Roughneck Camp 2023

As the Vice President for Low Carbon Solutions Technology, Prasanna leads a team of technical and science specialists focused on Carbon Capture, Carbon Storage and Transport, Hydrogen, Low Emissions Fuels and Nature Based solutions. His mission is to deliver the technology solutions that will be critical for ExxonMobil to lead in the energy transition. During the course of his 20+ years with ExxonMobil he has held a variety of leadership roles in the areas of research engineer, process and modeling research, planning, supply & transportation, global marketing and sales, and corporate strategic research. 

Prasanna earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Mumbai, received an MBA with a major in Finance from Tulane University and a Ph.D. at the University of Delaware. Prasanna has served on the advisory board of the United Way of Hunterdon County, the Chemical Reaction Engineering Division of AIChE and the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI) at the University of Delaware.

Danny is a business leader, innovator, and entrepreneur focused on building companies and leading change efforts. He has diverse experience in management and engineering in geothermal energy, oil & gas, operations, well construction, subsurface engineering, capital planning, and optimization. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Criterion Energy Partners (CEP) an independent exploration and production company focused on developing decentralized direct geothermal energy projects to help commercial and industrial consumers reduce their emissions and improve their operating efficiency by providing clean, reliable, baseload energy using heat from the Earth.

Jamie White is the Carbon Storage and Transport Manager in ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company. Jamie assumed his current position in 2022. In this capacity, he leads a global team to ensure safe and secure storage and transportation of CO2 in support of ExxonMobil’s Low Carbon Solutions business.

He began his career as a geologist with ExxonMobil in 1996 working producing oil and gas fields in the onshore of the Gulf Coast of the United States, and has since held a variety of technical and managerial positions that have allowed Jamie see all phases of the upstream oil and gas industry across the globe. In addition to Houston, Jamie has had postings in Indonesia, Australia, and Canada. Jamie has also worked in ExxonMobil’s exploration strategic planning organization.

Jamie received a Master’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 1995, and his Bachelor’s degree from the College of Wooster in 1992.

Abhi is a petroleum engineer with technical and managerial experience in Subsurface Project Maturation, Well Delivery and Field Development. He is skilled in Integrated Reservoir Modelling, Project Risk Management and Decision Quality. After starting his career in studies team, he worked as an Ops Engineer in Oman and Iraq before returning to the Netherlands as an Opportunity Lead for Abandonment & New Energy projects. In his current role as Area Development Lead, he combines his subsurface knowledge with business planning skills to optimize appraisal and development decisions to screen and develop CCS projects in the US. Abhi has noteworthy contributions in oil and gas industry with 8 technical publications and 2 JPT articles as a Petrophysics and Geomechanics expert. He is an active SPE member and currently a Board member for SPE Gulf Coast Section. He holds a degree in Petroleum Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, India and enjoys playing poker and going on long bike rides in his free time.

Andrea is a highly accomplished Deal Lead at Shell with an impressive 15-year track record leading high-performing multidisciplinary teams and delivering exceptional results in A&D, New Business Development, and Capital Projects opportunities. Andrea has earned numerous accolades, including being recognized as Top 10 under 40 by Young Women in Energy and Forty under 40 by Hart Energy's Oil & Gas Investor. Currently, Andrea is leading multiple oil & gas and renewable energy deals with a focus on end-to-end value integration and cross-team collaboration. She is an entrepreneurial thinker who established Shell Canada's Geothermal Business and founded a global technology and innovation incubator delivering millions in savings. As an energetic and optimistic leader, Andrea prioritizes high-quality delivery, building trust, and leading with intent. She is a mom of two troublemakers, loves to travel and bake.

Bafor is an accomplished energy professional with a remarkable 24-year tenure at SLB. Having started as a Formation Evaluation and Production Engineer in Wireline, Bafor swiftly progressed into management, dedicating 12 years to wireline operations. Throughout his career, he has excelled in various roles, including HSE VP for SLB Asia, Operations Manager in Drilling & Measurements, VP Human Resources for D&M, Strategy, Drilling Group USLVP and Digital Drilling Sales Director. Currently, Bafor is the Division Manager for D&I, responsible for USL operations.

