Ed Viesturs is a professional mountaineer and has successfully reached the summits of all of the world’s fourteen 8000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen, an 18 year project he christened Endeavor 8000. His goal was completed on May 12, 2005 with his ascent of Annapurna one of the world’s most treacherous peaks. He is one of only a handful of climbers in history (and the only American) to accomplish this. That same year Viesturs was awarded National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year. Viesturs has also made seven successful ascents of 29,028’ Mt. Everest, three of these without supplemental oxygen.
Viesturs still guides in the mountains, works as a design consultant for outdoor equipment manufacturer Eddie Bauer/First Ascent and is a Rolex Ambassador. Ed also serves as a spokesman and advocate for Big City Mountaineers (BCM), an organization that instills critical life skills in under-resourced youth through wilderness mentoring experiences that help keep kids in school, reduce violence and drug use. Viesturs resides in Ketchum Idaho with his wife Paula of 22 years, and their four children.
Chris Voss is CEO of the Black Swan Group and author of the national best-seller "Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It," which was named one of the seven best books on negotiation. A 24-year veteran of the FBI, Chris retired as the lead international kidnapping negotiator. Drawing on his experience in high-stakes negotiations, his company specializes in solving business communication problems using hostage negotiation solutions. Their negotiation methodology focuses on discovering the “Black Swans,” small pieces of information that have a huge effect on an outcome. Chris and his team have helped companies secure and close better deals, save money, and solve internal communication problems.
Chris has been featured in TIME, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, Inc., Fast Company, Fortune, The Washington Post, SUCCESS Magazine, Squawk Box, CNN, ABC News and more.
Chris Slubicki is President, CEO & Director of Modern Resources Inc., a Calgary-based private oil and gas company. He has more than 35 years of experience in the business sector.
From 2009 to 2011, Chris was Chief Executive Officer of OPTI Canada, where he was brought into a distressed situation, stabilized the company and sold it to CNOOC for $2.1 billion in late 2011. Chris is the former Vice-Chairman of Scotia Waterous and was one of the four original founders of Waterous and Co., a private global oil and gas mergers and acquisitions firm, starting the firm in Calgary in 1989. Prior to selling the firm to Bank of Nova Scotia in 2005, the firm expanded to offices in five countries with a staff of 88 and completed hundreds of oil and gas transactions over its 17-year tenure. Chris has held operations management and engineering positions within the oil and gas industry at Placer CEGO Petroleum Ltd. and Chevron Canada Resources Ltd. Chris graduated with a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University and an MBA from the University of Calgary. He is a Professional Engineer in Alberta, and a member of APEGA. Chris is currently on the boards of Bonavista Energy Corporation and the Emily Brydon Youth Foundation. Chris served on the board of Alpine Canada Alpin for seven years, the last two as Chair. Chris coached young ski racers with the Fernie Alpine Ski Team for 14 years and served as President of the club for three years.
Minister Fir was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta on APril 16, 2019, as the MLA for Calgary-Peigan.
Like many other first generation Canadians, Fir comes from a home that understands the meaning of hard work, Born in Cranbrook, she moved to Calgary with her family in 1985 where she saw firsthand the promise and opportunity of the Alberta economy. Fir has been active in her community since then, including her volunteer service in support of Calgary Reads.
Fir earned her Bachelor of Commerce with a concentration in Management of Organizations and Human Resources from the University of Calgary. She worked as a Human Resources Advisor in Alberta's Oil and Gas industry for more than 19 years and has a deep knowledge of the industry, those who rely on it for jobs, and the challenge they face right now. Tanya Fir was appointed as Alberta's Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism on April 30, 2019. She focused on fiercely advocating for Alberta, its industry, world renowned natural beauty, and restoring it as a place that once again attracts the investment and opportunity that drew her family to the province.
As landmen, it is necessary to have a strong understanding of the financials that drive our business and ultimately influences the decisions that our company makes. This breakout session will examine exactly what National looks at when evaluating companies and when determining how they relate relative to their peers. Do certain metrics hold more weight and do these metrics change over time? Is there one underlying metric that is the basis for every evaluation? Where do you see investment decisions going in the future all these things and more will be discussed.
Presented By: Arun Chandrasekaran -
Paul Negenman has once again agreed to provide his expertise and insights towards a topic that is impacting the oil and gas industry – stay tuned as the date of the conference comes near but know that it is sure to not disappoint!
Presented By: Paul Negenman - Paul advises clients on the drafting and negotiating of agreements for the acquisition and divestiture (A&D) of oil and gas assets and the drafting and negotiating of joint venture, partnership and joint operating agreements pertaining to the energy industry.
