Speaker Bios

2013 International Conference
ai???The Changing Engineering & Construction Marketai???

The Honorable Edward P. Djerejian served in the U.S. Foreign Service for eight presidents, from John F. Kennedy to William J. Clinton (1962-1994). Prior to his nomination by President Clinton as U.S. ambassador to Israel (1993-1994), he was assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in both the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations (1991-1993). He was the U.S. ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic (1988-1991). He also served as special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and deputy press secretary for foreign affairs in the White House (1985-1986). After his retirement from government service in 1994, Djerejian became the founding director of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. His book ai???Danger and Opportunity: An American Ambassadorai??i??s Journey Through the Middle Eastai??? was published by Simon & Schuster Threshold Editions in September 2008; the paperback edition was released in August 2009. He has been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the Department of Stateai??i??s Distinguished Honor Award and numerous other honors, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Anti-Defamation Leagueai??i??s Moral Statesman Award. He is also a recipient of the Association of Rice Alumniai??i??s Gold Medal, the groupai??i??s most prestigious award, for his service to Rice University. In 2011, Djerejian was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and named to the board of trustees of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

After lecturing at the Ecole des Mines de Paris for 3 years, Yves-Louis DarricarrA?re began his career in Elf Aquitaine in 1978, first in the Mining Division in Australia and later in the Exploration & Production Branch, where he was appointed successively Country Representative for Australia and Egypt at head office; Managing Director of the subsidiaries in Egypt and then in Colombia; Director Business development and new ventures, then Finance Director of the Exploration & Production Branch and of the Oil and Gas directorate. In 1998, he was appointed Deputy Director-General of Elf Exploration-Production responsible for Europe and the United States and was nominated a member of the Management Committee of Elf-Aquitaine.

In 2000, he was appointed Senior Vice-President for Exploration & Production Northern Europe and became a member of the Total Group Management Committee. On 1st September 2003, Yves-Louis DarricarrA?re was nominated to the Groupai??i??s Executive Committee and was appointed President of Total Gas & Power. On 14th February 2007, he became President of Total Exploration & Production. Since 1st January 2012, he was also President Total Gas & Power. On 1st July 2012, he became President of Total Upstream regrouping Total Exploration & Production and Total Gas & Power.

Yves-Louis DarricarrA?re was born in 1951 and is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale SupAi??rieure des Mines and the Institut dai??i??Etudes Politiques in Paris and holds a masterai??i??s degree in economic science. He is chevalier de la LAi??gion dai??i??Honneur (Knight of the French Legion of Honour). He is married, has three daughters and three grand children.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

LoA?c des DAi??serts has over 38 years experience in the offshore industry. He has been involved on all types of offshore activities including the design and engineering of concrete platforms, steel jackets, deck structures, and development of bottom founded or floating deep water structures.

LoA?c des DAi??serts is graduated from Ecole des Travaux Publics from Paris, France. After having served in different position within the DORIS Engineering organization, from Project Engineer to Project Manager, he was appointed as CEO in 2004 and as Chairman & CEO in 2006.

As Chairman & CEO of DORIS Engineering, he is in charge of the entire DORIS Group, including all subsidiaries in France, UK, Canada, USA, Brazil, Angola, Indonesia and Australia.

LoA?c des DAi??serts is a member of the French Association of Oil Engineers (Association FranAi??aise des Techniciens du PAi??trole) and also of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). He is also one of the Directors of GEP-AFTP and Syntec-Engineering.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

A chemical and petroleum engineer and an expert on energy geopolitics Dr. Michael Economides is a professor at the Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston and Managing Partner of Dr. Michael J. Economides Consultants, Inc. with a wide range of industrial consulting, including major retainers by several Fortune 500 companies and national oil companies. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Energy Tribune (www.energytribune.com) and Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering.

Technically, he casts a commanding figure in petroleum and natural gas reservoir and production engineering. With 15 textbooks and almost 300 journal papers and articles, his works are referenced by almost all practitioners in the field.

In the relatively recent past he has served as Senior Technical Advisor to Chinaai??i??s CNOOC and subsidiary COSL, to Chinaai??i??s Sinopec on gas exploitation, including shale, to ENI, Italyai??i??s main petroleum multinational company and for more than 5 years to Yukos and Sibneft, Russiaai??i??s major petroleum companies. During 1997 and 1998 Economides was in Venezuela as the Senior Advisor on Production Technology for PDVSA, the national oil company of Venezuela.

Following his 2000 best seller The Color Of Oil and a large number of publications in international magazines, he is considered by many as the premier world expert on the geopolitics of energy, giving about 50 speeches per year to groups from many large professional societies, organizations and corporations. He is a frequent guest on national and international media. He writes for the editorial pages of major newspapers, magazines and internet news organizations.

His latest wide appeal books are From Soviet to Putin and Back: The Dominance of Energy in Todayai??i??s Russia (2008), Energy: Chinaai??i??s Choke Point (2009), Energy and Climate Wars (2010), The Energy Imperative (2010) and Americaai??i??s Blind Spot (2012).

