FOCUS 2021 is only available for members of the Institute for Energy Law Advisory Board. This is a new special event provided free of charge to all Advisory Board Members as a thank you for your continued support of IEL. Once you sign into your account, FOCUS 2021 will be available for registration (Add to Cart) if you are on the Advisory Board. If you are not able to add it to your cart but you believe you are on the Advisory Board, please contact Vickie Adams at vadams@cailaw.org.
Unlike most IEL conferences where the main purpose is on providing MCLE credit, FOCUS 2021 seeks to provide our members with programming by unique and outstanding speakers on topics related to the industry in general, leadership, and diversity, while also allowing IEL business to be conducted in various meetings. Some states may allow you to request credit for these sessions, but IEL is seeking MCLE credit for the sessions. The 72nd Annual Oil and Gas Law Conference in April 2021, which is also free to all Advisory Board Members, will offer MCLE credit and MCLE credit is available via the free OnDemand webinars on this site.
Spread over four days (February 16-19, 2021), the Summit features programs of the various IEL Practice Committees on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Following each of these programs, the committees will hold committee meetings. Also on Wednesday, the IEL's Advisory Board will hold its 2021 Annual Meeting, followed by a virtual social event.
On Thursday, three special sessions will be hosted by the IEL's Programs Committee.
All sessions and meetings will be conducted using Zoom. Please ensure you have the latest Zoom version downloaded to access all Zoom features. Although the sessions will be conducted via Zoom, you will access the sessions by logging into your account on IEL's Online Learning Catalog and then launching the individuals session at the appropriate time.
If you have any questions, please email Ryan Frome at rfrome@cailaw.org or call her at 972-244-3422.
Frank Bayouth is the head of Skadden’s Houston office. His practice concentrates on corporate and securities matters, with particular emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, corporate finance and corporate governance issues. Mr. Bayouth represents public and private companies, private equity firms and hedge funds, as well as investment banks and financing sources in a variety of U.S. and international transactions, primarily in the oil and gas sector
Jason Bennett is a partner and the Head of the Global Projects Group at Baker Botts, who concentrates on the development and financing of oil, gas, LNG, hydrogen, ethane, water and liquids projects, and transactions in the energy industry. Mr. Bennett assists clients with development and structuring of upstream and midstream investments and joint ventures, as well as acquisitions and sales of interests in oil and gas and midstream assets and LNG, pipeline and other energy projects. Mr. Bennett's extensive current experience with LNG projects includes assisting clients with the structuring, development, construction and launch of greenfield liquefaction projects and related upstream developments, regasification facility projects, LNG shipping matters and the development of LNG trading platforms and investments.
Ben Cahill is a senior fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He focuses on oil market issues and macro trends affecting the oil and gas sector. Ben was previously a director in Energy Intelligence's Research & Advisory group and led its country risk practice, advising oil and gas companies on politics, economics, and policy risks. He frequently led client briefings for supermajors, national oil companies, government agencies, and the financial sector. Ben formerly worked at PFC Energy (now part of IHS Markit) in Washington, D.C. and Kuala Lumpur. He has an M.A. in international affairs and economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in international relations and English from Boston University.
Alan has served on the boards of directors of numerous public and private companies, including as chairman of the board of directors of a multibillion dollar NYSE-listed E&P company and as chairman of multiple venture capital backed private companies. He began his career with a law firm in Washington, D.C. and has been General Counsel of three Fortune 500 multinationals with operations in more than 100 countries in the fields of energy, technology, and manufacturing. He had global responsibility for legal affairs, government relations, ethics and compliance, crisis management, and risk management.
Alan is a lecturer for the Executive MBA program at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University in Houston. He was an adjunct professor of international law at the University of Houston Law for 10 years and lectured for nine years at the Stanford Law School Directors College at Stanford University. He has also lectured on multiple occasions at Duke University, the University of Texas, Penn State, and the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He is on the board of directors of the National Association of Corporate Directors, TTC; including chairing the Governance & Nominating Committee.
Alan is an independent arbitrator, having served on more than 100 domestic and international arbitration tribunals. He is on the Executive Board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration and has been a member of the ITA’s Advisory Board for over 20 years. He has served on the board of directors of the American Arbitration Association and is currently a member of multiple Advisory Committees of the AAA, including one revising the rules of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution.
