SPE Board Announces Nominees: 2018 President and 2017 Directors

2018 SPE President

Darcy Spady is the managing director of a subsidiary of Broadview Energy, a private, independent oil and gas company based in western Canada.

Spady’s background is in gas, heavy oil, and conventional oil for the service and operator sectors. Before his time at Broadview, he held several executive positions, including director of sales at Sanjel Canada, managing director at St. Brendan’s Exploration and Carina Natural Resources, and chief executive officer (CEO) at Contract Exploration. He has also served as chief operating officer at PetroGlobe, director of optimization at Triana Energy, and vice president of Columbia ­Natural Resources. In addition, he worked at Schlumberger for 10 years.

Spady is an active independent director, chairing the boards of Green Imaging Technologies and MNP Petroleum. He previously served on the boards of Edge Resources, Contact Exploration, Guildhall Minerals, and Poplar Point Exploration.

Active in SPE since 1986, Spady currently serves on the SPE International Board as regional director for ­Canada and is a member of the Calgary Section and the newly formed Vancouver Section. Spady has held officer positions in the Calgary, Illinois Basin, and Appalachian sections. In 2012, he won the SPE Regional Service Award for his work in the Canada region.

Spady holds a BSc in petroleum engineering from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and is a professional engineer in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and New Brunswick.

At-Large Director

Helena Wu is a senior reservoir engineer at Santos. Since starting in the company’s graduate program in 2008, she has completed field- and office-based rotations in production engineering, reservoir engineering, and business/production planning.

Wu is the chair of SPE’s South Australian Section. She also serves as secretary and treasurer for the SPE Australia/New Zealand/Papua New Guinea council. She is a member of the SPE Asia Pacific Regional Technical Advisory Committee and a leader in the SPE International Young Member Engagement Committee. In 2015, she received the SPE International Young Member Outstanding Service Award, and was named Exceptional Young Woman in Australian Resources by the Women in Resources National Awards group.

Wu holds a BS in mechanical engineering and an MS in engineering management from the Queensland University of Technology. She also holds an MS in petroleum engineering from the University of Adelaide and a graduate diploma in energy and resources management from University College London. In 2007, she was awarded a University Medal from the Queensland University of Technology.

Canada Regional Director

Cam Matthews is a C-FER fellow at C-FER Technologies, an applied research and technology development organization based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Matthews has 35 years of technical and managerial experience in laboratory, analytical, and field investigations related to drilling, completion, and production engineering operations. His joint industry project and technology development activities include the conception and commercialization of downhole oil/water separation systems, and the development of a multi-company failure-tracking system for managing artificial lift system reliability.

His work has also helped to develop best practices for the design and construction of thermal recovery wells, apply quantitative risk analysis methods to improve well abandonment integrity, and develop new completion and production systems for horizontal wells.

Matthews is a member of the SPE Heavy Oil Technical Conference Committee. He has written several SPE papers, coauthored a chapter on progressing-cavity-pump systems in the SPE Petroleum Engineering Handbook, and has taught several short courses. He was a member of the SPE Canada Board, SPE Canadian Trust Fund Board, and the editorial committee for JPT.

Matthews is a professional engineer in Alberta, holds five patents related to novel drilling and production processes, and has served as an expert witness in intellectual property cases. Matthews holds a BSc in civil engineering from the University of Manitoba and an MSc in civil engineering from the University of Alberta.

Eastern North America Regional Director

Joseph Frantz is the vice president of engineering technology for Range Resources.

Previously, Frantz led Range’s production operations and facilities construction department; production, facilities, and reservoir engineering department; and the completions and water management department. Before joining Range he was president and CEO of Unbridled Energy. He has also worked for operators and consultants in the drilling, completion, production, and reservoir fields with a specialty in shale reservoirs.

Frantz was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for 2014–2015 and has authored many technical papers and articles. He has held several leadership positions within SPE, including chairing the Pittsburgh Section. He holds a BS in petroleum and natural gas engineering from the Pennsylvania State University.

North Sea Regional Director

Karl Ludvig Heskestad is a senior engineer at Det Norske Oljeselskap, where he works with the technical business development team. Heskestad previously provided reservoir engineering support to Det Norske’s Ivar Aasen and Johan Sverdrup assets. He has also worked in corporate reserves booking for the company.

