2024 Business Development A&D Symposium

Daniel Kohl is Co-Head and Managing Director of Opportune Partners LLC, an independent investment banking and financial advisory affiliate of Opportune LLP, where he leads a team of oil and gas and financial professionals to advise clients on a variety of energy transactions including M&A, A&D, structured transactions, Debt and Equity Placements, and Fairness Opinions.  Before Opportune, Dan most recently served as Head of A&D Advisory at UBS where he directed A&D and technical advisory efforts for the energy investment bank. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University and Master’s Degree from The Pennsylvania State University, he began his career as a geologist at Chevron where he worked in various technical roles from development to exploration.

Since mid-2015, Mr. Shepherd has served in the role of Managing Director at RBC Richardson Barr.  He was promoted to Co-Head of the organization in 2020.  During his time with RBC, he has overseen several billion in transactions from virtually every major basin in the L48.

Mr. Shepherd graduated from the University of Texas with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering and M.A. in Energy and Mineral Resources in 1994.  Prior to joining RBC, Mr. Shepherd served at various technical and leadership positions in Houston-based public and private companies.

Max van Adrichem joined the energy & power investment banking group at Piper Sandler in 2021.

Previously, van Adrichem was a director in the corporate & investment banking group at BMO Capital Markets. Prior to that, he was an associate director in Scotiabank’s investment banking group and an engineer at Cameron International. He has a long track record of successfully advising upstream clients on a wide variety of transactions including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings and capital raises.

Van Adrichem earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business.

Cristina Stellar serves as Managing Director and Senior Vice President at BOK Financial Securities in Houston. Prior to BOKFS, Cristina was the Head of Business Development at Grizzly Energy (fka Vanguard Natural Resources) where she led the divestment of all company assets. Preceding Grizzly, she served for 13 years at Hess Corporation and began her career at PwC. Experienced internationally and in every domestic basin. She holds a master's in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, a bachelor's in economics, and a bachelor's in business administration from Charles III University of Madrid.

Rob Cordray is a Senior Vice President on the Americas Consulting team at Rystad Energy. On the consulting team, Rob specializes in strategy, market analysis, asset evaluation and capital markets with a particular focus on the upstream and midstream sectors. His thirty years of experience spans the entire energy value chain and he has held previous roles with service companies, operators and financial institutions worldwide. Rob has a BSc in Geology and Physics from Morehead State University, an MSc in Geophysics from Colorado School of Mines and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Trina Engels is the Director of ESG for Talos Energy (NYSE:TALO) where she is leading sustainability initiatives, driving ESG reporting efforts, carbon mapping, and shaping the company’s energy transition strategy. Prior to Talos she held the position of ESG Director for NewTech Global Environmental, she advised private equity and small-size energy companies on sustainability planning and conducted emissions studies.

With more the 25 years of experience in the energy industry, she has developed expertise working for both E&P and integrated companies such as Occidental Petroleum, Anadarko Petroleum, and ExxonMobil. Her previous roles range from technical to leadership in both onshore shale and offshore conventional resource plays around the world and include numerous corporate planning stints.

Engels holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of South Florida, a Master of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and is a Harvard Business School alumnus through their Executive Education Program.

Brody Rollins is a Managing Director of Jefferies LLC in the E&P Investment Banking Group. He joined Jefferies in 2010 as an analyst and has worked on more than $75 billion of transactions, including M&A, A&D, public and private debt and equity capital markets transactions, shareholder activism, and restructuring. His experience encompasses a broad range of U.S. oil and gas plays, including the Permian Basin.

Brody graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Rice University.

David Iverson is a senior managing director for Kayne Anderson’s private energy income strategies, responsible for identifying investment opportunities, deal analysis and technical due diligence.

Prior to joining Kayne Anderson in 2006, Iverson was a senior vice president of Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc., a Texas-based oil and gas consulting firm that provides a complete range of professional reservoir engineering, geophysical and geological services to the worldwide petroleum industry. Iverson began his career in the oil and gas industry in 1988 with ARCO Oil & Gas Company and later Vastar Resources, Inc. where he held various reservoir and facilities engineering and corporate finance positions.

Iverson earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tulsa in 1988, an M.B.A. from the University of Houston in 1994, and an M.J.E.L. from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 2020; Iverson is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas.

