Christi Craddick
Chairman, The Texas Railroad Commission
Christi Craddick is in the forefront of the newest wave of conservatives in leadership roles in Texas. Raised in a strong conservative household, retained as legal counsel by prominent Texas firms, and shaped by more than a decade as a trusted political adviser, Craddick has set a clear standard of integrity, self-reliance and innovation in her position as Commissioner at the Railroad Commission.
Since her tenure on the Commission began in November 2012, Craddick has pushed to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of an energy industry that is driving the state's unparalleled economic success. In the process, she has repeatedly proven that sensible regulations, careful listening and plain talk can foster innovation that has solidified Texas leadership in the energy sector.
Making it a top priority, Craddick has worked to educate the public about the oil and gas industry and its impact in Texas. She has fought against Washington’s one-size-fits-all environmental policies that would kill jobs and stifle energy production growth. Craddick has advocated for recycling in the oilfields, helping to drive the percentage of reclaimed water upwards, an essential achievement in a state enduring a multi-year drought.
As part of her efforts to modernize the agency, Craddick has championed an Information Technology overhaul at the Commission, seeking improvements that would upgrade the Geographic Information System, increase public access to the agency's data, and speed up inspections and permitting times.
A native of Midland, the heart of the Permian Basin, Craddick earned both her Bachelor's Degree as a Plan II graduate and her Doctorate of Jurisprudence from The University of Texas at Austin. During her career as an attorney, she specialized in oil and gas, water, tax issues, electric deregulation and environmental policy.
Following the example of her father and mother, Craddick has been drawn to public service and politics. As president of a grassroots advocacy firm, she took the lead on work in coalition building in the public policy arena and development and implementation of issue strategies. Craddick serves her community as an active member of organizations including the State Bar of Texas, University of Texas Liberal Arts Alumni Advisory Council, and Dell Children’s Medical Center Foundation. Christi resides in Austin with her daughter, Catherine, and is an active member of St. John Neumann Catholic Church.
Mark LaCour
Director, modalpoint
Mark has lived and worked in the Oil and Gas industry for over 25 years. Later he started his own market research company and has a well-earned reputation as an industry "insider" and independent 3rd party researcher. This led to him becoming a part of the new media, where he has the top Oil and Gas podcasts in the world. He is a sought after public speaker, author, sits on several oil & gas boards and has one of the top oil & gas presences in social media.
Sean Strawbridge
Chief Executive Officer, Port Corpus Christi
Sean has over 25 years of experience in the global transportation and energy sectors in both public administration and private sector disciplines, holding senior leadership roles in Business & Corporate Development, Large Infrastructure Development, Capital Structuring, Finance, and Public Private Partnerships.
In his role as CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi, Sean leads the third largest U.S. port in total revenue tonnage.
A veteran of world-class organizations such as the Port of Long Beach, Ports America Group, Oxbow Energy, and Sea-Land Service, Sean has written extensively on the evolving marine terminal and vessel shipping paradigms and has been globally recognized for his industry knowledge and large network of professional relationships.
Sean is an active member of the South Texas Military Task Force, as well as the USCG Area Maritime Security Committee. He is committed to his community and serves on the Buccaneer Commission, United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, USS Lexington Board of Directors, and the Art Museum of South Texas Board of Directors.
Sean holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting from Arizona State University. He has lived abroad and has conducted business in over 40 countries.
Mark Rossano
Founder and CEO
C6 Capital Holdings LLC
Mark Rossano is a financial industry veteran and renowned expert on global financial markets and supply-chain analysis. As Founder and CEO of C6 Capital Holdings LLC, he provides investment and consulting services to clients across multiple sectors with a pronounced focus on global product flows.
Mark's deep-dive supply chain expertise is in high demand—he serves as a consulting executive to several international businesses, is an equity partner in several others, and is now a frequent contributor to Bloomberg TV after serving as a Bloomberg Energy Industry Analyst.
