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SPE President and Directors Nominated

2009 SPE President

Leo Roodhart is Head of Strategic Innovation at Shell Intl. The program involves the company’s “GameChanger” methodology, which identifies and sponsors the development of breakthrough technologies. With Shell since 1980, he has worked in R&D, production engineering, business development, and innovation.

Roodhart has been active in SPE for more than 25 years. He is currently Director for SPE’s North Sea Region. He is Chairperson of the Board Committee on Technical Programs and Meetings and a member of the Board Committee on Finance and Administration. His contributions to the Society, at the local and international levels, have especially encouraged technology innovation. Roodhart has actively contributed to the Forum Series over many years, serving on Forum steering committees and as a member and as Chairperson of its Implementation Committee for the Eastern Hemisphere. He currently chairs the Forum Series Coordinating Committee. Roodhart has served as both Program and Section Chairperson for SPE’s Netherlands Section. He has served on the program committee for Europec and on the 2001, 2003, and 2005 Offshore Europe executive committees. Roodhart chaired the first two Netherlands Applied Technology Workshops (ATWs) on Mature Reservoirs and has served on or chaired many Forum and ATW committees. He has been a member of the Distinguished Lecturer Committee and will be an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2007–08.

Roodhart is an Associate Fellow at Templeton College, Oxford U., on Strategic Innovation. He earned an MS degree in chemistry and a PhD degree in mathematics and physics from the U. of Amsterdam.

Director, Rocky Mountain North America Region

Helen L. Chang is a Senior Development Engineer with Talisman Energy Inc. in Calgary. She has more than 17 years’ experience in reservoir engineering, production optimization, and reserves determination in gas and both conventional and heavy oil.

An SPE member since 1987, Chang is past Chairperson of the SPE Canadian Section. She received the SPE Rocky Mountain North America Regional Service Award in 2005 and the SPE Young Member Outstanding Service Award in 2002. Chang has been an active mentor of elementary and high school students to encourage their pursuit of careers in science and engineering. In 2004, she received the Mentor of the Millennium Award from the Alberta Women’s Science Network.

While on the Canadian Section Board of Directors, Chang played a leading role in establishing the SPE Canadian Section Run for the Future Half Marathon in 2003. Through the initiative of Chang and the race committee, this annual run has raised approximately Cdn. $50,000 for the section scholarship fund in 4 years. The event earned the Canadian Section the Most Innovative Section Award at the 2004 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. In 2006, Chang was Chairperson of the Young Member Outstanding Service Award Committee, completing a 3-year term on that body.

Chang earned BS and MS degrees in petroleum engineering from the U. of Alberta and has served as a Signals Officer in the Canadian (Army) Reserves.

Director, North Sea Region

John Donachie is a Corporate Finance Associate for Simmons & Co. International, with more than 10 years’ experience as an industry consultant and as an engineer and commercial manager for Schlumberger.

Donachie began his career in construction engineering in Southeast Asia and then joined Schlumberger Well Completions and Productivity as a mechanical design engineer developing wellbore technology. Moving to completion engineering, his responsibilities included the support of product and services delivery for packers, safety valves, and intelligent-completion technology to the North Sea and Europe markets. Donachie developed a strategy for production optimization linked to multiphase flowmetering and artificial lift, and was responsible for global deployment and commercialization of this strategy. He acted as Schlumberger’s product-line manager for Framo multiphase pumps and flowmetering in the Europe, Russia, and Africa regions. After leaving Schlumberger, he worked as an independent petroleum consultant before assuming his current position. 

Donachie has been active in numerous SPE young professionals’ activities, including the Ambassador Lecturer program, Aberdeen Section Young E&P Professionals, and The Way Ahead magazine. He is the SPE Aberdeen Section Chairperson for 2006–07. He won the Offshore Energy International Leadership Development Award and the Scottish Offshore Achievement Rising Star Award, both in 2004. Donachie earned a BS degree in mechanical engineering from the U. of Aberdeen.

Director, Mid-Continent North America Region

Roy M. Knapp is Mewbourne Chair Professor at the U. of Oklahoma’s Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering. He joined the school’s faculty in 1979,  serving as Mewbourne School Director during 1979–88 and 1996–98. Knapp received the Mewbourne Chair appointment in 1993. Before coming to the U. of Oklahoma, he was on the petroleum engineering faculty at the U. of Texas during 1973–79. Previously, he worked for Northern Natural Gas Co. in a variety of positions in gas supply, employee relations, and corporate operations research during 1964–71.

In June 2006, Knapp became Director, Mid-Continent North America Region, on SPE’s Board of Directors, filling a midterm vacancy. He now stands for election to a full term. He received an SPE Regional Service Award in 1989 and became a Distinguished Member in 1991. Knapp has served on a number of SPE committees, most recently the Education and Accreditation Committee during 2003–06. In addition, he is active in the American Society for Engineering Education and several other professional organizations. Knapp has coauthored more than 110 papers on petroleum engineering. His professional interests are reservoir engineering and simulation, and the use of microorganisms to improve petroleum exploitation operations.

A native of Gridley, Kansas, Knapp is a graduate of the U. of Kansas, where he earned a BS degree in mechanical engineering in 1963, an MS degree in petroleum engineering in 1969, and a Doctor of Engineering degree in 1973.  

