxonMobil, contributing in various reservoir engineering and project management roles which focused on assets in both the onshore and offshore United States.  A native of Kansas, Mike graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Minor in Business Administration from Kansas State University.

Doug Reynolds joined the energy & power investment banking group at Piper Sandler in 2020.

Previously, Reynolds was head of U.S. energy corporate and investment banking at Scotiabank. Prior to that, he was the head of U.S. upstream investment banking at a leading investment bank. He has led nearly $100 billion of merger, acquisition, divestiture and capital markets assignments in the energy industry across six continents and more than 30 countries during his career.

Reynolds earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Colgate University.

Chris is co-Founder and Managing Partner at Bandera Group, an energy investment firm with a focus on minerals and royalties.  Chris previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Fortis Minerals, which he also co-founded in 2016.  Chris and the Fortis team grew the business from a start-up to a large minerals platform with seven partnerships including interests in ~10,000 assets across ~1 million gross acres.  Prior to Fortis, Chris served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Escondido Resources, a South Texas oil and gas company with operated production from the Escondido and Eagle Ford formations.  Chris also served various roles in private equity and investment banking including at First Reserve, a large private equity firm focused exclusively on energy, and UBS Investment Bank in the Global Energy Group.  Chris received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia where he was a Rodman Scholar.

Chris joined Desert Peak in March 2019 following an eighteen-year career in oil and gas investment banking, most recently as a Managing Director in the Oil & Gas Investment Banking and Capital Markets Group at Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC. His clients at Credit Suisse included large and mid-cap upstream operators and minerals companies. During his investment banking career, Mr. Conoscenti advised on numerous mergers and acquisition transactions and served as an active bookrunner on equity, equity-linked and debt transactions. Mr. Conoscenti holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame and a JD and an MBA from Tulane University.

Ms. Kinningham is an experienced Human Resources executive with 25 years of experience leading Human Resources efforts within the oil and gas industry for domestic and international, upstream and midstream corporations.  Laura specializes in mergers, acquisitions, divestiture, start-up, strategic organizational restructuring, planning and integration, organizational development, total rewards, talent acquisition, culture transformation, executive/BOD/investor consultation, and compliance for public, private, GP, and private equity-backed corporations. 

Ms. Kinningham is currently the Vice President of Human Resources for Vencer Energy, LLC, a new venture upstream start-up backed by Vitol.    Prior to joining Vencer, Laura served as the Vice President of Human Resources for Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc., Memorial Resource Development, Corp., Quantum Resources Management, LLC, and NFR Energy, LLC.  Additionally, Laura held senior Human Resources roles at Peoples Energy Production, Chevron/Unocal, and Enron.  Laura began her career in oil and gas as an intern at Burlington Resources/Meridian Oil.

Ms. Kinningham graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial/Organizational Psychology with minors in Science and Sociology.  Her professional certifications include Certified Compensation Professional (CCP), Global Remuneration Professional (GRP), and Professional in Human Resources (PHR).  Recognized in 2019 as one of the ‘Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Oil and Gas’ by the National Diversity Council.

Ms. Kinningham has served on the Board of Directors for Today’s Harbor for Children since 2012.  She is also an Advisory Board Member and Human Resources Advisor for Tacit, Inc., a VC-backed, start-up, UX software company that provides workforce solutions focused on reducing downtime, improving productivity, and capturing digitized tacit knowledge for clients in the oil & gas, power generation & transmission, midstream, industrial manufacturing, and AEC industries.

Having spent the majority of his career at Constellation Energy (later Exelon Corporation), David Sims has extensive experience making principal investments and executing structured transactions. At the time of his departure in 2014, he was Vice President–Head of Upstream for Exelon, where he was responsible for all aspects of the business including deal sourcing, evaluation and execution; asset management and harvesting/realization; financial forecasting and price risk management; and internal and external reporting. Mr. Sims earned his B.B.A in Finance from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Rice University.

Chris Paulsen is Vice President of Business Development for Pioneer Natural Resources.  Since joining Pioneer in 2002, Chris has served in various areas including investor relations, mergers and acquisitions, operations and subsurface.  Over the past ten years, Chris has managed over $20 billion in upstream, midstream and oilfield service transactions located in the Permian Basin, Mid-Continent, Gulf Coast, Alaska and Rockies.   In his current role, Chris’ team is responsible for M&A, corporate strategy, scenario planning and energy transition.  

Prior to joining Pioneer, Chris worked for SBC Communications in planning as well as treasury.  Chris received his BBA from Baylor University and his MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.  Chris is a father of four young children and an avid runner, golfer and skier.   

Robert J. Anderson is a petroleum engineer with over 30 years of diversified domestic and international experience. He has served as Chief Executive Officer since April 2020, and as President of Earthstone Energy, Inc. since March 2018. Previously, he served as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Engineering of Earthstone and served in a similar capacity with Oak Valley Resources, LLC from March 2013 until the closing of its strategic combination with Earthstone in December 2014.

His professional experience includes acquisition evaluation, reservoir and production engineering, field development, project economics, budgeting and planning, and capital markets. His domestic acquisition and divestiture experience includes Texas and Louisiana (offshore and onshore), Mid-Continent, and the Rocky Mountain states, and international experience includes Canada, South America, and Russia. Mr. Anderson has a B.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from the University of Denver.

Danny Yick is a Sr. Director, Corporate A&D at ConocoPhillips and joined the company in 2014. His focus is on M&A, deal sourcing, strategy, structuring, material divestitures, subsurface technical and financial evaluations, and leading cross-functional teams in the execution of oil and gas investments with the most recent material transaction being the Shell Permian acquisition. Prior to joining ConocoPhillips, he worked at Petro-Canada, Devon Energy, Nexen, TD Securities, Vermilion Energy in roles ranging from production engineer, drilling engineer, completions engineer, field rotation wells supervisor, reservoir engineer, institutional equity research, and BD subsurface engineering professional. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Calgary and is a CFA® Charterholder.