Heskestad currently chairs the SPE Norway Council and has previously served on the SPE Online Communities Coordinating Committee. From 2010 to 2012, he chaired the SPE Oslo Section. In 2015, he received the SPE Regional Service Award.

He holds a master’s degree in petroleum engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, as well as a master’s degree in energy management from the BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo.

Mid-Continent North America Regional Director

Chris Jenkins is an independent production and completions engineer based in Oklahoma City. He has experience working in major oil fields, such as Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, Ghawar in Saudi Arabia, and the Barnett Shale play in Oklahoma.

Jenkins has served on numerous local and international SPE committees. He spent three terms as a section chair and was a member of the Distinguished Lecturer Committee and the Production and Operations Advisory Committee. He received the SPE Regional Young Member Outstanding Service Award in 2008 and the SPE International Young Member Outstanding Service Award in 2010.

Jenkins holds a BSc in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and an MBA in energy from the University of Oklahoma.

Projects, Facilities, and Construction Technical Director

Hisham Saadawi is the president and founder of Ringstone Petroleum Consultants, based in Abu Dhabi. Saadawi has 35 years of experience in the design, construction, startup, operation, and project management of oil and gas production facilities. He was vice president of the ADCO Technical Center until his retirement in 2014.

Saadawi is an SPE Course Instructor and twice served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer, in 2010–2011 and 2015–2016. He was a member of the editorial committee for JPT from 2011 to 2013 and is the recipient of the 2011 SPE Regional Award for Projects, Facilities, and Construction. He has served on the committees of numerous SPE conferences and workshops and was the chairperson for the Projects, Facilities, and Construction Subcommittee at the 2014 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE).

Saadawi is a chartered engineer in the United Kingdom and holds a PhD from the University of Manchester.

Drilling and Completions Technical Director

Jeff Moss is a senior technical consultant at ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company. His work focuses on drilling and completions technologies, with a particular emphasis on unconventionals and technology commercialization.

Moss joined Mobil Oil as a rig supervisor in 1981. From 1988 to 2000, he worked for Mobil as a drilling engineer in New Orleans, the United Kingdom, and eastern Canada. After Mobil’s merger with Exxon in 2000, he worked as a global drilling technology adviser, focusing on the application of new and emerging technologies within ExxonMobil’s portfolio.

Moss currently serves as chairman of the SPE Forum Series Coordinating Committee (FSCC). He has been a member of the SPE FSCC and the SPE Forum Series Implementation Committee–Western Hemisphere since 1995. He has also served on the SPE Drilling and Completions Advisory Committee and on the program committees of ATCE and the International Association of Drilling Contractors/SPE Drilling Conference and Exhibition. He holds a BS in petroleum engineering from Mississippi State University.

How SPE Board Members Are Selected

SPE is governed by a Board of Directors comprising 29 member representatives from around the world. Each SPE region and board-endorsed technical discipline is represented by a director. These directors, together with two at-large directors, a director of academia, the president, president-elect, immediate past president, and vice president of finance, constitute the Board.

Here is a look at the nomination and election processes for Board members.

Nominating a Candidate

The nomination period opens in September each year and ends on 1 December for the position of president and 15 December for the other open positions.

Any SPE member may nominate a candidate for a position on the Board. The process involves submitting an online nomination form and supporting documents, such as a curriculum vitae, résumé, and letters of support.

The Election Process

Candidate nominations submitted online are reviewed by the SPE Nominating Committee. Chaired by the immediate past president, the committee meets in January to make recommendations for the available positions. These recommendations are submitted to the SPE Board of Directors for approval at the Board’s meeting in March. This year, the meeting was held on 9 March in Richardson, Texas.

Following Board Approval

SPE members will have the opportunity to review the Board-approved nominees’ biographical information in the April issue of JPT and on www.spe.org.

Under the SPE Constitution, nominees approved by the Board stand as elected unless SPE members nominate additional candidates by 1 June. Additional nominations require a petition from at least 1% of SPE membership. For regional director nominations, the petition must be signed by at least 1% of the region’s membership, and no more than 75% of the petitioners may come from any one section within the given region. The constitution also specifies provisions for a ballot election if any qualified petitions are received by 1 June.

The Board Takes Office

If the board slate is elected, the person nominated as president would take office as president-elect at the close of the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. This year, the conference will be held during 26–28 September in Dubai.