SPE Board of Directors

2027 Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is the policy-making and governing body of SPE. Its board committees oversee many of SPE's administrative and operating responsibilities. The board retains final authority on all SPE matters, including any actions the board committees may take.

2027 SPE President

Susan Howes
Subsurface Consultants & Associates LLC
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C. Susan Howes, PE, PHR, 2027 SPE President, is president at Subsurface Consultants & Associates LLC (SCA) leading the firm’s consulting, recruitment, and training services with a commitment to technical excellence. Howes’ prior experience includes roles of increasing responsibility at Anadarko and Chevron in reservoir engineering, business development, corporate engineering, HR, organizational capability, and reservoir management. She is recognized as an industry leader in petro-technical talent attraction, development, and retention. She has coauthored papers and articles on the topics of ethics, uncertainty management, risk management, and talent management.

Howes chaired the 2024 Program Committee for SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE), received the SPE DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal, is an Honorary Member of SPE, and served as a 2019–2020 SPE Distinguished Lecturer. She is a member of the Advisory Council at the Jackson School of Geoscience at the University of Texas (UT). Howes holds a BS degree in petroleum engineering (PGE) from the UT and was named a 2024 PGE Distinguished Alumna.

2026 SPE President

Jennifer Miskimins
Colorado School of Mines
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Jennifer L. Miskimins is a professor and the department head of the petroleum engineering department at the Colorado School of Mines (Mines), where she holds the F.H. Mick Merelli/Coterra Energy Distinguished Department Head Chair.

She has over 30 years of experience in the petroleum industry, starting with Marathon Oil Company as a production engineer. Miskimins began teaching at Mines in 2002 and has held various appointments since then. From 2013–2015, she held a part-time appointment at Mines while working at Barree & Associates. In 2016, she returned full-time to the university.

Miskimins served as the first Completions Technical Director on the SPE International Board of Directors. She was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2010–2011 and 2013–2014. She was awarded the 2014 SPE Completions Optimization and Technology Award, and in 2022, she received the SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty.

Miskimins has served on a variety of conference organizing committees, including chairing the 2023 and 2024 SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Conference and Exhibition, and as a technical editor for SPE journals, including serving as the executive editor of Production & Operations for 3 years. She was the editor in chief for the 2019 SPE Monograph update “Hydraulic Fracturing: Fundamentals and Advancements.” Miskimins has served on the AIME Board of Trustees since 2018 as an SPE trustee and was the 2022 AIME president.

Miskimins holds a BS from the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology and MS and PhD degrees from the Colorado School of Mines, all in petroleum engineering.

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2028 SPE President

Ian Phillips
Energy Transition Advisory
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Ian Phillips is a senior energy industry leader with more than four decades of experience across oil and gas development, energy transition, and technology innovation. His career includes leadership roles with Shell, BP, Marathon Oil, and Halliburton, where he developed extensive expertise in subsurface, wells, subsea, and major project delivery. He has also played a key role in advancing carbon capture and storage initiatives, including serving as project director for the Acorn Project, one of the UK’s first integrated low-carbon hydrogen and CCS developments. He is now an independent energy transition consultant and Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Aberdeen.

He is a founder of Pale Blue Dot Energy (now Storegga) and previously served as chief executive of the Oil and Gas Innovation Center, where he led government-backed programs supporting more than 100 oil and gas industry technology projects. A Chartered Petroleum Engineer and Fellow of the Energy Institute, he is also an SPE Distinguished Member. He has held numerous leadership roles with SPE including North Sea Regional Director and co-chair of the SPE Offshore Europe 2025 Program Committee. A longtime contributor to the profession, he has served in multiple leadership roles within the SPE Aberdeen Section, including twice as section chair, and was selected as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2021.

He holds a BSc in civil engineering from Leeds University, an MSc in petroleum engineering from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and an MBA from UK Open University.

Secretary

Simon Seaton
SPE CEO and Executive Vice President
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As CEO, Simon Seaton is responsible for overall management of SPE. He works with the Board of Directors and senior staff to develop strategic and business plans and formulate the organization’s goals, objectives, policies, and programs. He also organizes and directs the global staff organization, which includes offices in Dallas, Houston, Calgary, Kuala Lumpur, and Dubai, to ensure the accomplishment of SPE’s mission.

He previously held the role of CEO, Energy and Resources, at Sodexo, a global food, facilities management, and workplace services company where he worked since 2012 in Houston, Singapore, and Dubai.

A graduate of Cardiff University and a chemist by education, his career began as a drilling fluids engineer. He spent 22 years at Halliburton in various technical, business development, and executive roles in Aberdeen, Houston, and Nigeria. Positions at Halliburton included country vice president, managing director of the UK, and senior director of deepwater solutions.

Seaton has been an SPE member for 30 years and has authored or coauthored more than 20 technical papers. In 2021 he completed the Global Energy Leadership Program at the Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University. In 2025 he was elected a Fellow of the Energy Institute and joined the National Petroleum Council in 2026. Originally from the UK, he currently resides in Houston.