Beyond work, Bafor cherishes his family life with a loving marriage and two children, and indulges in his passions for Soccer and Golf.

Chris Haase is a seasoned executive, inventor and current investment director for Aramco Ventures’ Sustainability Fund in Houston. With many years of corporate venture capital experience at BTG Ventures, Shell Ventures, GE Ventures, and Aramco Ventures, Chris started his career as a petrophysicist, before expanding into energy innovation and technology commercialization during his tenure at Royal Dutch/Shell, BHP Billiton, and Saudi Aramco.

A recognized expert in critical materials for energy transition, Chris is a US Department of Energy Oppenheimer Fellow and former Director of the US Critical Materials Institute, a DOE innovation hub at Ames National Laboratory.  Chris received his Ph.D. and MS degrees from the University of Chicago, MBA from Erasmus University in The Netherlands, and BS Summa Cum Laude from Ohio State University, and served as an advisor to the National Technology Transfer Center and US Missile Defense Agency’s SBIR program.

Nigel is an industry leader in the Energy Transition, Decarbonization and Carbon Management, and an expert in Carbon Capture, Use and Storage (CCUS), Hydrogen and Energy Storage. With over 25 years of global energy industry experience with major international energy companies Shell and bp, Nigel has led public-private partnership technology programs, policy and regulatory development organizations, project development and operations, and capability building efforts in low carbon energy. This includes roles such as global head of CCUS at bp, chair of the CO2 Capture Project, chair of the North American CCS Association, peer-reviewer for International Energy Agency reports, and alternate chair for execution of the National Petroleum Council CCUS Study.

At Baker Hughes, Nigel guides the company’s strategy and growth initiatives to advance new frontiers for energy that will position the company to help meet global energy demand by offering lower carbon solutions across industries. Nigel is Baker Hughes’ board member for Ekona Power, a methane pyrolysis technology to produce low carbon hydrogen.

Nigel also is an industry lecturer at the University of Houston in their executive education courses on CCUS, Hydrogen Economy and Sustainable Development. He also serves as an independent board director for Natural Gas Services Group, and is chair of both the ESG Committee and Nominating Committee.

Nigel graduated from Imperial College, London with a Master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering, and from The University of Leeds, UK with a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Mining Engineering. Nigel now lives in Houston, Texas with his wife and 2 children.

Amber Koutney is a Wells Engineer at ExxonMobil currently working in Staffing & Development supporting the Wells Discipline, setting strategy and ensuring capability development in alignment with current and future business needs. She has 15 years of global experience from hyper-deep water exploration in Brazil to ERD wells in Sakhalin, limited margin wells in Brazil and Equatorial Guinea, and unconventional wells in the US. With experience across the well life cycle, she integrates and applies new technology to drive improvements and increase value.

Amber has an Agricultural Engineering BS from University of Florida. She lives in Houston with her husband, also an engineer at ExxonMobil, and an inquisitive three year old son. 

Leslie Beyer is CEO of the Energy Workforce & Technology Council in Houston, Texas, the global energy technology and services association representing over 650,000 jobs in the energy workforce. She is a leading industry advocate in a variety of areas including global energy market, energy workforce impacts, supply chain, regulatory environment, energy expansion, ESG best practices and DEI in the energy sector.

Highlights of Leslie’s career include 15 years in Washington, D.C. serving in policy and public affairs roles in the U.S. Senate, multiple presidential campaigns, The White House Executive Office of the President, U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. After government service, Ms. Beyer began a career in advocacy as Director, Member and Board Relations with the National Association of Manufacturers, collaborating with member companies on targeted priority legislative issues and lobbying efforts, primarily in the energy industry.

