Vivian Krause is a researcher and writer based in Vancouver. Over many years, she has traced the funding of environmental and elections activism. Her work is credited by Premier Jason Kenney as the basis for his public inquiry into outside activism to sabotage Alberta interests. Vivian has testified to parliamentary committees of the House of Commons and the Senate. Her work has prompted investigations by Elections Canada and the CRA. Vivian has a Science degree from McGill and a Masters of Science from the University of Montreal, both in Nutrition. She has worked on diabetes with the Algonquin people in Northern Quebec and spent a decade with the United Nations in Guatemala and Indonesia. Her international experience has enabled her to think outside the barrel to understand the anti-pipeline activism that has kept Canada out of overseas energy markets. Vivian’s work has been featured recently in a short documentary film, Over a Barrel, produced by Shane Fennessey, an award-winning Canadian film maker. On Twitter, we can follow Vivian at @FairQuestions.

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 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.

Dr. Asgarpour has over 30 years of diversified technical, business, and operations experience in the oil and gas industry marked by providing strong leadership as: President of Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada (PTAC), President of Innovative Oil & Gas Inc. and business leader of Oil Sands Development for Alberta Department of Energy, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Canadian 88 Energy Corp., Director of Corporate Strategic Planning for Gulf Canada Resources Limited (“Gulf”), Director of Exploitation for Gulf, and Chief Engineer of Gulf. Dr. Asgarpour graduated from Rice University with a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering and completed the Executive Management Program at Western Business School, the University of Western Ontario, and the Leadership Program at Yale School of Management, Yale University. Dr. Asgarpour’s commitment to the future of oil and gas industry has been demonstrated through the numerous awards he has received over the course of his career, recognizing his excellent technical and business leadership, commitment to advancing new technology, and excellence in promoting and developing Canada’s resource industry.

Mr. Belanger has more than 28 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. He began his career as a junior field engineer before progressively moving up the hierarchy to become a senior manager, a position he currently holds. Over the years, he has served several large and small companies, including Talisman Energy, PrimeWest Energy, TAQA NORTH, Laricina Energy and TransCanada Pipelines. He has gained valuable expertise in all facets of engineering, project management, field operations, maintenance, and regulatory compliance. Mr. Belanger has an extensive experience in the management of upstream and downstream oil and gas facilities, as well as gas pipelines. Mr. Belanger has worked internationally, including in the United Kingdom and the United States. He completed his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at the University of Ottawa in 1991 and is an accredited member of the Association of Professional Engineers & Geoscientists of Alberta.  An avid outdoor pursuits enthusiast, he currently resides on the outskirts of Calgary.

Paolo Bomben is a Senior Manager of Clean Technology Development at Alberta Innovates.  In this role he is the co-lead of the Bitumen Beyond Combustion portfolio as well as the lead for the Methane Emissions Reduction & Value Add portfolio.  Before joining Alberta Innovates Paolo spent two years in sustainability consulting at The Delphi Group and prior to that he was a Research Scientist at Click Materials where he focused on developing catalysts to produce hydrogen and oxygen from water.  Paolo has an undergraduate degree in Chemistry with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Windsor, and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Calgary.

Bianca Boyd is the interim GM of Edelman’s Calgary office through June 2020. Prior to her role in Calgary, Bianca held the Vice President position in the Toronto Corporate Practice. In this capacity, Bianca played a leadership role on some of Edelman Canada’s largest and most complex files across both private and public sectors, promoting, protecting and evolving corporate reputations. She is also the national lead on executive positioning, a specialized offering to provide counsel to senior leaders on how, where and how to show up for critical audiences. Before Edelman, Bianca helped innovate communications at Walmart, holding key roles across internal communications, marketing and ecommerce – both in Canada and in The San Francisco Bay area with Walmart’s global ecommerce group.

