James Pappas is President of RPSEA, the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, in Sugar Land, TX. He has held several other positions with RPSEA. Prior to RPSEA he held technology manager and drilling, completions, facilities, production, operations, reservoir, and M&A engineering and management roles with Devon, Santa Fe Snyder, Fina, UPRC, and Amoco. He’s been in the oil and gas industry for 39 years.  

He has been SPE International Production and Operations Technical Director and SPE Technical Programs and Meetings Committee Chair on its Board; Chair of the SPE-Gulf Coast Section Scholarship Committee, General Meeting, Drilling Study Group, and Board of Directors. He has also served on several technical program committees for the OTC, SPE-ATCE, LACPEC, SPE R&D Conference, and the SPE P&O Conference.  He is also co-chair of the Marine Technical society (MTS) OTC Program Subcommittee and is a past Private Industry Practice Chair and Executive Committee member of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE).

James has authored over 60 technical papers on various technical and professional topics. He earned a BS in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 1979 and graduated with an MBA with highest honors from the University of Texas at Tyler in 1993.

He has earned the SPE Distinguished Service Award, as well as both the Houston Area Engineer of the Year and Texas Engineer of the Year by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers, and he was selected Distinguished Engineer in Texas by the Texas Engineering Foundation in 2008 and an SPE Distinguished Member in 2012. He has been a Registered Professional Engineer in Texas since 1985.