Paul also assists clients in due diligence and title opinion preparation in A&D transactions and with respect to custom and complex freehold land matters and the legal consequences of asset retirement obligations (ARO). He provides advice relating to day to day disputes and issues with joint venture participants, royalty owners and fee simple owners of oil and gas properties and ARO disputes. In A&D, he helps clients understand and navigate the closing process and the preparation of closing documentation to ensure a successful transaction.
Paul's practice is focused exclusively on oil and gas matters. The significant concentration of Paul's oil and gas focused practice, allows him to provide his clients with timely, detailed and thoughtful assistance in energy matters.
In the mid 2000’s, the advent of horizontal drilling combined with multi-stage hydraulic fracturing unlocked new resource plays throughout North America. One of the earliest plays was the Horn River Basin, which encompasses approximately 1.1 million hectares of land north of Fort Nelson, BC. Large, multi-national, intermediate and junior companies alike rushed in to lease as much land as they could and began drilling and fracking in an area that had never seen this scale of resource development.
Early on, a group of operators began to recognize the challenges this would pose, not only for themselves, but for neighbouring communities and Indigenous groups. In 2007 they formed the Horn River Basin Producers Group, with the objective of ensuring “rational” development of the basin, by cooperating on infrastructure such as pipelines, roads and facilities as well as water withdrawal, environmental studies and funding community initiatives. A major part of their success was the collaborative engagement that occurred not only between themselves, but with local stakeholders, government and Indigenous groups. Join Jason Gouw and Dione McGuinness to hear about their approach, including some of their successes and learnings, as they worked through the challenges of developing this resource play.
Presented By: Dione McGuinness - Dione joined BRITT Land & Engagement in 2017 as Manager, Engagement, with 30 years of experience in Oil & Gas, Stakeholder and Indigenous Engagement practices across Western Canada and the NWT. Her focus at BRITT is on collaborative and multi-stakeholder engagement processes, strategic engagement planning, communications, team training and crisis management. Prior to joining BRITT, Dione filled engagement lead roles for multifaceted, high-profile projects in the private O&G sector and at the Alberta Energy Regulator. Some of these projects include Conoco’s Central MacKenzie Valley Exploration program (the first and only program to receive permission from the NEB and Sahtu Land & Water Board to pursue development using horizontal hydraulic fracturing), and since 2010 has been the most involved engagement practitioner in the field of Hydraulic Fracturing in Calgary. Dione has worked in conjunction with land departments and understands the non-technical risks that can impact a project’s timing, costs, and success. A large part of Dione’s career has been focused in Indigenous Engagement work. In addition to engaging with communities on projects, she is often found conducting cultural awareness training, or as a speaker or moderator for various stakeholder and Indigenous conferences in Western Canada.
Presented By: Jason Gouw - Jason Gouw is a partner and serves as VP Land, Engagement and Environment at LandSolutions, which is a land acquisition, environment and stakeholder engagement firm based in Calgary, with offices across Canada and the NE USA. Jason has 24 years of land, regulatory, and Indigenous/stakeholder engagement experience including extensive Indigenous negotiations and consultation experience. Jason is a leader with a strong understanding of regulations and stakeholder issues that impact the energy sector. Through his 24 years, most of which has been in-house, he has earned a reputation for being a highly skilled problem solver with collaborative conflict resolution abilities and is able to bring together numerous parties to reach consensus on difficult issues. Jason managed the BC EAO application for Quicksilver Resources Fortune Creek Gas plant resulting in a successful certificate. Jason also spent two years as the consultation manager during Quicksilver’s investigation of the feasibility of the Discovery LNG facility and pipeline project in Campbell, BC. More recently Jason managed stakeholder and Indigenous consultation for CNOOC/Nexen’s Aurora LNG facility and pipeline until it’s cancellation in September 2017. Jason has negotiated land, consultation and benefit agreements from hundreds to millions of dollars and led consultation and engagement on projects ranging from a single facility site to a proposed 28-billion-dollar shale to ship LNG project.
We may think that the controversies of recent years around what national strategies for energy and climate should be and how major projects ought to be considered could be thought of as an embarrassment for Canada as it struggles to be a reliable trading nation. Really, though, from a different point of view, we might think of this dialogue, as frustrating as it has been, as the evolution of decision making processes in a world-leading democracy. It may be a long time before Canadians widely accept a new law and lay down their picket signs and leave oversight of these issues to governments. Stakeholders want to have a say in economic and industrial activity. They are not longer willing to empower a regulator to make major decisions for them, certainly not without their input.
Entrepreneur, Pat Carlson, co-founder of five oil and gas companies, explains an approach to gaining and maintaining social license for resource developers. The key message is that the developer needs to identify, acknowledge and include stakeholders (individuals or groups who have the ability to significantly affect the ability of the proponent to advance a development). The goal should be to build among the proponent and project stakeholders a shared sense of ownership, that is a feeling of mutual responsibility, benefit and control.