That expertise has been crafted over many years in a variety of roles, including Senior Energy Analyst and Macro-Economist positions at Elevation, Candlewood Investment Group, and South Ferry Capital Management, as well as his formative experiences as a Portfolio Manager at FNY Capital and Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where he managed an eight-person team focused on developing a global trade platform to invest in rates, foreign exchange, commodities, and equities.
Mark received his bachelor's degree in economics from Loyola College in Maryland and his MBA in Finance from Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management. During that time, he was a founding member of Syracuse's Net Impact organization—an international nonprofit that focuses on building businesses with socially and environmentally sustainable processes.
Ahmed Ghoneim
Vice President, Oil & Gas
Energy Recovery
Ahmed Ghoneim is the Vice President of Oil & Gas at Energy Recovery, where he is responsible for development and commercial strategy for the Company's oil & gas technologies. He is an accomplished oilfield leader with over two decades of global upstream oil & gas experience with a focus on well services and pressure pumping, technology and operations, and quality, health, safety & environment (QHSE) program implementation.
Mr. Ghoneim previously worked as Global Production Enhancement Director with Baker Hughes, Regional Director for Pressure Control with GE Oil & Gas in multiple markets, in addition to several leadership roles over 15 years with Schlumberger. He began his career in oil & gas as a field engineer, working for multiple major operators including Repsol, Shell, BP and Hess.
Mr. Ghoneim graduated with a B.Sc. in Mechanical Power Engineering from Ain Shams University, in Cairo, Egypt.
Representative Jon Rosenthal
County Affairs and Energy Resources Committee
Representative Jon Rosenthal has been in Texas since 1979 after being born in the prestigious Stanford University Hospital in 1963. His father Haskell was the John T. Stuart III Centennial Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin for over 25 years and his mother Maryon is a retired Cosmetics Sales Director.
A graduate of The University of Texas at Austin in 1991, Jon earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He has since worked for over 25 years as a Project Manager, Engineering Manager, and Subsea Systems Engineer in and around the oil & gas industry. In 2016, Jon earned a Graduate Certificate in Subsea Engineering from the University of Houston.
Representative Rosenthal has been a strong fighter, advocate and champion for better public schools, healthcare and ensuring we have comprehensive criminal justice reform across the State of Texas. Grateful and fortunate enough to be elected by the great constituents of House District 135 (Northwest Houston - Cypress and Jersey Village), Jon continues his fight in the state legislature to advocate for these issues amongst other needs. He will bring a unique background to the chamber as being only one of two practicing engineers in the Texas State House of Representatives and the only mechanical engineer serving in the body.
As a new member to the 86th Legislative session, Representative Rosenthal served on the County Affairs and Energy Resources Committees. He was honored to receive the Freshman of the Year award from the non-partisan Legislative Study Group, the second largest caucus in the Texas State House dedicated to developing mainstream solutions and advancing sound public policy benefitting all Texans.
Jon is happily married to his wife Aminta, and they share 2 adult children; Janet and Bryan. The Rosenthal family has lived in Northwest Houston since 2007.
Demetra Collia
Office Director, Office of Safety Data and Analysis,
Bureau of Transportation Statistics in the US Department of Transportation
Demetra Collia is office director in the Office of Safety Data and Analysis, Bureau of Transportation Statistics in the US Department of Transportation. She has 38 years of experience in the areas of occupational health and safety, public health, and transportation safety. She spent 10 years developing health standards for the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration addressing occupational risk to chronic and infectious disease such as cancer, tuberculosis, and hepatitis B. For the past 17 years, she has developed and managed three near-miss reporting safety programs, including the SafeOCS program. She holds a BA in chemistry and mathematics from Hope College, an MA in statistics from Western Michigan University, and an MHS in biostatistics and epidemiology from Johns Hopkins.
Laurent Pagnon
Vice President of Digital & New Business Ventures - TechnipFMC
Laurent has 13 years of experience in the Energy industry and joined TechnipFMC in 2014. He has held several roles since 2014 in Strategy, Integration, Business Intelligence, and recently led the efforts to accelerate and scale Innovation, Digital and New Energies to impact and transform TechnipFMC Business & Operations. Laurent is based in Houston.
