People

Paul Cairns has spent close to 20 years in the energy and technology verticals with a focus on development and incubation of new ventures. He has been on the executive team that has spanned the entire start-up life-cycle and brought firms from initial inception to IPO. After years with Acumen Capital Partners and Stephen Avenue Securities, Paul Founded Cairns Capital Corporation to provide capital solutions to the energy and technology sectors. Paul is a well-known incubator and developer of new and IP-grounded ventures. Paul is based in Calgary and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calgary.

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Derek Riddell is an expert in upstream energy operations. Over his nearly thirty years in the business, Derek has amassed a resume of adding tremendous value to operational efficiency and strategic processes, most recently as the VP Operations at RMP Energy Inc. He started his career at Rising Resources Ltd in 1992 and held positions of increasing responsibility in various roles at Gardiner Oil and Gas Ltd., Poco Petroleums Ltd., Burlington Resources Canada Ltd., and Rider Resources Ltd. Mr. Riddell earned a Bachelor of Applied Petroleum Engineering degree and a diploma in Petroleum Engineering Technology from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. He is a registered member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) and Saskatchewan (APEGS) as well as the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

Jeanine Vany is an APEGA registered professional geologist with a career spanning over 15 years in the oil and gas industry. Her experience ranges from reservoir characterization, drilling and operations to full field delineation strategies, asset management, and acquisition. Ms. Vany has spent her career at foremost E&P companies such as EnCana, Devon and Total. She joined GLJ Petroleum Consultants in 2012, where she led the geoscience aspects of in-situ reserves and resource evaluations in addition to working deep basin unconventional plays. With a passion for people, projects and technology development, Ms. Vany led GLJ’s first oil sands technology panel, created and taught GLJ’s In-Situ Resource and Reserves course for industry professionals and spearheaded new business initiatives for the firm in unconventional resource plays. Jeanine holds an Honours B.Sc degree in Geology and Environmental Studies from Saint Mary’s University and a Business Essentials Certificate from the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary.

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Bailey Schwarz is a professional engineer with a decade of hands on engineering experience that focused on data analytics and process optimization. Ms. Schwarz has a passion for innovation, actively seeking opportunities to trial new technologies and push boundaries. During her tenure at Cenovus Energy, Ms. Schwarz led a multi-disciplinary team of engineers to commission and operate industry leading, large scale steam assisted gravity drainage facilities spanning cogeneration, steam generation, processing and water treatment. Bailey graduated with a Degree in Chemical Engineering from McGill University and recently passed her CFA Level I exam.

Stephen Longfield is an APEGA registered Professional Geologist with a diverse background in horizontal field development planning, 3D geological reservoir modelling and horizontal geosteering. Mr. Longfield has worked a variety of projects in both Canadian and European jurisdictions and brings 12 years of experience to Eavor. Mr. Longfield has led major development programs and executed live geosteering operations in structured conventional and unconventional reservoirs. He is also an accomplished reservoir modeller having constructed realistic geomodels of the subsurface for field development and EOR project planning (SAGD, CSS, Polymer flood, Waterflood, CO2 Gas flood). Mr. Longfield holds a BSc., Petroleum Geology from the University of Calgary.

James Heatherington brings over 25 years of international energy experience in engineering, sales and entrepreneurship. Starting with a B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering, he has excelled in consulting and field operations first onshore with the Evaluators in Alberta and then offshore with the Japan Drilling Company. With IHS Energy in Tokyo, he drove sales and consulting to clients across APAC; managing teams and leading projects to help international oil/gas and energy companies and government with their daily workflows and to solve intractable issues. Project types included country entry, LNG, exploration, development, M&A, geopolitical and energy economics. James is a long-term Yokohama resident.

Wouter Kool spent over 30 years in the oil & gas service industry in technical, consulting and Business Development roles working in highly varied environments, in small teams, his own company and with large companies like Halliburton mainly working in the Middle East, Magreb region and European markets. During his term with ION Geophysical Inc. Wouter gained considerable experience through organizing multi-client seismic programs in politically complex areas (Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean, Iraq). Collaborating with oil industry top executives, governments and scientific institutions resulted in a significant number of multimillion-dollar contracts providing game changing solutions that improved the regional exploration success rates of the customers. Through his role with Eavor he now contributes a wealth of business development expertise to the team. Wouter is passionate about the global energy transition away from hydrocarbons which is reflected by his lifestyle, maintaining a small holding using sustainable methods and renewable energy in Umbria, Italy where he is based. He speaks six languages and holds a degree in Geology and Hydrology from the University of Amsterdam.

Alex Vetsak has built an international career in the energy industry, starting from the drilling operations of a single well to the strategy and capital management of a multi-billion energy company. Being passionate about new technology development and commercialization, Alex has brought more revenue streams by technology introduction into emerging markets and unthinkable applications, endeavoring into the blue ocean of opportunities and always challenging the status quo. In the last decade, he facilitated corporate investments into a new field development in Western Siberia and paved the way for drilling services into new markets in Western Canada. Alex relies on fundamental knowledge, gained in Petroleum Engineering, M.Sc degree from the Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh, and Computer Science, M.Sc degree from the Tomsk Polytechnic University.

Douglas Beach brings three decades of international energy, commodity and financial market experience to Eavor^TM. His career at Koch Industries included leadership of various trading, supply, and oil asset operations in England, Switzerland, U.S., Canada, Russia, and Singapore. Executive leadership of international commodity supply and trading businesses capped a career that includes successful business development, acquisitions, trading, directorship contributions, and innovations in infrastructure, trading, and analytical approach. His experiences include responding to counterparty bankruptcies, ship groundings, spills, pirates, and nearby terrorist attacks, creations of financial derivative products, business opening thrills, business closing sadness, a disgruntled oligarch, a successful public offering, failed trades, and the lists of smaller mistakes that add up to formative experience. Mr. Beach has a B.Sc. in Business from Emporia State University and is a graduate of the Directors Education Program at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary.

Chris Ho is a venture capitalist focused on early-stage deep technologies. Prior to his career in VC, he worked at ZS Associates, a sales and marketing consulting firm, where he specialized in sales transformation projects, across a broad spectrum of industries including high-tech, travel and transportation, and agri-chemicals. Chris is based in New York and holds a BA in Political Science and an MS in Electrical Engineering, both from Columbia University.

Dr. Finian Tan founded Vickers Venture Partners in 2005 with four partners. He is currently based in Singapore. Before starting Vickers, Finian was a Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, acting also as the founding partner of its Asia Pacific Operations, he discovered Baidu and led all the investment rounds into Baidu, and remained its largest backer until IPO. Prior to DFJ, Finian was Deputy Secretary of Trade and Industry for the Singapore Government where he oversaw the creation of the billion-dollar TIF fund and was subsequently appointed as chairman of the fund. As part of his earlier career path, Finian ran Goldman Sachs Asian trading arm. Finian received his Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Philosophy in Engineering from Cambridge University. He received his B.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Glasgow.