Presented By: Pat Carlson - Pat is a chemical engineer by training. He started working in the oil and gas business as a petroleum reservoir engineer for BP Exploration Canada Ltd. in 1975. From 1975 until 1998 Pat served four Canadian oil and gas developers (including also Husky Oil and Stampeder Exploration and ending as Vice President, Exploration and Production with Gulf Heavy Oil, A Division of Gulf Canada Resources) in various engineering and management capacities. During that period Pat gained experience in: reservoir, drilling, completions and production engineering and business analytics and leadership for a variety of resource types: oil sands, heavy oil, light oil, natural gas, mainly in Canada and but also abroad.
In 1998, Pat, with various partners, in each case, began building start-up oil and gas developing companies: Passage Energy Inc (mainly heavy oil via cold production; 1998 - 2001); Krang Energy Inc. (mainly revitalizing abandoned gas fields and heavy oil horizontal wells; 2001 - 2005); North American Oil Sands Corporation (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage; 2002 - 2007); Seven Generations Energy Ltd. (Tight/shale liquids rich gas; 2007 – 2018). The first three were sold as private companies to larger enterprises, all earning strong rates of return (65 to 200%) for the founding institutional investors. Seven Generations became publicly traded through an IPO in 2014. Pat retired as CEO of Seven Generations in June 2017 but remained on its Board of Directors until May 2018. Pat recently agreed to serve as a director of Nauticol Energy, a private, Calgary-based petrochemical manufacturer. Pat, as a member of a team of entrepreneurs, is presently engaged in building a company with the objective of developing new markets for Canadian natural gas via electrical power generation, petrochemical manufacture and LNG export and vertically integrating into development of natural gas resources.
Pat was inducted into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame on November 23, 2018. He was awarded the Resource Leadership Award (2017) by the Alberta Chamber of Resources, Business Citizen of the Year (2016) by the Grande Prairie Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Engineering Leadership Award by the Schulich School of Engineering (2013), Oilman of the Year by the Lloydminster Oilfield Technical Society (2008) and was twice honoured by the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, as a Regional, sector finalist for North American Oil Sands and as Regional sector winner for Seven Generations.
Pat participated in the Schulich Industry Advisory Council, an advisory board for the Schulich School of Engineering, for several years. Pat served as a committee chairman for the Canadian Heavy Oil Association and as Co-chairman of Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ Environmental Research Advisory Committee (both in the early 90s). Pat was co-founder of the Lloydminster and District Heavy Oil Section of the Petroleum Society (now part of the Society of Petroleum Engineers). Pat and his wife, Connie, have been major donors to the Banff Centre, the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering and they funded a program in Attention Deficit Disorder with the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary. Passionate environmentalists, Connie and Pat have recently contributed through the Pembina Institute to the Alberta Narratives Project, a project aimed at facilitating dialogue among Albertans on the subject of climate change.
Pat served the Government of Alberta as a technical expert for the natural gas team in the 2015 Alberta Royalty Review and he is presently serving the Government of Canada on the Sustainable Economic Development Table for Resources for the Future. Pat served briefly (2007 – 2009) as Honorary Consul for Sweden in Southern Alberta. In addition to Seven Generations, Pat has served as a director of several Canadian companies. He has received corporate director certification (ICD.D) from the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors and Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) certification from the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta.
We all know a little something about the oil and gas industry in the United States, but what about how things actually get done there? Come and listen as we delve into the world of oil and gas in the Lower 48. You’ll be provided with an overview of the different plays, recent A&D activity as well as a closer look at the Permian & other emerging plays and round it out with how land plays a role in it all. How is their role similar to a Canadian Landman, how does it differ? With the help of an experienced American Landman we can hopefully shed some light on the subject.
Presented By: Coming Soon.
Duane will look to comment and provide insights to the relevant political events impacting Alberta and specifically the Oil & Gas Industry. Please look for updates as we get closer to the Conference!
Presented By: Duane Bratt - Duane Bratt is a political science Professor and Chair in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University (Calgary, Alberta). He was educated at the Universities of Windsor (BA 1991, MA 1992) and Alberta (Ph.D 1996). He teaches in the area of international relations and Canadian public policy. His primary research interest is in the area of Canadian nuclear policy. Recent publications include: co-editor, Orange Chinook: Politics in the New Alberta (University of Calgary Press, 2019), co-editor, Readings in Canadian Foreign Policy: Classic Debates and New Ideas 3rd edition (Oxford University Press, 2015) and author of Canada, the Provinces, and the Global Nuclear Revival (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012). Current projects include the risk assessment of Canada’s nuclear waste site selection process. Duane is also a regular commentator on political events.
