Luncheons
All-Convention Luncheon
Beyond Zone Six: The Imperative of Unconventional Thinking
Date: Monday, 12 April
Time: 11:30 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Location: La Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
Fee: $45
Speaker: Bobby Ryan
The All-Convention Luncheon is a highlight of the annual convention, featuring riveting presentations, fine food and the chance to network with fellow energy professionals. This year’s speaker is Robert (Bobby) Ryan, Vice President – Global Exploration for Chevron Global Upstream and Gas.
Ryan will speak about the challenges of thinking outside the box. “Sometimes the greatest impediment to discovery is our certainty of what’s impossible,” he has said. “What was not possible just a few decades ago is now routine. What is the routine of tomorrow?”
Ryan is responsible for Chevron’s worldwide exploration program. He has 30 years of experience in oil and gas exploration and production, beginning his career with Texaco in 1979 as a geologist in the Offshore Division in New Orleans. He held a variety of technical and management positions since then including Assistant Division Manager in the Offshore Division
responsible for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, Vice President - Indonesia Business Unit, Assistant to the Chairman and CEO of Texaco and Texaco lead for the Upstream Integration Team for the Chevron and Texaco merger. At the merger’s close in 2001, he was named General Manager of Exploration for Chevron’s exploration business outside of North America. Ryan
assumed his current position in 2003.
In 1990, through the President’s Commission on Executive Exchange in The White House, Ryan was appointed to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Conservation and Renewable Energy in the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., where he assisted with utility policy issues
related to renewable energy and energy efficiency. He returned to Texaco in 1991. He is chairman of the Corporate Advisory Board of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, vice chairman of the Board of Advisors of the Energy & Geoscience Institute at the University of Utah, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of CASP affiliated with the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University, UK. Ryan has B.S. and M.S. degrees in geology from Tulane
University in New Orleans.
Energy Minerals Division (EMD)/Division of Environmental Geosciences (DEG) Luncheon
Date: Tuesday, 13 April
Time: 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Location: La Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
Fee: $45
Speaker: Dr. John A. Grant, III
Dr. Grant's talk will be Exploring Mars from the Ground Up: Results from the Mars Exploration Rovers and the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Mars Exploration Rovers landed on nearly opposite sides of Mars in January 2004, to begin what was expected to be a 90 sol (or Mars day) mission to look for evidence of past water at the surface. More than six years later, both rovers continue daily operations and both have found evidence for past water activity that has helped to form the rocks in the vicinity of their landing sites in Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum. The HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been taking images of Mars since 2006 at pixel-scales sometimes smaller than 30 cm. The unprecedented resolution of HiRISE images reveals important clues about the processes that have shaped Mars over time. Dr. Grant is one of the Science Operations Working Group Chairs responsible for leading day-to-day planning of science activities done with the rovers and is a member of the science team for the HiRISE camera. He will provide an overview of the science results from these missions that have helped change our understanding of Mars.
Dr. Grant joined the Smithsonian in the fall of 2000 as a Geologist at the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum. He has been a member of the Science Team for the Mars Exploration Rovers since 2002 and is one of about 10 Science Operations Working Group Chairs. Dr. Grant also co-chaired the science community process for selecting the landing sites for the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers and is co-leader of the process to select the landing site for NASA’s next Mars rover, the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory. Currently, he is working day-to-day operations on the rovers, targeting the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and helping to image and map possible future landing sites on the Red Planet. He has been interested in Mars ever since reading Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles as a child.
Dr. Grant attended the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh and received his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in geology in 1982 and went on to earn a master’s and doctorate in geology at the University of Rhode Island (1986) and Brown University (1990), respectively. His dissertation focused on the degradation of meteorite impact craters on Earth and Mars and he remains interested in understanding processes responsible for shaping planetary landscapes.
Division of Professional Affairs (DPA) Luncheon
Date: Tuesday, 13 April
Time: 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Location: La Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
Moderators: Jeff Jones, Quantum Energy Partners, Albany, TX, and Carl Smith, Consultant, Morgantown, WV
Fee: $45
Join the DPA for an informative and thought-provoking luncheon with discussions on issues affecting the DPA, AAPG, geoscientists and society at large. Panelists David Curtiss, John
Dolson, Lynn Hughes, Pete Rose, Ray Thomasson and Scott Tinker will discuss issues ranging from DPA bylaws to position statements, the role of the DPA and more. Come hear what
they have to say on issues such as:
- AAPG Constitution and Bylaws — purposes, code of ethics and responsibility
- Tax issues related to our profession are items in which we have position papers. Higher taxes mean less production and less exploration. Is this type of thing a political or partisan issue?