Alan is the Chairman of the Houston Committee on Foreign Relations and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He is a member of the board of directors of several nonprofits including the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston and Human Rights First. He earned BS and MS degrees in Engineering, a MBA, and a J.D. and has been admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Texas, and before several Federal Courts, including the United States Supreme Court.
Denis A. Fallon (Archie) is a partner in the Corporate & Financial Services Department and Co-Chair of the Firm's Power & Renewable Energy, Environmental, Social & Governance and Project Finance practice groups. Archie represents private equity funds and corporate clients in strategic transactions primarily in the energy, infrastructure and technology sectors. Archie has particular experience advising on platform investments, mergers and acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, recapitalizations and project development. Many of Archie's clients invest in infrastructure across the risk-return spectrum, including midstream, power, renewable, transportation and other core assets.
Archie regularly writes and speaks to groups regarding trends affecting private equity investments in the energy and infrastructure sectors.
Chambers USA (2022) recognizes Archie nationally for his work in the area of Energy: Oil & Gas (Transactional). Archie was named as one of Law360's 2019 MVPs in the area of Project Finance. He has also been recognized as a Law360 Rising Star in the area of Energy and by Super Lawyers as a Texas Rising Star.
Archie is actively involved in energy industry organizations, including serving as Chair of the Renewables Practice Committee at Institute for Energy Law (IEL). He also serves on the advisory boards for IEL, the Greater Houston Partnership and the Renewable Energy Alliance Houston (REAL Houston).
Ann Fox has served as the President, Chief Executive Officer, Secretary and Director of Nine Energy Service since July 2015, and from February 2013 to July 2015, Ms. Fox served the Company as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Strategic Development.
In addition, Ann Fox served as the Interim Chief Financial Officer of the Company from September 2017 to December 2017 and previously served in such capacity from July 2015 through April 2017. From December 2008 to February 2013, Ms. Fox served in various positions with SCF Partners, a private equity firm specializing in investments in the energy services industry. Ms. Fox became a Managing Director of SCF Partners in December 2012.
Prior to joining SCF Partners, Ms. Fox served in the United States Marine Corps. During her service, Ms. Fox worked with a small team embedded in the South of Iraq in order to ensure Iraqi Security Force combat operations were consistent with the application of US counterinsurgency tactics. Ms. Fox has also served as an Investment Banking Analyst for both Prudential Securities and Warburg Dillon Read in New York.
Ann Fox holds a Bachelor of Science in Diplomacy and Security in World Affairs from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and is currently a member of the Harvard Business School Alumni Board, Devon Energy Board and Groton School Board.
Stephen Harrington is a Principal Development Manager at SunPower Corporation (SunPower) focused on developing solar and storage assets in the commercial and industrial (C&I) space. Formerly, Stephen worked as an in-house counsel for SunPower where he focused on supporting tax equity and traditional project finance transactions in the C&I space. Prior to joining SunPower, Stephen worked at Akin Gump as an associate in the Houston office where he focused on oil and gas transactions including bankruptcies and private equity investments. Stephen earned his JD from the University of Houston Law Center and graduated with a degree in History from the University of Texas. When not nerd-ing out on solar projects, Stephen enjoys exploring Austin with Anisha, his partner, and Roxy, the Pomeranian.
Shannon Kinney is deputy general counsel, Governance, Corporate and Employment, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary for ConocoPhillips. Kinney joined ConocoPhillips in 2012 as senior counsel, managing general corporate and securities matters. In 2015, she became managing counsel –Corporate, with responsibility for managing the company’s corporate legal matters. In 2016, she became associate general counsel, Corporate and Human Resources with responsibility for managing the company’s corporate legal matters and compensation, benefits, employment and labor legal matters. She assumed her current role in 2017 and has had varying responsibilities since that time for managing the company’s corporate, commercial and employment legal matters and global compliance and ethics matters.
Prior to joining ConocoPhillips, Kinney was Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at TPC Group, where she handled general corporate governance and securities matters. She also served as chair of the Compliance Committee and was named Outstanding Associate General Counsel of a Small Legal Department by the Houston Business Journal for her role as Acting General Counsel in 2011.