Leslie was named to Hart Energy’s Top 25 Women in Energy in 2021, Energy Transition Economist 100 Women of the Energy Transition in 2021, and Houston Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs in 2022. She holds a BA in Latin
American Studies and Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin.

Kevin has spent 20 years on the front lines of the energy innovation in numerous executive leadership roles across the industry. Starting his career as a roughneck on the oilrigs of Northern Alberta he grew through the ranks until he was Chief Executive of Canada’s oldest drilling company. In the midst of the pandemic and negative oil prices, he began Canada’s first energy technology venture studio and Calgary’s first energy venture capital fund backed by some of the largest energy companies in the work, as CEO of Avatar Innovations.

Accomplished in corporate strategy and governance, capital planning, marketing, technology and intellectual property management, Kevin’s leadership has led to the creation, financing and execution of some of the first fully computerized drilling rig in Canada, the first long-reach horizontal well in the Canadian arctic, numerous joint ventures with Canada’s Indigenous peoples fostering Economic Reconciliation in remote communities and the creation of the Calgary Energy Transition Center.

Having led a major corporation through the disruption of the Canadian energy industry, Kevin is uniquely positioned to lead Avatar Innovations’ ambitious plan unlocking energy transition solutions inside oil and gas for investment, commercialization and scale. Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science from McGill University and a Masters of Business Administration from the Haskayne School of Business and currently serves on board of directors of Energy Safety Canada and the steering committees of both the Clean Resource Innovation Network (CRIN) and the Energy Futures Lab (EFL). Kevin was named by the Globe & Mail Newspaper as one of the “Top 50 Global Changemakers working in Canada” in 2023.

As Senior VP, Energy Transition and Executive Director of the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, Jane leads the Partnership’s efforts to leverage Houston’s energy leadership to accelerate global solutions for a low-carbon future. She leads a coalition of industry, academia, and community partners to ensure the long-term economic competitiveness and advancement of the Houston region towards a more sustainable and net-zero emissions future.

Prior to joining the Partnership, Jane spent over two decades at bp. Among her many accomplishments, she developed and delivered the 2019 National Petroleum Council study on carbon capture, use and storage in coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy. Her most recent role as Senior Relationship Manager of Regions, Cities and Solutions integrated her as a critical partner to cities and industry to collaborate on low-carbon energy solutions, working closely with the City of Houston to implement their Climate Action Plan. 

Jane received her MBA from Loyola University in Chicago. She is a contributing faculty member of the University of Houston’s Center for Carbon Management in Energy, Regional Advisory Board member for the Energy Industries Council, and member of the Advisory Board of the Houston Chapter of WRISE – Women of Renewable Industries & Sustainable Energy. 

Sebastian is Chief Technology Officer at Quantum. Prior to joining Quantum, Sebastian led Chevron’s digital transformation as the General Manager for Technology & Strategy. During his 13 years at Chevron, he led Chevron’s cloud transition and their North America Upstream IT and Data Science teams. Prior to joining Chevron, Sebastian was the Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice-President at Trade-Ranger/Hubwoo, a publicly-traded European company providing spend management and B2B eCommerce solutions to the energy industry. He started his career in Information Technology with SAP. Sebastian holds an M.S. in Industrial Engineering and an M.B.A. from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe Germany as well as an M.S. in Engineering Management from Stanford University.

Jason Ashurst is the General Manager of CCUS Strategy, Business Performance & Markets within Chevron New Energies. In this role he is responsible for leading efforts to shape CCUS business line strategies and competitive plans, which map to and drive Corporate and Chevron New Energies performance. He was appointed to this role in June 2023.

Jason received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Fresno State, a Post-Baccalaureate degree in Petroleum Engineering from CSU Bakersfield, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Oklahoma. Jason joined Chevron in 2009 as a Facility Engineer and sicne them has held numerous positions of increasing responsibility in Facilities Engineering, Operations & Maintenance, Business Planning, Asset Development, and Value Chain Optimization in multiple locations within the United States.

Brooke is the General Manager – Learning and Development at Chevron. Brooke leads strategic learning and development initiatives across Chevron promoting a consistent and superior learning experience for the workforce. She leads the planning, execution, and evaluation of the development and delivery of leadership, professional and technical programs. Prior to this role, Brooke led talent management for Chevron’s Subsurface community.

She joined Chevron in 1998 as a production engineer for oil fields in Southern Oklahoma and North Texas. She spent over ten years working reservoir engineering and team lead assignments in multiple tight gas assets in North America including East Texas Cotton Valley, Haynesville Shale and Piceance Basin. Her other asset experience includes working Tombua-Landana Subsurface Team in Block 14 of the South African Strategic Business Unit. Other assignments throughout her 20-year career include Business Planning, Capital Stewardship and Organizational Capability, and Upstream Campus Recruiting Coordinator.

Brooke graduated in 1998 from Texas A&M University with a BS in Petroleum Engineering. Her first experience in the oil and gas industry was as a summer roustabout for Texaco in Midland, Texas following her first year in college.

Brooke is the mother of a fourteen-year-old daughter who loves art, languages, and math. Brooke enjoys traveling, needlepointing, and volunteering in the Houston community. Her volunteer experience includes serving the board of directors for The Junior League of Houston, Inc., Edgar Allen Poe Elementary School, and the Texas Eta House Corporation of Pi Beta Phi at Texas A&M University.

Adrian Rodriguez-Herrera is a petroleum engineer and currently leads the SLB's digital subsurface strategy for North and South America onshore basins. He has 15 years of industry experience comprising a blend of software development and international consulting related to geomechanical modeling for applications in drilling, stimulation, and CCS. He has worked on these topics with operators in over 20 countries, has 40 publications and holds 8 US patents on subsurface modeling techniques.

Rachel Schelble joined Wood Mackenzie’s corporate research team in 2021 as Head of Corporate Carbon Management and Infrastructure, working to develop new content offerings focused on corporate carbon management and midstream. Rachel works with oil and gas industry clients to understand the business models, emerging technologies, and strategies driving the energy transition. Her research is focused on understanding decarbonization strategies and technologies, the role of the evolving carbon markets, and the unique ways that the oil and gas industry can develop low carbon solutions.

Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie, Rachel worked at ExxonMobil for 15 years where she held multiple positions in competitor analysis, commercial negotiation, value chain integration, infrastructure development, geoscience, and resource evaluation. Rachel has a PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Southern California, and a BSc in Earth and Planetary Sciences from the University of New Mexico.

Maziar or "Maz" is Sr. Consultant with S&P Global Commodity Insights Upstream Consulting practice in Houston, TX. A petroleum engineer by practice, he brings diverse experience in upstream energy strategy, emissions, midstream/pipeline infrastructure, public policy/geo-pol risk, equity research, data analytics, and product management. Before joining the consulting group, he spent the past five years working with the Chief Upstream Strategist at S&P Global leading client engagement and thought leadership with public/private C-Suite leaders and governments.

Maziar is a member of the SPE, AIEN and is the Young Professionals Representative of the USA National Committee to the World Petroleum Council (WPC). He is also member of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) as an emerging leader and Petroleum Academy Alumni Network President.

Prior to joining S&P Global, Maziar was an Energy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Natural Gas Regulation and International Engagement in Washington, D.C.. Maziar Began his career at Shell Oil Company’s Upstream Americas group in the Eagleford and Deepwater GoM asset management teams with later positions at Bechtel Corporation and TimkenSteel. Maziar holds a B.S. Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston.

Tom Moritz is the current Director of Corporate Sustainability at Helmerich & Payne. Tom has been at H&P for over 10 years and has worked in varying positions throughout the organization including performance engineering, corporate strategy, and as a roughneck in H&P’s program for new-hire engineers. In his current role, Tom helped establish the non-financial accounting programs for certain ESG metrics and is also responsible for the development and publication of H&P’s annual sustainability report. Tom graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.