Cynthia Mabry is a member of Gibson Dunn's Capital Markets, Securities Regulation & Corporate Governance, Mergers & Acquisitions and Oil & Gas practice groups. She represents public and private entities, investors and underwriters in capital markets and finance transactions, including offerings of equity and debt securities.

Ms. Mabry also provides counsel on joint ventures, corporate governance and compliance matters. She is particularly experienced with clients engaged in the energy industry, including utilities, oil and gas exploration and production, midstream, oilfield services and other related sectors. She advises clients on governance structures and rapidly evolving legal issues related to climate change and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). She also frequently writes and speaks about matters of climate change and ESG.

Ms. Mabry received her J.D. from The University of Houston of Law in 2010. In 2004, she graduated from Louisiana State University with her Bachelor of Science in Accounting. Prior to practicing law, Cynthia worked as a senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Houston.

Dan Romito is a consulting partner at Pickering Energy Partners focusing on quantitative ESG strategy
and implementation. Throughout his career, Dan has advised several hundred private companies,
public issuers, and asset managers on how to optimize capital deployment strategies, pursue quality
pools of capital and employ ESG-related directives. A substantial portion of his experience has centered
on helping the Energy, Industrial, Materials, and Utility space navigate ESG-focused data providers,
frameworks, disclosures, and the corresponding investor landscape. His experience and research on
ESG, Index/ETF Ownership, and Shareholder Activism has been featured in a variety of global
periodicals, including Harvard Business Review, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate
Governance, CNBC, Bloomberg, Global Investor Magazine, and IR Magazine. Dan received a BA from
the University of Chicago, an MBA in Finance from DePaul University, and is a professor at Marquette
University where he teaches ESG implementation, strategy, and certification.

Jason Brown is the President and CEO of LongBow Energy, LLC, a non-op oil and natural gas producer founded in 2008.  Although the first half of his career was focused on engineering operations, Brown has spent most of the previous 15 years managing LongBow Energy both investing in non-operated working interests and advising boards and management teams on strategic growth initiatives, reserves, M&A, and capitalizations.

From 2019 to 2022 Jason served as the President & CEO of Evolution Petroleum Corp (NYSE: EPM). EPM is a non-op oil and natural gas producer with a market cap of ~$250MM. Brown grew the company through 4 substantive acquisitions increasing production and reserves over 6x providing the cashflow to secure support of the company’s overhead and dividend for the next decade. Prior to Evolution, he was a co-founder, officer and served as the VP of Corporate Development for Halcon Resources.  Recruited by the former Petrohawk CEO to start Halcon and work with him to raise $550MM to take the company public through reverse merger within five months. Closed over $5B on M&A transactions in the Bakken, Wilcox, Utica, and Eagle Ford Basins. 

Earlier in his career he worked sell side advisement as an Associate at RBC Richardson Barr.  Before that Brown was an Asset Manager for Petrohawk Energy (NYSE:HK) in charge of East Texas, Arkansas, and North Louisiana operations.  He began his career at the Williams Companies in Tulsa. 

Jason holds an MBA from the Mendoza School of Business at the University of Notre Dame. He also earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tulsa. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (Petroleum) in the state of Texas and currently resides in Houston.

Luke C. Brandenberg is Granite Ridge’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Brandenberg has over 15 years of experience in the energy industry. Prior to joining Granite Ridge, he served as Managing Director of Vortus Investments, a private equity firm focused on the lower/middle market upstream energy industry in North America, from April 2021 through June 2022. From 2020 to April 2021, Mr. Brandenberg partnered with Grey Rock Investment Partners to launch a special situations initiative and to lead the deal origination, structuring, and relationship management efforts for the new platform. From 2010 to 2020, Mr. Brandenberg served in various roles with EnCap Investments, most recently as Director — Upstream Investment Staff, where he was a key board member and the primary relationship manager on multiple portfolio companies representing a significant portion of EnCap’s equity commitments. From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Brandenberg served as an investment banking analyst in the energy group of Raymond James & Associates where he focused on public market capital raises, restructuring of oil and gas investments, and mergers and acquisitions advisory work in the upstream, midstream, and oilfield services sectors of the energy. Mr. Brandenberg has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with honors in Business Honors and Finance from The University of Texas at Austin.