Maria Konnikova is the author, most recently, of The Biggest Bluff, a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book of 2020. Her previous books are the bestsellers The Confidence Game, winner of the 2016 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, an Anthony and Agatha Award finalist. Maria is a regularly contributing writer for The New Yorker whose writing has won numerous awards, including the 2019 Excellence in Science Journalism Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. While researching The Biggest Bluff, Maria became an international poker champion and the winner of over $300,000 in tournament earnings—and inadvertently turned into a professional poker player. Maria’s writing has been featured in Best American Science and Nature Writing and has been translated into over twenty languages. Maria also hosts the podcast The Grift from Panoply Media, a show that explores con artists and the lives they ruin, and is currently a visiting fellow at NYU’s School of Journalism. Her podcasting work earned her a National Magazine Award nomination in 2019. She graduated from Harvard University and received her PhD in psychology from Columbia University.
Cynthia is a business lawyer focused on transactions and projects in the energy industry, particularly in renewable energy. As Assistant General Counsel- Renewable Energy to TotalEnergies, Cynthia manages all legal aspects of TotalEnergies’ renewable power generation businesses in the U.S., including a multi-gigawatt portfolio of solar projects in development and operation and the U.S. offshore wind business which launched earlier this year.
Cynthia began her career in the global law firm Vinson & Elkins, where her practice focused in transactions and projects in the energy industry. Cynthia then served as General Counsel to Meridian Solar, Inc., a leading solar integrator and development firm, where she managed all legal aspects of solar project development, construction and finance. Prior to joining TotalEnergies, Cynthia was one of the founding lawyers of a successful boutique law firm, Griffin Frey, where she represented a broad spectrum of clients in corporate and M&A matters and often served as their “outside general counsel”. Cynthia earned her B.A. at Georgetown University and her J.D. and M.B.A. at the University of Texas.
Kenneth B. Medlock III, Ph.D., is the James A. Baker, III, and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics at the Baker Institute and the senior director of the Center for Energy Studies. He is also the director of the Masters of Energy Economics program, holds adjunct professor appointments in the Department of Economics and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and is the chair of the faculty advisory board at the Energy and Environment Initiative at Rice University. Medlock is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, holds a fellowship at King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Payne Institute at Colorado School of Mines. In 2012-2013, Medlock held the prestigious Haydn Williams Fellowship at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. He teaches advanced courses in energy economics and supervises Ph.D. students in the energy economics field. Medlock is a principal in the development of the Rice World Natural Gas Trade Model, which is aimed at assessing the future of international natural gas trade. He has published numerous scholarly articles in his primary areas of interest: natural gas markets, energy commodity price relationships, gasoline markets, transportation, national oil company behavior, economic development and energy demand, and energy use and the environment. He has testified multiple times on Capitol Hill on U.S. oil and natural gas exports, has spoken at OPEC, and is frequently asked to speak about global and domestic energy issues.
Brad is a Consultant Director with ERM NA. He has been at the intersection of ESG for over 16 years, with 30+ years of overall experience in Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Operations, Engineering, R & D, Marketing, Business Development and Strategy.
Brad advises firms in both the private and public capital markets to determine ESG material issues, engage stakeholders, set objectives, and disclose performance. Brad enables his clients to enhance ESG management and disclosure practices, leading to long-term value creation and protection. His projects span a wide range of industries and geographic locations.
A high level strategist and big picture thinker committed to continuous improvement in the delivery of services noted for championing the adoption of new techniques and practice. He holds a Master’s in Business and an undergraduate in Engineering.
Ore Owodunni leads ConocoPhillips’ energy transition efforts including evaluating low-carbon opportunities and technologies that can closely integrate with the company’s global operations, markets, and competencies. He and his team are responsible for enabling the company to meet its 2050 net-zero operational emissions ambition and exploring emerging opportunities including carbon capture, utilization and storage and the hydrogen economy.
Ore was most recently the company’s Assistant Treasurer, with global responsibility for corporate finance, shareholder distributions, real estate financing, trust investments, commodity and currency risk management, and relationships with lenders, bondholders, and rating agencies.