Hani Elshahawi
Managing Director – NoviDigiTech LLC and formerly with Shell
Hani Elshahawi is a thought leader, entrepreneur, and game changer. He is currently Managing Director at NoviDigiTech LLC which partner with innovators, academics, startups, entrepreneurs, investors, and customers to create impact and drive growth through integration, collaboration, digitalization, and education. Hani previously spent 18 years at Shell where he was most recently Deepwater Digitalization Lead, GameChanger, and Formation Testing and Sampling principal technical expert and had previously served as Deepwater technology advisor and capabilities manager and led FEAST-Shell's Fluid Evaluation and Sampling Technologies center of excellence. Prior to Shell, Hani spent 15 years with Schlumberger during which he has held various positions in interpretation, consulting, operations, marketing, and technology development. Hani holds several patents and has authored over 150 technical publications. He was the 2009-2010 President of the SPWLA, recipient multiple SPE and SPWLA awards and a distinguished lecturer for both societies.
Ramesh Prabhala
Founder and CEO - IntelliTide, a Data Science and Data Management solutions and services company
Ramesh Prabhala is the Founder and CEO of IntelliTide – a Data Science and Data Management solutions and services company. Ramesh in over 25 years has architected large scale enterprise data centric applications for global enterprises. Now he and his team help companies leverage "data as an asset"” to grow revenue and increase operational efficiencies.
Lieutenant Commander Jason Y. Ryu
National Technical Advisor
Liquefied Gas Carrier National Center of Expertise
United States Coast Guard
LCDR Ryu, a native of Queens, New York, entered in the Coast Guard in July, 2010. He served at Marine Safety Unit Morgan City located in Louisiana, Sector St. Petersburg in Florida, and Activities Far East in Yokota, Japan. Prior to joining the Coast Guard, LCDR Ryu graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy with a Bachelors of Science and a Third Assistant Engineer’s License for unlimited gross tonnage for Diesel and Steam powered vessels. LCDR Ryu went on to graduate with a Masters in Engineering (Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering) from the University of New Orleans.
LCDR Ryu is currently the National Technical Advisor for the Liquefied Gas Carrier National Center of Expertise. LCDR Ryu has served in the Coast Guard in a variety of national and international operational assignments as a marine safety professional, a policy maker, and a program manager. His prior tours as an Officer include Assistant Chief of Inspections for Activities Far East, Port State Control Chief & Facilities Compliance Supervisor, and Assistant Waterways Management Chief. He is currently studying for his Fundamentals of Engineering License to one day get his Professional Engineer’s License.
Relevant Current & Past Designations/Qualifications: Senior Marine Inspector (Hull & Hull-Tank); Deep Draft Inspector (includes Machinery & OSV); Dry-dock/Shipyard Inspector; Small Passenger Vessel Inspector (FRP, Steel, Aluminum, Wood); Barge Inspector (Oil, Chemical, Freight); Foreign Vessel Inspector (Tank, Freight, Chemical, Gas, Passenger); Mission Management System Internal Auditor Qualification; Marine Facility/Oil Terminal Inspector and Waterways Management Qualification.
Burak Ozturk
President and Co-founder, VIAS
Dr. Ozturk is President and co-founder at VIAS. Dr. Ozturk was previously worked as a Group Technology and Advanced Engineering Director at Wood Group Kenny prior to starting VIAS. Dr. Ozturk has over 15 years of experience in the Energy Industry with a strong technical background in pipeline and riser design, thermal-fluid sciences, structural design and analysis, mechanical components design and FEA / CFD.
VIAS is a Dassault Systemes Platinum partner providing software solutions, digital transformation software solutions and consulting, training and data analytics, FEA / CFD services and have presence in US, Canada, Mexico and India. VIAS has significant experience in FEA / CFD modeling including expertise with regulations, codes and standards / industry practices. Some of VIASs core expertise include composites, elastomers, fatigue and fracture mechanics, design optimization, workflow development using python scripting, and non-linear analysis. VIAS's philosophy is to provide a complete design/technology solution from concept to de-commissioning.