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Arnt Knudsen is a Senior Vice President with Kvaerner and has been working within the Aker\Kvaerner Group of companies for almost 30 years. Has held a number of different positions, ranging from Engineering and Project Management positions, President of subsidiaries to senior staff positions. Working experience from a number of countries, including, Norway, UK, Canada, US, Brazil; Spain, Kazakhstan. Italy and Russia. Currently Sr VP, responsible for Technology and Business Development.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Gordon McManus is currently Manager of Wood Mackenzieai??i??s Product Markets Service, which provides a detailed and long-term analysis of the global refined products markets. Gordon joined Wood Mackenzieai??i??s Downstream Research Team in 2006, initially specialising in analysis of short and long-term demand trends within the global oil products market. Gordon has also undertaken extensive research into the impact of biofuels on the downstream oil sector.Ai?? He led the analysis for two major multi-client studies of the global biofuels market and has presented at numerous international conferences on the subject. Gordon holds a first class BSc in chemistry from the University of St. Andrews and a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Mark F. Peters is a Vice President of PennWell Publishing and Group Publisher of Offshore and Oil & Gas Financial Journal. He has over 30 years of industry-related experience having been a publisher of a refining, petrochemical, gas processing publication and a pipeline and gas industry publication.Ai?? He is a frequent speaker addressing oil, gas, refining and offshore issues and trends at seminars, conferences and users groups. His extensive travel schedule includes attendance at major upstream and downstream meetings around the world. He holds a BA degree in psychology from Brown University.

 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Before joining Technip in 2007, Thierry Pilenko was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Veritas DGC, a seismic services company based in Houston. While at Veritas DGC he successfully managed its merger with the Compagnie GAi??nAi??rale de GAi??ophysique.

Prior to this appointment, Pilenko held various management and executive positions with Schlumberger where he started in 1984 as a geologist. He held several international positions in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia before becoming President of Schlumberger GeoQuest in Houston and subsequently Managing Director of SchlumbergerSema in Paris until 2004.

Thierry Pilenko holds degrees from Franceai??i??s Nancy School of Geology (1981) and the IFP School (1982). He serves on the Board of Directors of Hercules Offshore (USA). Since April 2012, Thierry Pilenko is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Peugeot S.A. (France).

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Mr. Umberto Vergine, born in Milan in 1957, is a Chartered Civil Engineer from Politecnico di Milano. He joined Eni in 1984. After starting his career in Agip as a Petroleum Engineer, he worked between 1985 and 1991 in Norway on the Ekofisk field, subsequently in Angola in Cabinda and in Libia in Tripoli. He then took the responsibility as Production Manager of the Crema District in Northern Italy. Between 1993 and 2001, Umberto covered various leadership positions overseas by managing different Eni E&P companies: District Manager of Agip UK in Aberdeen, District General Manager of Nigerian Agip Oil Co (NAOC) in Port Harcourt and General Manager of Petrobel Company in Egypt. In 2001 he was Managing Director of Lasmo Venezuela in Caracas.
At the end of 2002 he was appointed Managing Director of Ieoc in Cairo.

After returning to Italy in 2004, he held in the Eni E&P Division the following responsibilities:
-Ai??Ai?? Ai??Regional Vice President, West Africa and Egypt
-Ai??Ai?? Ai??Senior Vice President for North Sea, Americas, Russia, Far East and Pacific
-Ai??Ai?? Ai??Senior Vice President Technologies & Services
-Ai??Ai?? Ai??Executive Vice President for South Europe, Central Asia, Far East and Pacific.

In 2010 he was appointed the Senior Executive Vice President for Studies and R&D of Eni S.p.A. He has been member of the Board of Directors of Saipem S.p.A., of Eni Trading & Shipping, of Eni Foundation and Eniai??i??s representative in the Board of Fondazione Politecnico di Milano. From 1st of January 2012 to 5th of December 2012 he had been the Chief Operating Officer of the Gas & Power Division ai??i?? Eni S.p.A.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Mr. Tevin Vongvanich obtained a Bachelorai??i??s Degree (1st Class Honor) in Chemical Engineering from Chulalongkorn University, a Masterai??i??s Degree in Chemical Engineering from Rice University, and another Masterai??i??s Degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston, U.S.A.Ai?? He completed several management programs such as the Senior Executive Program at SASIN, the Program for Global Leaders at Harvard Business School, and the Director Certificate Program at the Thai Institute of Directors (IOD).

Mr. Vongvanich started his career in 1984 as an engineer in various departments at Unocal Thailand Ltd, the major gas producer in the Gulf of Thailand.Ai?? In 1989, he joined the newly formed PTT Exploration and Production Company Limited (PTTEP) as the Reservoir and Planning Manager.Ai?? During his 15 years at PTTEP, he held several executive positions in Corporate Planning, Business Development, Operations and Assets Management.Ai?? In 2004, Mr. Vongvanich was seconded to the position of Executive Vice President at PTT Public Company Limited, the parent company of PTTEP.Ai?? He was responsible for the international expansion of the PTT group.Ai?? He was promoted to Senior Executive Vice President in charge of Corporate Strategy and Development in 2008 and he was appointed Chief Financial Officer at PTT in 2009. He was the Fellow Member of IOD, and served on the boards of directors of several subsidiaries of PTT Group. He has also Chairmanship of Thailand Management Association (TMA) , an independent Not-For-Profit organization, since 2010.

Mr. Vongvanich has served as board of director of PTTEP since 2009 and he was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of PTTEP in May 2012.