As CEO of Ventana, Heather holds a pivotal role in steering the company’s strategic vision and operational excellence, overseeing both its core functions as well as leading A&D efforts.  Under Heather’s leadership, Ventana launched its organic acquisition strategy in late 2016 building an impressive portfolio of over 65,000 net acres and over 5,000 wells across Oklahoma.  

Prior to Ventana, Heather managed various functions across land, business development and regulatory for RKI Exploration and Production, LLC, which merged with WPX Energy, Inc., in 2015 for $2.35 billion. She began her career in 2004 at Chesapeake Energy where her passion for A&D began.  She is committed to playing a part in America’s energy independence and educating the public of the importance of producing clean, affordable oil and natural gas in our country.

Heather serves on the Board of the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Energy Resources Board as well as the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City.

Mr. Barkmann has served as Senior Vice President of Reservoir Engineering at Diamondback since November 2021. Prior to his current position, he served as Diamondback’s Vice President of Reservoir Engineering from February 2019 to November 2021 and as Reservoir Engineering Manager since joining Diamondback in November 2018. Before joining Diamondback, Mr. Barkmann worked for Energen Resources Corporation from May 2006 to November 2018 serving in various capacities of increasing responsibility, most recently as Reservoir Engineering Manager and has worked in the Permian Basin since 2006. Mr. Barkmann began his career with BJ Services in June 2004 as a Completions Engineer, joining Energen Resources Corporation in May 2006 as a Reservoir Engineer. Mr. Barkmann graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering and is an active member of SPE.

Tom Thurmond serves as President of Nadel and Gussman New Ventures a Tulsa, OK based E&P focused on development within the Haynesville Trend of North Louisiana and East Texas.  NGNV has been actively developing its Greenwood-Waskom position.  NGNV is a key portfolio company of Post Oak Energy Capital where Mr. Thurmond held the position of Sr. Advisor before taking on his leadership role with NGNV.

Earlier career roles include executive and management positions in both public and private upstream companies.  Mr. Thurmond was Sr. Vice President and COO at Breitburn Energy Partners (now Maverick Natural Resources) directing a team of over 500 employees and managing capital and operating budgets in excess of $500MM annually across 15 states.  Before his position at Breitburn, Mr. Thurmond was a Principal at the privately held Legado Resources which was engaged in Enhanced Oil Recovery project development primarily in the Permian Basin of West Texas and Gulf Coast trend.

Technical positions have included business development, reservoir engineering and production operations with two public companies; The Houston Exploration Company and Anadarko Petroleum. While with Anadarko, he was team lead for the Salt Creek CO2 EOR project developing over 150 MMBbls of reserves.

Mr. Thurmond is a member of SPE and has served as guest speaker at numerous industry events across the country.  He is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a bachelor of science degree in Petroleum Engineering.

Chris leads the Business Development effort and is a member of the Executive Committee at Rockcliff Energy.  He has been instrumental in the acquisition of Rockcliff’s 268,000-acre position in the Haynesville Shale of East Texas and the $2.7 billion merger with Tokyo Gas Natural Resources.

Prior to joining Rockcliff in 2015, Chris served as Managing Director and Head of the Acquisitions & Divestitures advisory practice within the Energy Investment Banking Group of Raymond James & Associates, Inc. where he founded the A&D practice in 2009.  He earlier served as Managing Director, Acquisitions & Divestitures and was a member of the Board of Directors at the Investment Banking firm of Tristone Capital.  Chris has held senior positions at Petroleum Place Energy Advisors, JMI Energy, Inc. and Destec Energy, Inc.  He started his career as a Petroleum Engineer at ARCO Oil and Gas Company.

Chris serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory High School in Houston, Texas and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Caroga Arts Collective, located in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of the Houston Producers’ Forum and the Petroleum Club of Houston.  He is currently on the Advisory Board of ADAM-Houston and is a member of the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Chris holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas, where he was a Sord Scholar, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University. 

Trevor Lavelle is an Energy & Infrastructure partner in Clifford Chance’s Houston office. His clients include companies and financial institutions across public and private financing transactions including secured and unsecured high yield debt offerings, IPOs, exchange and tender offers, other liability management transactions, bridge and loan commitments, and restructurings. Trevor also advises on general securities law compliance, corporate governance, stock exchange rules and other public company matters. Trevor holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School, cum laude. He is admitted in Texas.

