President’s Luncheon and Annual Meeting of Members
1145–1315, Wednesday, 14 November
Anaheim Convention Center
Sponsored by 
Symbolizing SPE’s heritage of industry leadership, 2007 SPE President Abdul Jaleel Al-Khalifa presents the “State of the Society” address and passes the presidential gavel to 2008 SPE President William (Bill) Cobb. Also recognized are the newly appointed board members, distinguished members, former presidents, and regional award recipients.
The luncheon serves as the society’s annual meeting of members.
Also at the President’s Luncheon, you will see the final clip from our video series celebrating SPE’s 50 years.
2007 SPE President
Abdul Jaleel Al-Khalifa
Manager of Reservoir Description and Simulation
Saudi Aramco
Abdul Jaleel Al-Khalifa was selected as SPE president following an inspiring record of voluntary work with SPE in various domains including board member of SPE, chairperson of the Technical Program & Meetings Committee of the SPE Board of Dirctors, and member of the SPE Middle East FZ-LLC, Dubai, Board of Directors. He was also the program chairman of the first International Petroleum Technology Conference held in Doha in November 2005.
Al-Khalifa holds a PhD in petroleum engineering from Stanford University. He is the author or coauthor of more than 20 papers and publications. In 1998–99, he served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer on “Reservoir Management of Giant Oil Fields in Saudi Arabia.” In 1999, he received the SPE Middle East Region Service Award, and in 2001 he was named an SPE Distinguished Member. He has recently lectured on “Upstream Technology Outlook: Migration towards the Gulf Area.” Currently, he is serving as an EAGE Distinguished Lecturer. Al-Khalifa is also a member of many industry advisory boards for various schools including Stanford Earth Science and King Fahd University of Petroleum Engineering.
Al-Khalifa has been manager of the Reservoir Description and Simulation Department at Saudi Aramco for two years. Before then he was manager of the Area Exploration Department for two years and manager of the Reservoir Characterization Department for six years.
Al-Khalifa’s interest areas cover leadership, talent development, business development, reserves assessment, sustainable production, well testing, reservoir simulation, and reservoir management technologies.
2008 SPE President
William (Bill) Cobb
President
William M. Cobb & Associates
Bill Cobb heads William M. Cobb & Associates, a petroleum consulting firm based in Dallas, Texas, specializing in waterflooding, fluid injection, field studies, reserves evaluation and certification, and reservoir management. Cobb’s 35 years of experience in the petroleum industry includes research, staff, and district positions for Arco Oil and Gas. He also headed oil and gas operations for Cornell Oil Company, an independent oil and gas company. Cobb taught reservoir engineering at Mississippi State University, where he now serves on the Dean’s Development Council. He is currently an adjunct professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University.
Before his nomination as 2008 SPE president, Cobb served as SPE vice president of finance and on many SPE committees, including the Reservoir Engineering Program Committee, Publications Review Committee, Distinguished Author Series Committee, and as chairperson of the Formation Evaluation Committee. He chaired the committee that recommended opening an SPE office in the Middle East and served on the SPE Fund Raising Committee in support of the SPE.org initiative. He was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 1995. In 1999, he received the SPE Reservoir Engineering Award.
Cobb has served in numerous leadership positions at the section level, including program chairperson and general chairperson for the Hydrocarbon Economics and Evaluation Symposium sponsored by the Dallas Section. In addition to publishing technical papers, he has made more than 50 technical presentations to SPE sections throughout the world.
He received BS and MS degrees from Mississippi State University and a PhD from Stanford University, all in petroleum engineering.
