Executive Bios
2008 SPE President
Bill Cobb
President
William M. Cobb & Associates
Bill Cobb heads William M. Cobb & Associates, Inc., 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 President, Cobb has 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 chairman 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 chairman and general chairman 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 B.S. and M.S. degrees from Mississippi State University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, all in Petroleum Engineering.
2009 SPE President-Elect
Leo Roodhart
Manager, Strategic Innovation
Shell International
Leo Roodhart is currently leading Shell’s corporate strategic innovation program, GameChanger, which identifies and sponsors the development of new breakthrough technologies in the context of the various technology futures for the oil industry. He joined Shell in 1980 and has worked in research and development, production engineering, business development, and innovation. He is an Associate Fellow at Templeton College and Said Business School, University of Oxford, on strategic innovation. He has papers published in numerous technical journals such as the Journal of Petroleum Technology and business journals, including Research Technology Management Journal.
Roodhart has been an active member of SPE since 1983, making many contributions in the area of developing new technology. He served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for 2007–2008. He served as chairman of the SPE Forum Series Implementation Committee for the Eastern Hemisphere and chairman of the Forum Series Coordinating Committee. He has been both program and section chairman for the SPE Netherlands Section. Internationally, he has served on the executive committees for SPE’s EUROPEC and the 2001, 2003, and 2005 Offshore Europe conferences. He chaired the first two Netherland’s SPE Applied Technology Workshops (ATWs) on mature reservoirs, and served on many other workshop and forum committees.
Roodhart holds a master’s degree in chemistry and a PhD in mathematics and physics from the University of Amsterdam.
2007 SPE President
Abdul-Jaleel Al-Khalifa
Manager of Reservoir Description and Simulation
Saudi Arabian Oil Co.
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, chairman of the Technical Program & Meetings Committee of the SPE Board, 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 (IPTC) held in Doha in November 2005.
Al-Khalifa holds a PhD in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University. He has written or co-authored more than twenty 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.
Executive Director
Mark A. Rubin
Mark Rubin was appointed executive director of SPE in August 2001. Prior to
this appointment, he served as upstream general manager
for the American Petroleum Institute (API) in Washington, D.C. Rubin joined API
in 1988 and held a series of positions working on
federal regulatory and legislative matters as well as technical standards
development.
A member of SPE since 1979, Rubin held petroleum engineering positions for
Unocal in Houston and East Texas from 1981 to 1987 and
for Buttes Resources in Dallas in 1987–88. Rubin is a member of the American
Society of Association Executives and the Council of
Engineering and Scientific Society Executives. He has been a member of the
National Petroleum Council, the Interstate Oil and Gas
Compact Commission and the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers.
Rubin earned a BS degree in petroleum engineering
from Texas A&M University and an MBA degree from Southern Methodist
University.
At SPE, Rubin is responsible for staff operations in the Society's six
offices in Dallas, Houston, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Moscow, and
London.
Director, Communications
Georgeann Bilich
Georgeann Bilich is Director of Communications. Her responsibilities include print and electronic publications (including eLibrary); peer review; marketing; public relations and communications (including energy education); retail sales; web content; and publishing services.
Bilich joined SPE in 1974 as conference-proceedings assistant. She subsequently held several editorial positions, including Technical Publications Manager and Editor of the Journal of Petroleum Technology. She also has been responsible for conference programs/meetings management, including the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.
Bilich holds a BA degree in journalism from the U. of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She is a member of the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives and the American Society of Association Executives.
Managing Director, Americas
Stephen Graham
As SPE Managing Director, Americas, Graham is responsible for conferences, exhibitions, forums, and workshops in North and South America. He also is the Associate Executive Manager for the Offshore Technology Conference.
Before joining SPE, Graham was Division Controller for Mentor Graphics, a software company. Before that, he worked for Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) for 19 years. He held several financial positions including assignments in Shekou, People’s Republic of China; Plano, Dallas and Houston, Texas; and Bakersfield, California. He worked for the International Division for nine years traveling to many worldwide E&P operating locations.
Graham has an MBA from California State University and a BBA in Accounting from Texas A&M University. Graham is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Managing Director, Europe, Russia and Africa
Lawrence Slade
Lawrence Slade joined SPE in February 2007 as Managing Director, Europe, Russia and Africa, based in SPE's London office.
Prior to joining SPE, Slade was with the Energy Institute in London. He joined the Institute of Petroleum (IP) as Marketing Director in 2002. On the IP’s merger with the Institute of Energy to create the Energy Institute he took up the post of Business Development and Technical Director, before promotion to Deputy Chief Executive and Development Director in January 2006. During his tenure with the Energy Institute he undertook several projects with UK government relating to the development of energy policy.
Before joining the Energy Institute, Slade worked with major and national oil companies in the area of market intelligence. His experience also includes work for Lloyd's of London and The Economist.
Managing Director, Asia Pacific
Cordella Wong-Gillett
Cordella Wong-Gillett has served as the Managing Director, Asia Pacific, based in SPE's office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, since January 1995. Wong-Gillett began her career at SPE’s Dallas office in June 1983.
Wong-Gillett was responsible for the establishment, staffing, and start-up operations of the fourth SPE office and continues to manage regional activities in Asia Pacific. Before being appointed Managing Director, Wong Gillett served as Senior Manager of meetings, with responsibility for planning and managing SPE national, international, and regional meetings and exhibitions. She headed the global expansion of the Society’s Forum Series program and the London office start-up operations.
Before joining SPE, Wong-Gillett held various positions assisting in the organization and communication of exhibitions for Riggs Associates in Hong Kong and China. Wong-Gillett holds an AA degree in sociology from Finch College and a BBA degree in marketing from Pace University, both in New York City.
Managing Director, Middle East, North Africa and India
Waleed Refaay
Waleed Refaay joined SPE in September 2007 as a Managing Director, Middle East, North Africa and India, based in the Dubai Office
Prior to joining , Refaay worked in the event management industry organizing high-level meetings for marcus evans, one of the leading event management organizations in the world, managing offices in London, Amsterdam, South East Asia , Greater China and South Africa. He moved to the Gulf region to set up an office for another event management organizer specializing in oil and gas events. A civil engineer, he worked on several projects in Egypt.
Refaay holds a Master of Science degree in civil engineering from Alexandria University, is a member of the Dutch association for Civil Engineers.
Director, Information Technology
Robert Wyatt
After graduating from Southern Methodist University in 1980 with an honors BA degree in Business Management, Wyatt worked in the family business, Wymac Inc. (a computer processing service bureau). He sold the firm in 1986, and worked as an independent consultant on IBM mainframe systems until he joined VHA in 1988 as a Senior Systems Programmer responsible for all IBM mainframe systems. In 1992, he was promoted to Senior Manager of Technical Support responsible for all aspects of technology and computer operations, including the implementation of VHA’s first website.
In 1995, Wyatt join the Society of Petroleum Engineers as Senior Manager of Information Technology with responsibility for all aspects of the computing environment, including the original concept and implementation of SPE’s knowledge portal, SPE.org. In 1999 he was named Director, Information Technology.
