Investing in Oil & Gas: Perspectives from Venture Capital

George is one of the longest-tenured venture capital investors in the Energy technology industry. He founded and led three corporate venture capital groups: ConocoPhillips Technology Ventures Investments, Energy Technology Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures, the longest running corporate venture capital program in the Energy industry. George served as the President and CEO of DeepFlex Inc., a VC-backed energy tech company. He previously worked in Exploration & Production leadership roles at Chevron. George holds an MBA from Tulane University, a M.S. in Geology from the University of Kansas and a B.S. in Earth Sciences from the University of New Orleans.

Kyle Daniels is an aerospace engineer and the inventor, chief engineer and head of product design of the Shutter Valve.  He holds several patents on the Shutter Valve and is an expert in the field of industrial valves.  Mr. Daniels began his career in the aerospace industry with General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Embraer Aircraft.  He is a graduate of The Ohio State University’s prestigious Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering program, and also received a master’s degree (magna cum laude) from Brown University’s Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship.  Mr. Daniels is from Miami, FL and has resided in Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Paris, France.

Richard Pardoe has over 30 years of experience working in a variety of technical industries. Prior to joining Chevron, he organized field trials for electrochlorination and cathodic protection systems as the field manager for a small startup company. He joined Chevron as a process engineer supporting the sale of specialty catalysts for hydroprocessing units in Asia and Europe. He also participated in and led design teams for residuum desulfurizers and hydrocracking units in Japan and Poland. He then moved to Chevron’s Supply and Trading organization, working on the scheduling and delivery of the company’s California crude oil production as well as marine deliveries to Chevron’s California refineries. He joined the company’s Venture Capital Group in 2006.

He earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Davis.

Daniel Carter is Investment Director at Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures US. Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures is the corporate venturing subsidiary of Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), the world’s leading fully integrated energy and petrochemical enterprise. Prior to his current role, Daniel was Principal at a venture capital fund in London from 2003-2012 focused on the energy sector with investors including Shell, KPC, Mitsubishi and Goldman Sachs. Prior to that, Daniel was Vice President at Citigroup/Salomon Smith Barney, where he was a co-founder of the Energy Technology practice, from 1996-2003 in Frankfurt, London, New York, and Melbourne. Prior to Citigroup, Daniel was with Heller Financial (Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi), now GE Capital.

Daniel earned two MBAs from Columbia Business School and London Business School, an MA from University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a BS degree from Georgetown University. He sits on the Board of the London Business School Energy Club and the Board of the London Business School Alumni Club of Houston.