In addition, Dr. Ozturk is an Adjunct Associate Professor at The University of Houston and offers a Course in 'Pipeline Design' in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Dr. Ozturk is a Fellow at IMarEST and a member of ASME since 2003 where he is serving an acting executive member of the ASME PSD since October 2013. Dr. Ozturk holds some twenty-five conference and journal publications, and is an expert in his field.
Syed "Ali" Raza
Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer
CHAMPIONX
Ali Raza is senior vice president and Chief Digital Officer for ChampionX.
Ali was previously senior vice president and Chief Digital Officer for Apergy, which he joined in 2018 after serving as president of Dover Energy Automation, a division of Dover Energy. He has 27 years of experience in oil and gas automation and business process optimization software management.
Prior to joining Dover Energy, Ali served in a variety of senior leadership roles with Honeywell Process Solutions, including vice president and general manager-advanced solutions. He also worked for AspenTech in process and supply chain optimization. Ali began his career with Caltex, a joint venture of Chevron and Texaco in Pakistan.
He received a bachelor's degree in computer systems engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology and a master's degree in computer engineering from Wayne State University. Ali serves as a member of the University of Houston Engineering College and University of Oklahoma School of Computer Science Advisory Board.
ChampionX is a global leader in providing chemistry programs and services, drilling technology, artificial lift solutions, and automation technologies for the upstream and midstream oil and gas industry. Our world-class safety culture fuels our purpose to improve lives through our commitment to deliver sustainable operations.
Sivasankaran "Soma" Somasundaram
President and CEO
CHAMPIONX
Sivasankaran "Soma" Somasundaram is president and Chief Executive Officer of ChampionX. He also sits on the Company’s Board of Directors.
Prior to Apergy's merger with ChampionX, he was Apergy's president and CEO as well as a member of the Board of Directors.
Prior to his role at Apergy, which was created in a spin-off from Dover Corporation in 2018, Soma was vice president of Dover Corporation and president and CEO of Dover Energy. He held a number of other senior executive leadership roles at Dover, including executive vice president of Dover Energy, executive vice president of Dover Fluid Management, president of Dover’s Fluid Solutions Platform, president of Dover’s Gas Equipment Group and president of Dover’s RPA Process Technologies business.
Before joining Dover in 2004, Soma served in various global leadership roles at GL&V Inc. and Baker Hughes Inc.
He received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Anna University and a master's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Oklahoma.
ChampionX is a global leader in providing chemistry programs and services, drilling technology, artificial lift solutions, and automation technologies for the upstream and midstream oil and gas industry. Our world-class safety culture fuels our purpose to improve lives through our commitment to deliver sustainable operations.
DJ Mullholland
Business Development, Product Management & Operations
CORE Linepipe Inc.
• 12 years as a Business Development, Product Management & Operations professional with demonstrated success working in the composite / corrosion resistant linepipe market.
• 4 years with CORE Linepipe in Sales Management
• 6 Years with Shawcor, Composite Production Sytems
• Account Manager – FlexPipe Sytems
• Business Development Manager – HDPE Products Integration
• Product Manager – Large Diameter Composites
• 2 Years with HDPE in-situ lining company
• BA Economics from Queen’s University
Assaad Sakr, P. Eng.
Senior Application Engineer,
CORE Linepipe Inc.
• A professional engineer with more than twenty-five years of work experience in piping and pipelines engineering, metallic and non-metallic products, and standards development.
• Piping engineering including piping applications, design, selection, specification, qualification, quality control and installation for a wide range of industries worldwide.
• Extensive expertise covering thermoplastic (HDPE, PVC, etc.), multilayered reinforced thermoplastic, glass reinforced thermoset (FRP, GRP, RTP, RTR, RTRP, RPMP, etc.) and plastic lined carbon steel piping and pipelines.
• Standards development work with ASME, ASTM, CSA, PPI and ISO.
• Member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA).
• Member of the Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (EGBC).
• Member of the Canadian Standards Association Z662 Non-metallics Task Force.
• BE in Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Beirut.