Caleb is the CEO of Garrison Energy, the third company he has co-founded with his father Steve. Previously, Caleb was president and CFO of Stronghold Energy II before the sale of Stronghold’s assets to Ring Energy. Caleb began his career at McKinsey & Company. He also worked in private equity as part of the energy vertical at Bain Capital. Additionally, he previously served as the Vice President of Weatherl Energy Investments, L.P., as well as Stronghold Energy Partners, L.P., and as CFO for Desert Royalty Company.

Caleb received an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. He graduated cum laude with an AB in economics and a secondary field in government from Harvard College. Caleb and his wife Lindsey live in Midland with their three children.

Pete has over 18 years of industry experience. He is currently the SVP-Development for Birch Resources.  Pete is formerly the VP-Geology for Rock Oil II in the N. Midland Basin and Rock Oil III in the Mid Continent.  Prior to Rock Oil, he was a Director at Wells Fargo, working in their A&D group.  Before Wells Fargo, he worked at Chevron, holding numerous roles in development, technology, exploration, and corporate planning.  Pete holds B.S. & M.S. degrees in Geology; and a M.B.A.

Preston is CEO of Ridgemar Energy, a Houston-based E&P with operations in the Eagle Ford.  Most recently, Preston was Managing Director and a member of the Management Committee at Ridgemar’s private equity sponsor, Carnelian Energy Capital, where he was responsible for leading upstream investments, transaction due diligence and the execution and monitoring of portfolio company investments.  Prior to joining Carnelian at its founding, Preston held private equity investing and investment banking roles with KKR, Denham and Greenhill.  Preston received his B.B.A. in Finance from the Business Honors Program from The University of Texas at Austin.

Jessica Tompkins is Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and Development at Warwick Investment Group and is responsible for formulating and executing strategy to meet firm goals and leading the land and business development efforts to optimize Warwick’s assets under management. Jessica also works closely with Warwick’s data science team to develop software to source opportunities, improve management of fractionalized ownership interests and utilize Warwick’s data to develop and monitor strategic opportunities. Since joining Warwick in 2014, Jessica has led the sourcing, execution and onboarding of over $1 billion in real assets acquisitions and development commitments.

Prior to joining Warwick, Jessica was Director of Land Processes at Chesapeake Energy where she focused on the Marcellus and Anadarko basins. She worked closely with Chesapeake’s IT and data science department to develop software and systems solutions for the management of fractionalized assets and contractual and regulatory obligations.

Jessica graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor’s degree in arts, focused on energy management and psychology.

Mr. Spilman has over 28 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and formed Pursuit Oil & Gas in December of 2016.  Prior to Pursuit, he was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Stonegate Production Company, LLC. Prior to joining Stonegate, Mr. Spilman served as the Regional Vice President – Eagle Ford at Marathon Oil where he was directly responsible for leading all aspects of Marathon’s Eagle Ford assets in South Texas. Over his 18-year career at Marathon, he held various other positions of increasing responsibility within planning, exploration, business development, operations and engineering in Marathon’s domestic and international upstream business. He began his career as a field engineer for Texaco Exploration & Production.  Mr. Spilman graduated from Texas A&M University in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in petroleum engineering.

Ms. Powers is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Domestic Upstream based in EIG’s Houston office. In her previous role at EIG, she led the North America Engineering team, which was focused on engineering support across all aspects of EIG’s North American existing portfolio as well as new business opportunities. Before joining EIG in 2017, Jeannie worked as a Sr. Technical Advisor at Wells Fargo Securities A&D where she spent three years evaluating and marketing upstream and midstream assets. Prior to Wells, Jeannie spent several years at Chevron, with increasing responsibility, working both asset development and operations across the lower 48. While in her last assignment as Operations Team Lead in Midland, TX, she completed her MBA from Texas Tech. Jeannie also holds a degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Texas.

Jay Salitza has been a Managing Director of KBCM’s Oil & Gas franchise since joining the firm in 2015.  Mr. Salitza’s area of coverage is upstream exploration & production opportunities involving both private operators and SMID Cap entities.  As a registered broker dealer and full service investment bank with capabilities across various product suites, KBCM’s focus is on capital formation via public markets for both debt and equity, private placement opportunities including transactions within the asset-backed subsegment of the capital markets,  leveraged finance opportunities involving both offensive M&A opportunities and recapitalizations, and strategic alternatives advisory with clients exploring both buy-side and sell-side transactions. 