Geoffrey Cann is an author, broadcaster, publisher and consultant to the Oil and Gas industry. Following an early career with Imperial Oil, he became a partner at Deloitte, where he carried out hundreds of consulting assignments in Canada, the US, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Australia and the Caribbean over a 30 year career. Today, he specialises in digital innovation in Oil and Gas, produces a weekly article and podcast on digital issues in energy, delivers a 1-day training course on digital oil and gas, and has published his first book, Bits, Bytes and Barrels: The Digital Transformation of Oil and Gas.

Allan Fogwill joined CERI in November 2014 as President and CEO. An energy sector executive with over 25 years of experience in both the public and private sector, Mr. Fogwill’s background has focused on economic and market analysis of energy sector issues along with policy development related to energy regulation and efficiency issues. Mr. Fogwill has previously worked for natural gas distribution companies in BC and Ontario and for the Ontario Energy Board dealing with market analysis and the analysis of distribution costs. Prior to assuming his role at CERI, Mr. Fogwill provided regulatory consulting services to local distribution companies in Ontario. Allan has a Master’s degree from Simon Fraser University in Natural Resources Management and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Saskatchewan in Geography. He has also served as the Chair and CEO of the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance and the Canadian Gas Research Institute.

Currently the President and CEO of Enhance Energy Inc., Mr. Jabusch is an oil and gas executive with 35 years of experience in oil and gas operations in Western Canada. Kevin received his professional engineering degree in 1981 from the University of Saskatchewan and has a wide range of technical, operational, financial and commercial experience and expertise. Kevin started in his career in the 1980s as a production and reservoir engineer with Dome Petroleum where he was involved in operation and development of Alberta’s largest hydrocarbon miscible Enhanced Oil Recovery project that included the injection of water, natural gas, ethane and nitrogen. Through the 1990s and early 2000s Mr. Jabusch worked in the private oil and gas space in western Canada where he led the development billions of dollars of oil and gas assets in a number of oil and gas ventures including entities focused on conventional production and development, midstream gas processing, and major straddle plant NGL operations. Since 2015 Kevin has been guiding the efforts of Enhance Energy who is focused on the development of CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery and is the founding proponent and sponsor of the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line Project.

Ed Koshka provides consulting services for clients in areas of business development, operations, upgrading, refining, transportation and marketing of conventional and oil sands crude. Mr. Koshka has 32 years of industry related experience and is currently working with several companies developing oil sands strategies related to transportation and marketing, and new oil sands technology innovations. Mr. Koshka’s current clients include the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission providing oversight of the APMC’s contractual interest in the North West Refinery, and assisting in the development and implementation of the Department of Energy’s the Partial Upgrading Program and Crude By Rail Strategy. Previously, Mr. Koshka worked at Calgary based companies MEG Energy, US Oil Sands, ET Energy and Ivanhoe Energy. In addition to working on crude marketing and transportation initiatives, Mr. Koshka worked to implement new oil sands technologies and develop business relationships with joint venture partners. He also worked for Synenco Energy where he was responsible for business development, crude marketing and strategic planning activities as part of the Northern Lights Partnership Mine development. Prior to joining Synenco, Mr. Koshka worked at Purvin & Gertz’s Calgary office; assisting clients in areas of crude oil market assessment, project economic analysis, heavy oil upgrading technology implementation and oil sands strategy development. Mr. Koshka’s industry experience began at Petro-Canada in areas of refining, operations and planning, crude oil marketing and corporate risk management. Mr. Koshka holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Calgary.

Dr. Lianne Lefsrud is an Assistant Professor, Engineering Safety and Risk Management, Chemical and Materials Engineering, the University of Alberta. Her research examines hazard identification and risk management, risk evaluation and social license to operate, and drivers of technology adoption in oil and gas, mining, pipelining, construction, agriculture, and railroading, among other industries. She has her PhD in Strategic Management and Organization, MSc in Environmental Engineering and Sociology, and BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Alberta. She has been a keynote speaker for IEEE, National Research Council, Canadian Dam Association, and others. And she has received several international, national, and provincial awards for her work. Professionally, Dr. Lefsrud’s career spans two decades with senior roles in industry, consulting, and regulation. She also provides policy and strategy advice to government and industry. For more, see W: liannelefsrud.com and T: @lefsrud.