Director, Central and Southeastern North America Region

R. Dean McPhearson is Strategic Account Manager of the Baker Hughes Inc. Business Development team in New Orleans. He began his career in 1989 when he joined Baker Hughes as a formation-evaluation engineer. McPhearson performed field service assignments in the U.S. and west Africa, and later was responsible for technical training before taking on a lead role in business development for re-entry and deepwater applications. He assumed his current position in 1999.

In January 2006, McPhearson became Director, Central and Southeastern North America Region, on SPE’s Board of Directors, filling a midterm vacancy. He now stands for election to a full term. He is past Chairperson of the Delta Section, has served on numerous SPE committees, and has cochaired the annual Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Symposium (GMDS) sponsored by SPE’s Delta Section, the American Association of Drilling Engineers (AADE), and the New Orleans Geological Soc. (NOGS). As Delta Section Chairperson, he helped develop its One Voice Program, promoting public awareness of the industry, and initiate the section’s Emerging Leaders Program to develop the career skills of young professionals. McPhearson has also been active in the American Petroleum Inst. (API), AADE, the Southeastern Geophysical Soc., and NOGS.

McPhearson has received several industry awards, including the GMDS Outstanding Support and Achievement Award, the 2006 API-Delta Meritorious Award, and the NOGS Outstanding Member Award. While he was Chairperson of the SPE Delta Section, the organization received the SPE President’s Award for Section Excellence. A Louisiana native, McPhearson studied at Louisiana Tech U. and earned an MS degree in geology from Northeast Louisiana U.

Director, At-Large

Josh Etkind is Production Planner for Shell E&P Co. North and South America. Based in New Orleans, he is responsible for forecast process improvement, asset production forecasts, business planning, and modeling. Etkind previously served as Reservoir Surveillance Engineer supporting Shell’s Enchilada/Cougar/Western Gas Area in the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier, he held a similar position supporting the Ursa platform and Princess and Crosby subsea tiebacks. Before joining Shell, Etkind spent 4 years working for Schlumberger Integrated Project Management.

Etkind has been active in the Society since college. He has served the Trans-Pecos Section as Chairperson for Continuing Education and the Delta Section as Committee Chairperson for Career Guidance, the Emerging Leaders Program, and the One Voice Program, which focuses on energy education and public outreach. Etkind currently chairs the Delta Section Membership Committee and the SPE Young Professionals Coordinating Committee. He has served on The Way Ahead Editorial Committee and edited that publication’s “Student Link” section.

In 2004, Etkind received the SPE Young Member Outstanding Service Award and the SPE Delta Section Outstanding Achievement and Service to Section Award. He is Vice President of the Friends of Bethlehem Foundation, a nonprofit group he helped form to aid abused foster children in the New Orleans 9th Ward. Etkind earned a BS degree in petroleum engineering from Texas Tech U. in 1999.

Technical Director—Drilling and Completions

J. Ford Brett is Managing Director of PetroSkills and Chief Executive Officer of Oil and Gas Consultants Intl. (OGCI). Before joining OGCI, he was with Amoco Production Co., where he worked on drilling projects in the Bering Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, Wyoming, offshore Trinidad, and on the North Slope of Alaska.

Brett served on the SPE North American Forum Steering Committee in 1996 and the JPT Special Series Committee in 1998. He was named an SPE Distinguished Lecturer the following year. In 2001, Brett was a member of the SPE/IADC Drilling Conference Advisory and Program Committees. Most recently he served on the Education, Training, and Professionalism Committee during 2004–05.

While President of OGCI, the company was honored with the 2000 Crosby Medallion from the American Society for Competitiveness, recognizing OGCI for its work in “global competitiveness through quality in knowledge management, best practices transfer, and operations improvement.” In 1996, he and Tommy M. Warren were nominated for the National Medal of Technology, the U.S. government’s highest technology award, for their work on improved drilling techniques. Brett has been granted more than 25 U.S. and international patents, has authored or coauthored more than 30 technical publications, and has consulted on technical and drilling-project management in more than 35 countries.

He earned a BS degree in mechanical engineering and physics from Duke U., an MSE degree from Stanford U., and an MBA degree from Oklahoma State U.

Technical Director—Projects, Facilities, and Construction

Paul Jones is Manager of Chevron’s Technology Center in Perth, Australia.

He began working for Chevron in 1984 in the U.K. North Sea and transferred to Chevron Oil Field Research Co. in California in 1987. Jones’ R&D work has included development and deployment of technology in oilfield production systems, water management, facilities design and optimization, and compact modular processing for subsea and remote environments. In his career with Chevron, he has held positions of increasing responsibility including two operating-company posts and a position in which he was seconded to Kuwait Oil Co.

Jones was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer during 1990–91. He was a member of the Program Committee for the International Symposium on Oilfield Chemistry in 1993 and since then has served on that body seven different times, most recently in 2006. Jones served on the SPE Subsea Facilities Management Applied Technology Workshop Committee in 2003 and the Program Committee for the 2006 SPE Russian Oil and Gas Technical Conference and Exhibition. He is a member of the SPE Facilities and Construction Technical Specialty Committee and past Chairperson of the SPE Gulf Coast Section Facilities and Construction Study Group. Jones received the SPE Projects, Facilities, and Construction Award in 2005.

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