Prior to joining KeyBanc, Mr. Salitza was employed within the energy team at both Scotiabank and Bank of America.

Mr. Dixon is a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in the energy industry. Currently serving as a Director - Business Development, A&D at Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Mr. Dixon has played a pivotal role in the company's transformation from its bankruptcy emergence in 2021 to a premier energy company. Under Mr. Dixon's leadership, Chesapeake Energy Corporation has completed several major acquisitions, divestitures, and mergers, including the acquisition of Vine Energy and Chief E&D Holdings, the divestiture of Chesapeake's oil assets in the Powder River Basin and Eagle Ford, and the recently announced transformative merger with Southwestern Energy. These transactions represent a total value of more than $16 billion and have cemented Chesapeake Energy Corporation's position as a leading force in the energy industry.  Mr. Dixon's extensive experience in Business Development and A&D groups at Chesapeake Energy Corporation has contributed significantly to the company's success. He joined the company as an Acquisitions Analyst in 2003, and since then, he has held various positions with increasing responsibilities, showcasing his leadership and strategic thinking abilities.  Before joining Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Mr. Dixon began his career as an Accountant at Devon Energy. He graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance, laying the foundation for his successful career in the energy industry.

Steve joins Opportune as a Managing Director for Business Development. Mr. Kennedy has more than 35 years of experience in energy banking, having spent 25 years with Amegy Bank as the EVP & Head of Energy Banking. Here, Steve formed an energy banking group to make upstream energy reserve-based loans (RBLs) to E&P companies and expanded the energy group to include midstream, downstream, and oilfield service energy lending. During his tenure, he was also able to grow energy loan commitments from $0 to a peak of $6 billion by 2012, with $3 billion of loans outstanding.

Steve then became the Founder and Senior Advisor for Amegy Bank. In this role, he was able to advise Amegy's executive management, energy banking team, and credit officers regarding matters affecting the energy banking market. His position gave him the ability to interact with existing and prospective energy clients to maintain healthy relationships and promote new ones.

He has also held Energy Banking roles with both Wells Fargo and Bank One earlier in his career, growing those energy portfolios and helping to manage clients while strengthening relationships.

Mr. Kennedy holds an MBA in Finance from Baylor University and a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University. He is a board member and immediate past President of the Petroleum Club of Houston, is a licensed pilot and an Eagle Scout.

Claire Harvey joined EIV Capital in 2022 and currently serves as partner, CEO of EIV Resources, and a member of the firm’s Investment Committee.  She leads EIV Resources’ investment team within EIV Capital.  Her team pursues yield-oriented upstream oil and gas opportunities.

Prior to joining EIV, Claire spent 21 years investing and advising in the energy industry, primarily in the upstream sector.  She has served in a variety of senior leadership roles, most recently serving as Founder of ARM Resource Partners, LLC, an EIV Fund IV portfolio company.  Prior to founding ARM Resource Partners, LLC, she founded Gryphon Oil and Gas, LLC, a Blackstone-sponsored oil and gas company focused on acquiring non-operated interests in the Permian Basin.  Before that, she spent a decade at two private equity firms, Pine Brook Partners and TPH Partners, and earlier in her career, she was an investment banker with Lehman Brothers and Barclays.  Claire currently serves as a director of Sitio Royalties Corp. (NYSE: STR).

Claire earned her M.B.A. from Rice University and B.B.A. in Finance from Texas A&M University, where she was Co-Captain of the varsity volleyball team.

Mr. Goodman is a Managing Director of Carnelian Energy Capital Management, L.P., where he is responsible for leading investment sourcing regions, transaction due diligence and execution and monitoring active portfolio companies. Prior to joining Carnelian, Mr. Goodman was a Senior Vice President of Post Oak Energy Capital. Mr. Goodman also previously served as a Director of Finance for a private equity-backed oil and gas company, an Associate at First Reserve Corporation in Houston, and an Analyst in the Global Energy Group of UBS Investment Bank in Houston. Mr. Goodman grew up in Houston, Texas, and received a B.B.A. and an M.P.A. in Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin.