Meet our Keynote and Invited Speakers

Paul Mann

Paul Mann received a B.A. in geology from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Albany. His main interest area is the tectonics of sedimentary basins. He is currently the Robert E. Sheriff endowed professor of geology in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Houston, where he also directs the CBTH Project.

Lauren Ray

Exploration & New Ventures (E&NV) at ExxonMobil.

Lauren Ray is the Guyana Stabroek Block Maturation Manager at ExxonMobil. Since2012, Lauren has been involved in various projects across the globe, within ExxonMobil’s companies, spanning Exploration and Production activities. Global roles in Geoscience and leadership have included U.S. GOM, Brazil, offshore Mexico, Russia, Suriname and Guyana in assignments such as lead geologist, supervisor, manager and planning & budget advisor.

Throughout Lauren’s time at ExxonMobil, she has built a breadth of knowledge in regional interpretation, geologic operations, seismic processing and reprocessing, and prospect maturation and has shown a business-focused mindset and the ability to see where value can be delivered to the Corporation. Utilizing her project management and execution skillset, she has led integrated teams to identify portfolio-accretive drilling opportunities, stewarded billion-dollar capital investments and led organizational change initiatives. In 2022, Lauren was recognized by the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) as an Emerging Leader.

Lauren met her husband in their home state of Michigan, USA and are married with one daughter. She enjoys spending time with friends and family, watching good movies, traveling and reading.

Mike Powney

Geoscience Manager at Geoex MCG

Mike began his career at SRC, a consultancy formed from ECL where he worked extensively on seismic data offshore West Africa and the North Sea. Mike subsequently joined Geoex MCG and is now their Geoscience Manager where he provides global G&G technical expertise across their data portfolio and all upcoming projects. He also leads the technical understandings within Geoex MCG on CCUS and natural hydrogen.

Heidi Etter

Senior Marine Environmental Scientist with Worley Consulting

Managing the Marine Sciences Group for North America. She has over thirteen years of global expertise across various consulting roles within marine industries. Her extensive experience encompasses research, outreach, and involvement in diverse sectors such as oil and gas, dredging, carbon capture, and offshore wind. Throughout her career, she has adeptly managed a wide array of environmental projects, including mitigation and monitoring development and compliance, permitting focused on marine mammals, environmental and social impact assessments, development of environmental management plans, sound source verification and modelling, as well as conducting decommissioning comparative assessments.

And more to come!