'Ashish Ghotekar served as Vice President (Petroleum Engineer) with ABN AMRO’s Global Oil and Gas Group until their recent withdrawal from the US Oil and Gas space. He was with ABN AMRO for almost five years and was responsible for technical reviews and economic evaluations of reserves-based credit facilities to ensure conformance with the bank’s underwriting criteria. He also supported the bank’s A&D team as a technical expert. Ashish also assisted in the wind down of the ABN AMRO lending portfolio through 2021.

Prior to joining ABN AMRO, in 2017, Ashish spent nearly a decade as a consulting Petroleum Engineer working on various Reservoir Engineering projects (including economic analyses, reserves forecast, waterflood, CO2 EOR studies, production optimization, nodal analysis, reservoir simulation, pattern monitoring). Ashish has a M.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai India.'

Ted Wurfel is currently the VP of ESG for Rockcliff Energy. For the previous 5 years he has been the VP of HSE and Sustainability at Indigo Minerals, where he helped take the company to Carbon Neutrality in 2021, and worked on an emissions Quantification, Monitoring, Recordkeeping, and Verification of Methane Emissions project with Cheniere Energy. 

Before Indigo, Mr. Wurfel was the Manager of HSE for Eagleford Operations for Talisman, and VP of HSE and Regulatory Affairs for Chief Oil and Gas in the Marcellus.  Mr. Wurfel has also worked for KN Energy, and Tenneco.  Mr. Wurfel is also a Professional Engineer, has his MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology, is a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines, and has started and sold his own Air Consulting firm. 

In unrelated fields Mr. Wurfel has also been a fireman, led a Squad of Infantrymen during Operation Desert Storm, and has been a member of The Old Guard, the Army’s Official Ceremonial Unit and Escort to the President. 

A Permian Basin native, Emily has over a decade of experience in the upstream oil and gas service industry and currently serves as the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Manager for Evolution Well Services. Her focus is finding innovative and sustainable solutions to understand and manage impacts to employees, partners, communities, the environment, and the company while building long-term value.

She has completed the University of Houston ESG in Energy credentialing program which focuses on ESG framework development, ESG stakeholder engagement, and ESG risk management. Emily is also a Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) FSA Level II Candidate and will soon complete the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Professional Certification. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and is currently pursuing a Master of Education degree in Learning, Design, and Technology from the University of Houston.

 Prior to her work in ESG, Emily served as a Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) project manager for a U.S.-based upstream service provider. She also has extensive experience in fleet management and Department of Transportation (DOT) compliance.

Argo and his teams are responsible for Reservoir Engineering, optimizing development of Continental’s assets as well as acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures. He has over 15 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining Continental in 2014, he worked for HighMount Exploration and Production for seven years and served in roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as General Manager Reservoir Engineering.

Previously, Mr. Argo worked for Dominion Exploration & Production and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering and a Master of Business Administration in energy from the University of Oklahoma.

Argo currently serves on the board for the Continental Resources PAC, the OU Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy Board of Visitors, the advisory board for the OU Mewbourne School of Petroleum & Geological Engineering, and ADAM OKC. He has previously served in leadership/board positions with the Society of Petroleum Engineers and SPE Young Professionals.

Vikram Nath is a Managing Director with Munich Re Energy Transition Finance. Munich Re is the largest
reinsurance company in the world. Based out of Houston, Vikram’s core responsibilities include
structuring and executing structured finance transactions in the energy space, lead and advise on the
energy transition strategy for his business unit and serve as an integral part of the firm’s business
development efforts. Vikram has over 10 years of experience in energy finance including his prior
positions with Natixis and Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank. Vikram has an MBA from Rice
University, Houston and an undergrad degree in engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Per his LinkedIn profile Frank Daily is a Director at Lazard where he advises clients on a range of strategic advisory and investment banking assignments including M&A, corporate defense, ESG matters, capital structure, capital raising, liability management and Chapter 11 restructurings. He has an MBA from Rice and undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Andrew Dittmar has been with Enverus for eight years and is a Director on the Market Research Team. Andrew specializes in deal analysis, research and valuations for energy assets and tracks industry M&A trends and outlooks. He has a BBA in Finance from Texas A&M University and a JD from The University of Texas School of Law.

Brandon Mikael is Director of Business Development for Encino Energy. His current focus is identifying, sourcing, evaluating, structuring, and executing acquisitions, divestitures, and strategic partnerships/JVs as well as corporate strategy and other high-growth initiatives. Brandon joined Encino in 2016 and was responsible for financial and strategic analysis during the formation of Encino Acquisition Partners (EAP) in 2017, Encino's multi-billion dollar partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, as well as all of EAP's acquisitions to date, including the inaugural $2 billion acquisition of Chesapeake Energy's Ohio Utica assets in 2018. He has also held roles leading financial planning, budgeting, investor relations, and strategy review during his tenure at Encino and has been an active participant in the company's commodity hedging and capital markets activities.

Prior to joining Encino, Brandon worked in the oil & gas investment banking group at BMO Capital Markets where he evaluated and executed strategic advisory transactions as well as public and private capital raises. Brandon has also worked for Wood Mackenzie, most recently leading the E&P research of the Mid-Continent region after beginning his tenure in the strategy consulting practice working on corporate strategy, transaction advisory, and market environment engagements spanning the entire energy value chain for supermajors, NOCs, and independent E&P companies. He began his career as a management consultant at Alvarez & Marsal, focused on business performance improvement and acquisition integration. Brandon holds a B.B.A. from the University of Oklahoma.