People in the industry
Robert Rust—former V.P. and director at Gulf Energy Information (World Oil’s parent firm), formerly Gulf Publishing Company (GPC)—passed away on June 6, 2019, in Houston. Although Rust grew up in southeastern South Dakota, he and his wife, Wilma, settled in Houston, Texas, in 1950. For 45 years, he worked at GPC, where he held numerous roles, including production manager of the Composite Catalog. He also held positions on the staff of World Oil and Hydrocarbon Processing. In 1982, Rust oversaw assembly of the “Largest Composite Catalog (ever),” listing offerings from over 500 companies in five volumes on 9,061 pages. Retired Gulf Chairman and President Bob Scott tells us that “Bob Rust would most likely have checked every one of those 9,061 pages,” before those volumes were shipped out. Rust, who also served in the U.S. Army Air Force, is survived by four children, nine grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
N-Sea Holding has named Arno van Poppel as chief executive of the subsea IMR services provider. He succeeds Gerard Keser, who is stepping down from the role after eight years. Keser will, however, take a position on the company’s advisory board. Van Poppel reportedly has contributed to the growth and transformation of companies like Fabricom and Boskalis Subsea Cables & Flexibles.
Juliet S. Ellis has been elected to the board of directors at Apache Corp. Ellis served previously as a managing director and senior portfolio manager, as well as chief investment officer for the U.S. Growth Equities Investment Management Unit, at Invesco Ltd. Prior to Invesco, Ellis worked at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where she started as an equity analyst in 1987 and worked her way up to senior portfolio manager in 1993, and to a managing director in 2000. She began her investment career in 1981 with Merrill Lynch, and has been a member of the board of directors for Donnelley Financial Solutions since last year.
ADM Energy has appointed Shaikh Ahmed Bin Dalmook Al Maktoum as president of the company, in a non-board role. In his new position, Maktoum will be tasked with helping to leverage his network and bring new opportunities and contacts to the company. Additionally, Stefan Olivier has announced his plan to step down as CEO of ADM. The company says it will appoint a new chairman and, upon that appointment, Non-Executive Chairman Richard Carter will be named interim CEO.
Aker Solutions has named Ole Martin Grimsrud as CFO. Effective August 1, Grimsrud will take over from Svein Oskar Stoknes, who has spent the last five years with the company. Grimsrud joined the company as V.P. of finance for the subsea business in 2012. Since then, he has held numerous senior management positions, most recently as senior V.P., group treasury, controlling and M&A. Previously, he held positions within finance, strategy and operations in the Norwegian industrial groups Elkem and Norske Skog.
Refracturing solution specialist Morphpackers has appointed Alfredo Sanchez as CEO. He brings more than 23 years of experience in the oilfield services market, with a particular focus on completions, to his new role. Sanchez joins the company from Rubicon Oilfield International, where he was V.P. of well construction. He previously worked for Top-Co, which was subsequently acquired by Rubicon, as well as Coampsa and Schlumberger.
GEODynamics has added two new V.P.s to its leadership team. John Berner has been named V.P. of manufacturing, and Brian Hurst has been named V.P. of electro-mechanical. Berner has more than 20 years of multi-site management experience in establishing strategic operational plans, leading high-performing teams, and exceeding performance targets for manufacturing and global supply-chain operators. Likewise, Hurst brings more than 35 years of experience in design and repair of wireline logging tools to his new position. He is an inventor, with seven patents.
John Michael Bouquet has been appointed as health, safety and environment (HSE) manager at C-Innovation, LLC, an affiliate of Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO). Based in Mandeville, La., Bouquet will manage HSE aspects of personnel, equipment and activities involved in subsea operations. This includes ROV, AUV, survey and tooling functions, plus well construction and maintenance procedures. Bouquet served previously in HSE roles for Edison Chouest Offshore, Sealand and Falck, as well as administrative manager for Sealand.
Tina Wininger has been elected to ION Geophysical Corp.’s board of directors. She also was appointed to the Audit Committee of the board. Presently, Wininger is controller at Next Wave Energy Partners. She has more than 20 years of experience in energy, spanning the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors, as well as petrochemicals. While her primary responsibility has reportedly been public company accounting and reporting, Wininger also has participated in establishing corporate vision, strategy and goals as a member of senior management. Additionally, Michael McGovern has been elected to ION’s board of directors, as well as to the board’s Compensation Committee. He will replace Franklin Myers, who retired from the board in June. McGovern is chairman and CEO of Sherwood Energy, and serves on the boards of Fibrant LLC, Cactus Inc., and Nuverra Environmental Solutions. He brings more than 40 years of industry experience to his new role.
Fishbones, a provider of alternative reservoir stimulation technology, has announced seven new hires, increasing its total staff by 25%. Among those, Lars-Tore Berg has joined Fishbones from CannSeal. He will serve as chief technology officer. As a specialist in well intervention, with more than 30 years of experience, Berg will focus on quality management and improving efficiencies.
Ismael Ripoll has been appointed the new advanced analysis lead at Xodus Group. He will lead the team specializing in finite element analysis (FEA). With more than 12 years of subsea pipeline and FEA engineering experience, Ripoll joins the company from Intecsea, where he served as technical authority of the advanced analysis team. He also has previous work experience at KW Subsea and Atkins.
KCA Deutag has named Joseph Elkhoury as its new CEO. Effective July 1, Elkhoury takes over from Norrie McKay, who will retire later this year. Elkhoury brings more than 26 years of industry experience to his new role, including 21 years at Schlumberger. Throughout his time there, he also held numerous senior level positions and had responsibility for several of the company’s businesses, including Microseismic Services, Production Services, Information Services and Global Supply Chain. He later held positions with Tetra Techologies and Apollo Global Management LLC. Additionally, Elkhoury is chairman of the board at Express Energy Services