Prior to this, Ore worked in Corporate Planning & Development, where he and his team advised executive leadership on capital allocation, strategy, portfolio management, and the long-range plan. He subsequently led the Gulf Coast Business Unit’s finance team, with responsibility for financial reporting, controls, budgeting, planning and analysis, and reserves compliance for the company’s Eagle Ford Shale, Gulf of Mexico Deepwater and onshore conventional assets.
Earlier in his career, Ore was a Vice President at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he worked initially as an M&A banker in New York and Hong Kong and, later, as an institutional investor in the global upstream oil and gas sector. Ore earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Jennifer Phan is General Counsel for Smart Energy at Honeywell International Inc. She is part of the Smart Energy leadership team. In addition, she leads a talented, global legal team that supports Honeywell’s Smart Energy business.
Jennifer received a Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the University of Houston in 2002 and was editor of the Houston Journal of Health Law & Policy. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of St. Thomas in 1999 where she graduated with honors and received a Bachelors of Science in Biology and a minor in Theology. After law school, Jennifer joined Shell Oil Company in 2002. During her ten-year tenure at Shell, she served as Senior Counsel for Upstream Americas, supporting onshore gas and exploration and unconventional resources and as Legal Counsel, she supported Shell’s refinery and distribution operations at Deer Park and Los Angeles refineries and SOP US and Motiva terminals. Subsequently, from 2012 until 2020, Jennifer served as Assistant General and Assistant Secretary of Superior Energy Services, Inc. She led Superior’s Corporate Governance Group, Enterprise Risk Management Team and Legal team that supported Superior’s Gulf of Mexico and North America Completions and Fluid Management businesses and Superior’s Global Emergency Response operations.
Daron K. Roberts is a former NFL and college coach who serves as founding director of the Center for Sports Leadership and Innovation (CSLi) at the University of Texas. The Center is the first university-based institute dedicated to developing leadership and character curricula for high school, collegiate and professional athletes. His research revolves around issues of rejection, failure management, student-athlete financial literacy and leadership.
As a highly sought after leadership coach, Daron equips executives and elite athletes with strategies to wage war against their status quo. He has worked with companies such as Google, Facebook, Coca-Cola, and The New York Giants Football Club. Roberts holds a faculty appointment in the Liberal Arts Honors Program. He has received the Silver Spurs Centennial Teaching Award, Creative Engagement Award and was named a distinguished faculty member by the School of Undergraduate Studies in 2015. In 2011, he was awarded the university’s highest distinction for young alumni by being named an Outstanding Young Texas Ex.
After graduating from Harvard Law School (2007), Roberts served coaching stints with the Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions, West Virginia Mountaineers and Cleveland Browns. He holds a B.A. in Plan II Honors and Government from the University of Texas (2001) and an M.P.P. from Harvard’s Kennedy School (2004).
Michelle Silverthorn believes that diversity and inclusion needs a new voice for a new generation. A recognized expert in organizational inclusion, Michelle has worked with Fortune 500 companies, tech start-ups, non-profit organizations, universities, and numerous companies across every industry. From thousand-person conferences to twenty-person workshops, Michelle equips all of her audiences with the knowledge and skills to finally move forward on diversity and inclusion.
A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Michigan Law School, Michelle practiced for two large law firms in New York and Chicago. She then transitioned into the education field where she trained thousands in-person and online. She has been featured on NPR, PBS and in several publications including the Chicago Tribune and Fortune Magazine. She is a TEDx speaker and the author of the best-selling book, Authentic Diversity, How to Change the Workplace For Good.
Michelle previously worked as an arts and entertainment journalist in Trinidad and Tobago, a researcher in Puno, Peru and Geneva, Switzerland, and a volunteer teacher in Gaborone, Botswana and Almaty, Kazakhstan. Michelle grew up in the Caribbean and now lives in Chicago with her husband Daniel and their two daughters.
David Sterling has long been recognized as one of the leading lawyers in Texas in connection with securities litigation, particularly class action and derivative litigation. Mr. Sterling is the former Chair of Baker Botts L.L.P.'s firmwide Litigation Department. Before that, he was the head of the firm's Securities and Shareholder Litigation Group. He principally represents companies and their officers and directors in securities class actions, derivative lawsuits, suits challenging mergers, and in proxy litigation. He also often represents special litigation committees and audit committees in connection with investigations and derivative litigation.
Tom Terrarosa is a senior editor covering the energy and industrial sectors, focusing on M&A, activism and private equity. Tom has been covering the upstream and midstream oil and gas industries since the 2014 commodity downturn. In the past six years, he’s broken auction news involving dozens of publicly traded and private equity-owned businesses. Tom frequently writes enterprise pieces discussing the latest trends developing in the oil and gas space, ranging from unique transaction types to activist campaigns to ESG initiatives. Tom produces several weekly newsletters dedicated to M&A for The Deal, and he frequently hosts webcasts and live panels focused on M&A and private equity within the energy, industrials and technology sectors.
Tom was previously a digital producer with Gannett Co., where he edited and optimized content for several of the USA Today Network’s local newspapers and websites. He also has worked as a local news reporter, copy editor and photographer with The Dominion Post in Morgantown, WV, covering the coal industry and other important local issues.
Carita Shanklin Walker is currently Head of Legal & General Counsel at Greenlots, a Shell company dedicated to unlocking the possibilities of the electric mobility future by delivering game changing software and services at scale. Previously based in Doha, Qatar, with Qatar Shell Services Company as Senior Legal Counsel, Carita supported operations for Pearl GTL, the world’s largest source of gas-to-liquids products, and the Qatargas 4 LNG joint venture (a fully integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) project). With over 20 years’ experience as an attorney, the last 14 working for Shell companies, Carita started her career as an environmental lawyer in private practice for global law firms based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, DC. Carita also taught legal research and writing and appellate advocacy as an adjunct law professor and published an article in Ecology Law Quarterly titled Pathfinder: Environmental Justice.
She has served in key professional and civic leadership roles in the US and participated in programs and panels focused on the development of junior lawyers and women. Carita was Shell’s Fellow to the Leadership Counsel for Leadership Diversity (group dedicated to preparing diverse talent for the highest positions of leadership), Co-Chair of the Shell Black Networking Group African-American Women’s Circle, the Shell Legal Representative to the Western States Petroleum Association and was selected to participate in the inaugural group of the University of Texas, Center for Women in the Law’s In-House Counsel Coaching Circle.
Kassia Yanosek leads McKinsey’s strategy work within the Oil & Gas Practice in the Americas. She has extensive experience in serving international energy executives on industry-shaping issues. Her passion lies in helping energy companies adapt to disruption by entering new markets, scaling innovations, and collaborating with industry leaders.
Kassia’s client work spans portfolio strategy, capital project delivery, organization, mergers and acquisitions, and technology innovation. She advises international and national oil companies, exploration and production independents, and service providers across multiple geographies, primarily in the Americas and Europe. Kassia also coleads McKinsey’s knowledge partnership with the World Economic Forum on industry collaboration.
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| Feb 17, 2021 @ 11:00 AM (CST) |
A Discussion with Maria Konnikova on Better Decision Making, Self-Control, Risk Taking and Story Telling: What You Can Learn from Poker (Sponsored by Liskow & Lewis)
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60 Minutes | More info » | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar 09, 2021 @ 11:30 AM (CST) |
Stay In the Deep End: A Conversation About Taking Risks, Embracing Discomfort and Taking Advantage of Opportunities Outside Your Comfort Zone
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60 Minutes | More info » | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar 10, 2021 @ 11:30 AM (CST) |
Impact of ESG Stakeholder Requirements on Energy Companies – Focus on Upstream and Midstream
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60 Minutes | More info » | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar 23, 2021 @ 11:00 AM (CDT) |
Hydrogen: A Renewable Energy Partner in the Energy Transition
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60 Minutes | More info » | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar 26, 2021 @ 11:30 AM (CDT) |
Not Starting Over: Utilizing Experience in Oil and Gas to Succeed in the Renewables Sector
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60 Minutes | More info » | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar 30, 2021 @ 11:30 AM (CDT) |
2021 and Beyond: Different Paths to the Future of Energy
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75 Minutes | More info » | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apr 01, 2021 @ 11:30 AM (CDT) |
The Urge to Merge?
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60 Minutes | More info » | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apr 06, 2021 @ 11:30 AM (CDT) |
Service and the Industry: A Discussion on Leadership, Life, and the Energy Services Industry with Ann G. Fox, CEO of Nine Energy Service
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60 minutes | More info » | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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