- AAPG has an obligation to educate, but what about subjects that are semi political or largely political?
This panel will continue its discussion after the luncheon during the DPA Panel Discussion on Ethics and Professionalism
About the panelists:
| David Curtiss is Director of the AAPG Geoscience & Energy Office in Washington, D.C. He spent more than a decade at the University of Utah’s Energy & Geoscience Institute including serving as the American Geological Institute’s Congressional Science Fellow in 2001-2002. |  |
| John Dolson has 30 years of oil and gas exploration and development experience in U.S. and international settings. Formerly with BP and now a Director of DSP Geosciences and Associates, LLC., he has held technical leadership positions in Cairo, London and Moscow. He is a long standing AAPG, RMAG and HGS member and served as AAPG Vice President, 2006-2007. |  |
| Lynn N. Hughes is federal judge, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Anthropological Association, an advisory director to the Law & Economics Center at George Mason University and taught for the South Texas College of Law. He has been an advisor on constitutional law and privatization to the European Union and several East European countries. He is AAPG’s distinguished lecturer on ethics. |  |
| Peter R. Rose is a Certified Petroleum Geologist who was with Shell Oil Company, the U.S. Geological Survey and Energy Reserves Group, Inc. [now BHP Petroleum (Americas), Inc.]. He is a Senior Associate with Rose & Associates, LLP (R&A). Dr. Rose was the 1996/1997 President of DPA and was awarded Honorary Membership in AAPG in 2002. He was AAPG President, 2005-2006. |  |
| M. Ray Thomasson has served as Head of Strategic Planning, Shell International (London), Chief Geologist for Shell Oil Company (USA), President and CEO of Spectrum Oil and Gas and Pend Oreille Oil and Gas, and is the founder and owner of Thomasson Partner Associates. Dr. Thomasson was AAPG President, 1999-2000. |
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| Scott Tinker is the Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology, the State Geologist of Texas, a Professor holding the Allday Endowed Chair of Subsurface Geology, the Director of the Advanced Energy Consortium, the past President of the Association of American State Geologists, and the immediate past President of AAPG. |  |
AAPG Professional Women in Earth Sciences (PROWESS) Luncheon
The Economics of Diversity — Competing for and Leveraging Employee Diversity in a
Global Petroleum Industry
Date: Wednesday, 14 April
Time: 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
Location: La Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom
Moderators: Evelyn Medvin, Core Laboratories, and Sunday Shepherd, Chevron
Co-Chairs: Susan Nissen, Geophysical Consultant and Sunday Shepherd, Chevron
Fee: Professionals $45; Students (limited) $15
In the petroleum industry, one size does not fit all. Worldwide, the petroleum industry
is made up of a diverse set of employers, including small independents, mid-size
exploration and production companies, integrated energy companies and national oil companies, not to mention the numerous service companies, government agencies and academic institutions that play a role in the exploration for and development of petroleum resources.
How do employers recruit, retain and manage diversity to fit their company’s needs? How do the various sizes and types of companies view and handle employee diversity? What are the
perspectives among industry employers and employees regarding diversity in age, gender, technical experience and cultural background in the workplace? How does employee diversity impact corporate culture and vice versa? What really is the bottom line for corporate ‘monocultures’ and diverse corporate ‘polycultures’?
These questions will be addressed by a panel of geoscientists and managers representing a range of petroleum industry employers. Panelists will discuss how their corporations integrate diversity in their business plans, focusing on the unique perspectives, driving forces and
constraints for each type of employer.
Panelists will include:
• Hussain Al-Otaibi, Manager - Exploration Technical Services Department at Saudi Aramco and AAPG Middle East Region President in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. |
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| • Allyson Anderson, Professional Staff with the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in Washington, D.C. |
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| • Kim M. Bates, Vice President Americas for ExxonMobil Exploration Company in Houston, TX. |
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| • Allen Gilmer, CEO of Drilling Info Companies in Austin, TX. |  |
| • Lorena Moscardelli, Ph.D., Research Associate with the Bureau of Economic Geology-The University of Texas at Austin. |  |
| • Scott Sachs, Vice President Geoscience, Northern Division, Chesapeake Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, OK. |  |
