Kick-off Speaker

Kirk Coburn
Shell Technology Ventures  
Kirk is a member of the team at Shell Technology Ventures (STV), Shell's corporate Venture Capital fund. STV invests in technology companies focused on the oil & gas and future energy (clean/green tech) markets, as well as IT and mobile technologies that support them. STV acts as a strategic partner and makes minority investments in select technology companies, including Shell technology spin-outs, and also acts as an LP in some externally managed venture capital funds.

VC Panel

Luis Alcoser 
BP Ventures 
Luis is the lead for Upstream venturing activities and has 19 years of E&P experience leading unconventional and deepwater project developments around the world. Luis has a B.S. degree in Natural Gas Engineering, an M.E. degree in Petroleum Engineering an MBA and a Master of Finance degree. Luis currently holds positions on the boards of Xact, Silicon Microgravity & BISN.

Fred Lummis 
Houston Ventures
Fred is an Associate at Houston Ventures, an early/growth stage investment firm focused on process improvement technologies for the oil and gas vertical.  His responsibilities include sourcing, screening, and originating investments, conducting due diligence, financial modeling, and reporting.

Dan Carter
Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures
Daniel Carter is an Investment Director at Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, the strategic venture and growth equity investment arm of Saudi Aramco ("SAEV"). Prior to joining SAEV in 2013, he was Principal at a London-based investment fund focused on energy and prior to that, Daniel was Vice President at Citigroup/Salomon Smith Barney. Daniel holds MBAs from Columbia Business School and London Business School.  

Abby Mercado
Altira Ventures
Abby Mercado is an Associate with Altira Group, where she is involved in screening and evaluating new investment opportunities in the energy technology space as well as assisting in monitoring and strategic / operational planning for portfolio companies.Prior to joining Altira, Ms. Mercado spent five years with Triangle Petroleum Corporation where she was leading the business development efforts for the midstream affiliate, Caliber Midstream. Ms. Mercado began her career at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and a Bachelor of Science degree in human and organizational development from Vanderbilt University.

Anoop Poddar 
Energy Ventures 
Anoop Poddar is a Senior Partner & President at Energy Ventures. He has 20 years of Investment Management, Operational and Corporate Finance experience in the Energy Sector. Prior to re-joining Energy Ventures, Mr. Poddar was CEO and founding member of the private equity firm First Reserve Momentum (2013-2016) and Partner of Energy Ventures (2008-2013). Mr. Poddar holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, M.Sc. in Offshore Engineering from Robert Gordon University; B.Eng. in Petroleum Engineering from Indian School Mines.

Entrepreneur Panel

Troy Ruths 
Ruths AI  
Troy Ruths received his BS in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis and a PhD in Computer Science, with a specialization in Computational Biology, from Rice University. Troy founded Ruths.ai which is a data science boutique located in Houston. They focus on building advanced analytics packages for oil and gas assets across the globe. 

Luther Birdzell 
OAG Analytics 
Luther Birdzell is an entrepreneur, data scientist, and engineer who is passionate about intellectual, machine, and kinesthetic learning. From boardrooms, to oilfields, to data centers, Luther has been transforming data from a cost to an asset for over 20 years. After successfully exiting his last company to Computer Associates in 2011, Luther Founded OAG Analytics in 2014 to optimize well profitability in North American unconventional reservoirs. OAG’s well optimization software connects physics with machine learning and economics in a unique self-service SaaS platform.

Braulio Perdigao  
Petrolessons 
Braulio is a Brazilian/American serial entrepreneur on a mission to bridge the skills gap in the oil and gas industry with his innovative startup Petrolessons.com. He also runs One Global Media, a digital marketing and production company, and he is the chairman of the Society of Oil and Gas Entrepreneurs, a non-profit helping over 600 O&G entrepreneurs to network and accelerate their ventures. He has spent the last 8 years working in the O&G industry for Petrobras, Exxon, BP and Hess. Braulio has a Bachelors of Science from University of Houston Downtown. 

Voice of the Industry Panel

Susan Rosenbaum 
Schlumberger 
Susan Rosenbaum has been working at Schlumberger for 25 years in a variety of technical and management positions. Rosenbaum is currently the Director of Discipline Career Management and Knowledge Management. In her role, Susan oversees Schlumberger’s petro-technical engineers and scientists, to ensure that recruiting, training, and developing this key population meets the company’s current and future business needs. Rosenbaum also defines the knowledge strategy of the company and manages its technical communities of practice. Rosenbaum has a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Richard Lynch
Hess
Richard is an Oil and Gas executive who works for the Hess Corporation as the Senior Vice President of Drilling, Completions and Developments. Richard has more than 36 years of professional experience having worked previously for BP / ARCO. He has a broad technical petroleum industry background of leading Major Projects, Drilling and Completions teams, as well as upstream asset businesses in both domestic and international settings. Richard has a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Wyoming. 

Gene Narahara
Chevron
Gene Narahara is a Sr. Consultant Reservoir Engineer for Chevron Energy Technology Company based in Houston. Gene specializes in new deepwater developments and has worked various fields including Agbami in Nigeria and Jack-St. Malo in the Gulf of Mexico. He has also been involved with deepwater research efforts through the DeepStar consortium. Gene is a Distinguished Member of SPE and has formerly served on the SPE Board as the Technical Director of Reservoir Description & Dynamics. He is a recipient of the SPE Distinguished Service Award.

Sidd Gupta

Product Manager, Schlumberger

Omar Abou-Sayed

CEO, Advantek

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