Speaker #1 Title: Chief Executive Officer and Owner

Speaker #1 Company:  J Bennett Recruiting

Speaker #1 Bio: Jeremy Bennett is the owner and CEO of J Bennett Recruiting, a retained search firm specializing in Finance & Accounting executives at oil and gas companies in Houston. Jeremy has almost 20 years of recruiting experience in finance and accounting. Prior to starting JBR, Jeremy was a founding employee of Addison Group, one of the fastest growing recruiting agencies in the United States. JBR is a start-up company that recruits nationally and is experiencing rapid growth in an oil and gas downturn.

Event Description/Presentation Abstract:  Successful Start-ups and Job Interviews

According to a recent Deloitte survey, oil executives believe that 2017 is a year of recovery.  Opinions of “oil executives” offer little solace to talented professionals sitting on the bench. If you use the same strategies as everyone else, you’ll get the same results whether you are interviewing for a job or launching a start-up.   What do start-ups and job interviews have in common?  How to navigate chaos, sell with no sales experience and push through inevitable pain of rejection and failure.     

Speaker #2 Title: Managing Director

Speaker #2 Company: BlueVine Ventures

Speaker #2 Bio: 

Kemal Farid is a technology investor and twenty-five-year veteran of the oil and gas industry where he founded and lead software, electronics, and services businesses in exploration, drilling and production.  He is a Managing Director of BlueVine Ventures, a multistage venture capital firm, headquartered in Silicon Valley, focusing on industrial and scientific technology.  He previously founded Merrick and was awarded Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011.  He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and an Entrepreneurship Masters from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Event #2 Description/Presentation Abstract: Entrepreneurship

Kemal will discuss his thirty-year journey as an entrepreneur and his current endeavors as a venture capitalist.  What are the challenges of entrepreneurship?  What does it take to build a successful company?  What is the role of capital in technology ventures?

Speaker #3 Title: Chief Executive Officer

Speaker #3 Company:  Drill Science Inc.

Speaker #3 Bio: Michael Davis is an internationally recognized advisor, contributor and catalyst of team spirit in the teamwork of higher performing teams, principles, tactics, strategies, and plans attending complex operations. He appropriates genuine people into competent teams with spirit, aspiration, inspiration, transpiration, perspiration, trust, intention, accountability, responsibility and integrity. Leader, engineer, founder of Drill Science Inc. and developer of PerformanceDNA®. Michael focuses on critical issues, tasks, elements, spaces, and a quintessential mindset that creates "work situations" leading people to succeed. Michael advises and collaborates with high performance leaders as well as well as frontline crews and individuals.

Event #3 Description/Presentation Abstract: Where is value?  Where are you?  Where is your customer? 

The essential value of a petroleum engineer is always applicable.  We see far beyond where neither the naked eye nor the untrained mind can see through natural barriers trapping oil/gas.  We've endured the painstaking balancing of risk and value, to hazard a breakthrough, conduct a precious resource to the light of day, and connect it with customers where humanity is served.  This skill translates.  Our essential task in this world is to make breakthroughs and connect value, to help, repair, and conduct value, from where it is, to where it better serves humanity.  Let's explore our uniqueness within the oneness of our unrelenting and straightforward creative spirit.