I am honored and appreciate the support of AAPG members and many current and past leaders of AAPG in running for the office of AAPG treasurer. I have been a member of AAPG for over 40 years. As an AAPG member, I have benefited from the educational opportunities through field, core and classroom courses, excellent technical programs during conferences, our societies’ networking opportunities, past service on committees, and being an international representative for AAPG. Along the way, I have made many professional contacts and personal friends.
Over the last 20 years, I have been asked to run for various leadership positions for AAPG. Because of my geologic, other technical, and leadership roles and commitment to employers and industry organizations, I focused my time and effort on service within those roles. Over the last 10 years, I also have focused on geologic and petroleum industry knowledge transfer. These contributions include providing 11 university courses and guest lectures, 18 professional courses, five peer-reviewed publications, three magazine articles, 12 published interviews and mentions, 44 published abstracts and presentations, and 90 invited presentations, many of these for AAPG programs. Several of these have obtained high research interest scores, including a Super Basin paper in the top 5 percent of all research since its publication. Having completed these, I am now available, committed and focused on service for AAPG as treasurer.
Over the past decade, AAPG has faced many challenges. It has addressed some of these challenges but has left many unanswered. The office of AAPG treasurer provides multiple opportunities for awareness, information and assisting the Executive Committee in delivering solutions for these challenges that need to be addressed during 2024-26. The office of treasurer is unique among the Executive Committee positions. The oversight for AAPG and headquarters as treasurer requires specific technical training and expertise that most petroleum geologists have not yet obtained.
I started my first business before college and was doing double-entry journal and accounting ledger balances within a year. Academically, I have over 20 hours of accounting courses, over 100 hours of finance, economics and other general management courses, and industry training programs in these specific business skills. Over the past 20 years, I have done all the accounting and finance for several oil and gas companies and an aviation organization. As president of one firm, I taught an entire accounting department new to the industry, including the CFO, on the principles and practice of oil and gas accounting.
My commitment to training and learning in geosciences and the business of oil and gas is exemplified by my current pursuit of a Ph.D. in business administration, which is in its final stages.
These academic and practical experiences, as well as 25 years in senior executive positions in oil and gas upstream organizations, provide the technical ability to understand and clarify AAPG accounting, finance and budgeting issues, cooperatively work as a member of the Executive Committee to solve unaddressed problems, and set the organization on a path for future financial success and stability.