INNOVATE - The culture of innovation within energy transition - Free Admission

Arno van den Haak has over 25 years of Oil & Gas experience. He leads the global Oil & Gas practice for Amazon Web Services helping customer achieve their Digital Transformation objectives and transform the industry. He began his career with Royal Dutch Shell in 1990 in the Netherlands after graduating from Eindhoven University of Technology with a MSc. in mechanical engineering. He has held various positions in the upstream production and operations space in the Netherlands before taking on a host of global assignments. He has worked and lived on nearly every continent. His responsibilities have spanned technical, business and managerial roles covering the upstream value chain from M&A, Exploration, Field Development, R&D, Wells, Major Projects, and Asset/Production Operations. He has over 15 professional publications to his name and holds 5 patents.

Allyson Anderson Book is vice president of energy transition for Baker Hughes. In this role she oversees Baker Hughes’ energy-transition strategy and works to develop new energy products and services that help lower carbon emissions while meeting the world’s growing energy needs.

Before joining Baker Hughes she served as the executive director of the American Geosciences Institute, which represents more than 250,000 geoscientists and focuses on increasing public awareness of the role geosciences play in society’s use of resources. Prior to that, she held a number of academic, policy and senior government positions, including teaching at Georgetown University, working for the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and serving as the associate director of strategic engagement of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) at the U.S. Department of the Interior. She began her career as a geoscientist for ExxonMobil.

She holds bachelor’s degrees in geology and music from the University of Northern Iowa, and a master’s degree in geology from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Kendra Lee has served as Chairman of the Board for Merichem Company since 2012 and CEO since 2014.  She has worked for Merichem Company for over 20 years, beginning her career in the research laboratories.  Ms. Lee continued her progression in Merichem Company in chemical sales management and the corporate functions of Treasurer and Corporate Secretary before being appointed to serve on the Board of Directors of Merichem Company on April 29, 2010.  Ms. Lee received her Bachelor’s of Science degree from Texas A&M University and her Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Houston.

Angela John is Director of Structured Products within BP’s global energy marketing and trading organization. Angela is responsible for developing BP’s risk management portfolio by providing customers with tools for hedging, solutions to support project financing, and facilitation of cross-commodity opportunities for BP and its customers.  Today, Angela is building a business to support renewable fuel project development by providing off-take structures to support financing.

Through her 28-year career with BP, Angela has gained extensive experience in chemicals, crude oil, natural gas, liquid fuels, and renewables. 

Angela is a chemical engineer with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management with a focus on strategy, organizational design, and marketing.

Dr. Preshit Gawade, is a constant learner and holds a reputation of being scrappy. He enjoys connecting the dots which enables him to recognize business potential and bridge the gap

Preshit started his career in academia and failed numerous times before delivering a sound product. He has technical expertise in product development, catalysis, chemicals, CCS, renewables, water treatment and emission control. He is a published author, 400+ citations. In addition, he has business expertise in portfolio management, business analytics, stage-gate and financial analysis. He has worked for 15+ years, with several industry partners (ExxonMobil, Caterpillar, Babcock & Wilcox, Dorf ketal, Merichem) and Govt. entities (Dept. of Energy, Ohio Coal Office, National Science Foundation, Argonne National Lab)

Currently, Preshit is a Senior Leader-Strategy & Innovation Offerings, responsible for energy transition, strategic planning, market analysis, house-views, scenario/ risk planning, data analytics, competitive intelligence and growth/financial planning. He considers the uncertainties, learning on the fly and connecting the dots are the most exciting part of this role. He enjoys engaging different stakeholders and learn various nuances  of industry value chain

Preshit is a six sigma and holds an MBA from University of Texas, Austin and PhD in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University. He enjoys occasional beer brewing (applying his chemical engineering knowledge for betterment of humanity !) and avid reader of scientific articles.