People

John Redfern is an expert investor, advisor and serial entrepreneur in the data analytics, oil service and energy tech verticals. John spent his career in executive roles at multiple international oil co’s and oil service co’s including as a Director at Hess in London, President of Accumap in Calgary and President of IHS Energy in Denver. Prior to Eavor, John spent 13 years in China co-founding a series of start-ups, the most recent of which is LocalGravity, the leading retail data analytics platform in China. As a director, executive and advisor over the years, John has specialized in commercial strategy, negotiations, alliancing, M&A, and private equity. John holds a degree in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University in Kingston, Law degrees from McGill University in Montreal, and an MBA degree from INSEAD in France.

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Ryan Michaluk brings over 30 years of accounting and finance experience, including 10 years as CFO of publicly traded companies in the oil and gas (Fairmount Energy Inc.) and energy services industries (IROC Energy Services Corp. and CWC Energy Services Corp.).  Prior thereto, Ryan was the Controller and Senior Director of Finance for Dynegy Canada Inc., a natural gas, crude oil, and electricity marketing and trading firm, where he also developed Dynegy Canada’s retail electric settlement and billing systems. Ryan is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant, and Certified Managerial Accountant and holds a bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan.

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Matt Toews is a professional engineer with over a decade of experience in production and operations with a focus on management and technology development. Fueled by a passion for new ventures and developing projects from the ground up, Toews has produced an extensive portfolio of pilot projects with a successful track record of creating value through technology commercialization.  During his tenure at Cenovus Energy, Toews led a team accountable for wellbore design and optimization at Cenovus’ thermal assets – which produce an aggregate 370,000 bbl/d. Toews graduated with Distinction from the University of Calgary Oil and Gas Engineering.

Robert comes to Eavor with nearly 40 years international business development, sales, marketing and management experience in the energy industry.  Graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he spent the first 7 years living and working in Indonesia, Australia and India for Schlumberger. Returning to Europe he joined IBM as a salesman, before going on to build and manage international sales and marketing organisations for Halliburton and IHS, as well as personally closing multi-million dollar contracts across Europe, Asia and Africa and North and South America. He has been a frequent consultant to the World Bank on projects ranging from energy planning in Angola to infrastructure development and capacity building in Mauritania.  In Iraq he worked under the United Nations “oil for food programme” and in China advised state companies on strategic gas development.

Vince DiStefano is an APEGA registered professional geologist with a strong exploration background in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Eastern Canada and Europe. Mr. DiStefano is a self-starter with strong analytical skills who thrives on deciphering geological clues foundational for new energy discoveries. With over 17 years of experience Mr. Distefano is well versed in developing projects from identification of prospective lands for acquisition through to drilling operations and petrophysical evaluation. Prior to Eavor, he worked for exploration and production companies; notably Bankers Petroleum, Mancal Energy, Husky Energy and Devon Canada. Mr. DiStefano holds a BSc degree in Geology from the University of Calgary.

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.