Robert Mereau is the Head of Machine Intelligence and partner, at White Whale Analytics, a Calgary-based AI company. Prior to co-founding White Whale, Robert was a researcher in Quantum Physics and was a published author in Physics Review A, with specialities in quantum spintronics and number theory.

Randy Ollenberger lead’s BMO Capital Markets’ oil and gas research group, which has teams based in Calgary, Denver, Houston and London. Randy provides research coverage of the Canadian Integrateds, large cap Oil & Gas producers and Oil Sands companies.  Randy was the number one ranked analyst for Oil & Gas – Large Cap in the most recent Brendan Wood International Survey and has been ranked number one in 11 of the last 12 years. He has been an equity analyst since 1996.
Prior to joining the brokerage business, Randy worked in the oil and gas industry in Calgary for nine years with PanCanadian Petroleum (predecessor to Encana), the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission, and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).  He has testified as a policy and expert witness before the National Energy Board (NEB), Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB), and U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).  Randy also is a director of ETX Systems, a private upgrading technology company. Randy is frequently quoted in the media and has numerous appearances on BNN, CNBC, CTV and CBC. Mr. Ollenberger holds a BA in Economics and an MA in Economics from the University of Saskatchewan.

Francoise Robe is RWDI’s strategic director for oil gas and power, and a technical director overseeing complex air quality projects. She is an air quality and environmental specialist with over 25 years’ experience in advanced meteorological and air dispersion modeling. She has managed and conducted numerous meteorological and air quality studies, environmental impact assessments, climate change assessments, and multi-disciplinary environment-health-safety projects in Alberta and around the globe. A highly respected leader in her field, Francoise holds a Ph.D. in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a co-author of the CALMET-CALPUFF modelling suite. She has led over 30 air quality trainings for industry and regulatory agencies around the world.

Heather Scott has over 30 years experience in the oil and gas industry and is currently PetroChina Canada’s Executive member responsible to lead the development of the company’s largest resource base in a manner respecting safety, environment, stakeholders and business performance. Born in Montreal, Scott attended John Abbott CEGEP before moving to Ontario where she obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science with a major in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. Scott has worked in both technical engineering functions and business roles in Natural Gas Marketing and Corporate Strategy & Planning. Working within Western Canada businesses for conventional, unconventional gas and thermal oilsands, she has led a number of divisions of including Technology and Land, Productions Operations & Engineering, and SAGD Asset Teams. Scott is registered as a Professional Engineer with The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists (APEGA). She has volunteered with Association of Women in Engineering and Science, APEGA and previous Board member for the Canadian Heavy Oil Association. In addition, Scott sits on the Canadian Association Petroleum Producers’ Oilsands Policy Group. Having been happily married nearly 35 years, Scott and her husband are proud parents of two wonderful daughters. Their interests are in gardening, and going for walks and hikes in beautiful Alberta.

Michelle Squires is a the Operations Technology Lead for In-Situ and Upgrading facilities with Suncor. She has 15 years of work experience in the oil & gas industry including projects, facilities and reliability engineering, risk management and technology development roles. During her career with Suncor she has supported refining, mining, in-situ and offshore assets. Michelle holds a B.A.Sc. in Chemical Engineering/Management from the University of Ottawa.

Mr. Vander Valk has over 23 years of progressive Oil Sands experience and joined Harvest in 2017, as Chief Operating Officer – Oil Sands, and was appointed Chief Operating Officer in December 2018. Prior to joining Harvest, he worked for Cenovus Energy, developing & operating their industry leading SAGD projects in various leadership positions across upstream development & operations; most recently as Vice President, Production Systems. Over his career he has worked on various SAGD pilots at Gulf Canada Resources (Kerrobert, Surmount), Rio Alto Exploration (Kirby) and Nexen Inc (Long Lake) piloting new technologies, innovating and demonstrating commercial viability of oil sands resources. Mr. Vander Valk has a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Calgary, is a registered Professional Engineer with APEGA and received a MBA from Edinburgh Business School.