Timothy S. Duncan  
President and CEO
Talos Energy, LLC

Tim Duncan is the President and CEO and a founder of Talos Energy LLC, a private company formed in March 2012 and initially funded with up to $600 million of private equity commitments from Apollo Global Management, LLC and Riverstone Holdings LLC. 

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Talos is engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas properties with a focus on operations in the Gulf of Mexico, including the shallow waters of offshore Mexico.  Talos is the third company built with private equity capital with his partners over the last seventeen years.  Since inception in 2012, Talos has grown from 5 original employees to over 200 employees with over 100 MMBOE of Proved reserves and 30 MBOEPD of net production.  In November of 2017, Talos announced its merger with Stone Energy, providing increased scale and allowing Talos to become a public company post-closing in early 2Q 2018. In 2013, Talos was named by the Houston Chronicle as the #1 Top Workplace in the Houston area for companies under 150 employees and has maintained a position on the list of Top Workplaces for the last five years.  In June 2016, Mr. Duncan was named as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year for the Energy & Energy Services sector in the Gulf Coast area. 

Mr. Duncan has a BS in Petroleum Engineering from Mississippi State University, where he was honored in 2012 as a Distinguished Fellow of the College of Engineering.  Mr. Duncan also earned an MBA from the Bauer Executive Program at the University of Houston. He is an active member of the SPE, IPAA, NOIA, and YPO.  Mr. Duncan also serves on various academically focused boards including the College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council and the Foundation Board at Mississippi State University.

Chris Atherton
President 
EnergyNet, LLC

Chris Atherton is the President of EnergyNet, Inc. EnergyNet is an oil and gas asset acquisition and divestiture firm specializing in auction sales, sealed bid transactions and government lease sales. Chris has been part of the EnergyNet team since 2002. He has been actively involved as the firm has completed over $4B in transactions including sell-side mandates from thousands of Exploration and Production clients. Chris leads a multi-disciplinary team of 40 professionals specializing in land, technical, business development, marketing, IT and administration.

Chris has 16 years of experience in the energy industry. He graduated from Texas State in San Marcos with a business management and marketing degree. Prior to EnergyNet, Chris worked at the Enron Corporation in Houston, Texas

Chris currently serves as the Chairman of the Wildcatter’s Host Committee for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. Chris served as the Chairman for the SPE-Gulf Coast Section Business Development Study Group for three years. He is also an active member of the IPAA, Texas Energy Alliance, ADAM Houston, ADAM Permian and Houston Producer's Forum.  Chris holds series 39, 22 and 63 SEC licenses. 

Omar Abou-Sayed
CEO 
Advantek Waste Management Solutions

Omar Abou-Sayed's experience spans the global energy industry, including upstream oil and gas, chemicals, oilfield services, and renewables. He has worked in a variety of engineering, business, and organization-wide leadership roles within major oil companies, management consulting firms, private equity funds, and venture-backed startups. He currently serves as CEO of Advantek Waste Management Services, an TPG-backed waste management company which utilizes proprietary slurry injection technologies dispose of oilfield waste as well as organic waste sludges. He also holds the role of President at Advantek International, a global oilfield consulting firm focused on hydraulic fracturing, geomechanics, and data analytics and artificial intelligence applications within oil and gas.

Omar began his career at BP, where he held a variety of engineering roles. Omar holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Moderated by Mikhail Aleskeenko
Chair 
SPE GCS Innovate Committee