The State of Mergers Acquisitions & Divestiture | Midstream Upstream & Downstream | Energy & Natural Resources | Special Interest Group

7.00-7.05 Introductions & Welcome | Mark Hamzat O. Erogbogbo
7.05-7.10 | Jamay Fishback| Career Gear Houston
7.10-7.20 | The Federal Reserve Update | Jesse Thompson
7.20-7.25 | Speaker Introductions | Mark Hamzat O. Erogbogbo
7.25-8.30 | Town Hall | Fireside | Arash Nazhad | Cliff Atherton | Deborah Byers | Jesse Thompson | Cliff Vrielink | Godswill Nwankwo
8.30-8.55| Audience Questions
8.55-9.00 Closing remarks & Thank You | Mark Hamzat O. Erogbogbo

Deborah Byers | Americas Industry Leader | Oil & Gas | EY

Deborah serves as EY’s Americas Industry Leader and also Americas Oil and Gas leader. Deborah previously was the Houston Office Managing Partner, Managing Partner of the EY Americas Oil & Gas Tax Group and the Transactions Advisory Group in the Southwest Region where she focused on Energy transactions.

Deborah is a member of the Americas Markets Executive Committee and leads our Industry Markets leaders across our Americas region. Her core responsibilities include setting strategic growth goals informed by economic and industry trends in each of the key market sectors, advising the EY executive board to shape near term and long term investment decisions on resources and technology solutions, and recruiting and developing leadership talent for client serving teams.

Deborah continues to directly serve clients in strategic transactions and has significant experience working with US and non-US based global firms, private equity funds, and sovereign wealth funds. With over 30 years of experience, she is also highly versed in cross border transactions, reviewing tax and economic considerations in transactions involving complex Joint Ventures and corporate structuring projects, including initial review related to proof of concept, tax modeling, and structuring and execution of initial IPO, and a deep knowledge in tax and economic issues surrounding development of gas shale reserves in North America, Global LNG development projects and the impact of these developments on the Power sector.

Deborah is a frequent speaker (and writer) on oil and gas industry issues, as well as on the the challenges in our new era of energy transition. Deborah has been published and/or has appeared in Oil and Gas Investor, Oil & Gas Journal, Oil & Gas Financial Journal, Platts, Forbes, Bloomberg, Fox News, New York Times, Houston Chronicle’s FuelFix, the Houston Business Journal, Oil & Gas Monitor, Petroleum Intelligence Weekly and others.
Deborah received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Baylor University. Deborah is a member of the AICPA and Texas Society of CPAs and is licensed in Texas. Deborah is also on the Board of Directors of Baker Ripley, Advisory Council member for the Bi-lateral Chamber and was previously a Board member of United Way and Greater Houston Partnership. www.EY.com/en_us/oil-gas

Chris Atherton | Chief Executive Officer & President | EnergyNet

Chris Atherton is the Chief Executive Officer and President of EnergyNet, LLC, a technology-enabled upstream oil and gas asset acquisition and divestiture platform specializing in auction sales, sealed bid transactions, and government lease sales. He offices in downtown Houston, Texas.

Chris has been part of the EnergyNet team since 2002. He has been actively involved as the firm has completed over $7B in transactions including sell-side mandates from thousands of Exploration and Production clients. Chris leads a multi-disciplinary team of 50 professionals specializing in engineering, geology, land, technical, business development, marketing, IT, and administration. Chris has 20 years of experience in the energy industry. He graduated from Texas State in San Marcos with a business management and marketing degree. Prior to EnergyNet, Chris worked at the Enron Corporation in Houston, Texas.

He recently served as the Chairman of the Wildcatter's Host Committee for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers and served as the Chairman for the SPE-Gulf Coast Section Business Development Study Group for three years. Chris is also an active member of the IPAA, Texas Energy Alliance, ADAM Houston, ADAM Permian, and Houston Producer's Forum.

Chris holds FINRA Series 63, 22, and 39 licenses. www.EnergyNet.com/

Arash Nazhad | Director| Citi | Energy Investment Bank

Director in Citi’s Global Energy Investment Banking Group with over 10 years of experience across multiple regions in finance as both an advisor and principle. Currently focus on strategic advisory assignments and capital markets financing's for energy companies with a particular focus on the Oilfield Service, Equipment and Technologies.

Prior to joining Citi he spent nearly 6 years at Equinor (Statoil) in various operational and leadership roles.
He has been involved in the execution of more than $40 billion of M&A advisory over the last decade, and has worked on OFS, Refining and Upstream projects involving assets across the globe.

Arash has also raised over $20 billion of Capital for clients in more than 20 book-run transactions, including 9 IPOs. www.CitiGroup.com/citi/about/institutional_business.html

Cliff W. Vrielink | Partner | Energy M&A Private Equity | Sidley Austin

Cliff Vrielink has over 20 years of experience advising private equity, infrastructure and other financial investors, public companies and private companies actively engaging or investing in the energy industry. This experience spans the energy spectrum, from the upstream oil and gas sector (onshore, offshore and internationally) to the midstream sector (natural gas, crude oil, liquids and CO2 pipelines processing facilities and gas and liquids storage assets) to downstream (refining, marketing and distribution), as well as spanning power generation, oilfield service and energy trading. He has represented clients throughout North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

Cliff is a member of Sidley’s Executive Committee, serves as co-managing partner of Sidley’s Houston office and is the global leader of the Energy and Infrastructure practice. He is a member of the firm’s M&A and Private Equity practices. Cliff has advised on more than 40 transactions with a combined value of over $20 billion since 2018. Recent representative matters in include:

Represented OMERS Infrastructure Management, Inc. in its acquisition of a 50% interest in the BridgeTex crude oil pipeline for ~$1.4 billion from, and its formation of a three-way joint venture for BridgeTex with, Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. and Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P., recognized as “Best Oil & Gas Acquisition” by the 2019 IJ Investor Awards.

Represented Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners in connection with a $960 million equity financing for three joint ventures with Targa Resources that own interests in the Gulf Coast Express Pipeline, the Grand Prix NGL Pipeline and a new fractionation train located in Mont Belvieu, Texas.
Represented a sovereign wealth fund as co-investor in conjunction with other investors collectively making $1.3 billion in equity commitments to a deepwater oil and gas exploration company. Represented Fairway Resources Partners in connection with its approximately $132 million purchase from Samson Resources Corporation of its Central Anadarko oil and gas asset package under 363 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Represented Partners Group in connection with its investment in the Seabras-1 fiber optic telecommunications cable between the U.S. and Brazil. This is the first direct fiber optic cable between New York and São Paulo and is logged as the first project finance deal for a subsea cable project backed by an export credit agency. This deal was recognized as a 2016 Deal of the Year by Latin Finance.

Strong leadership in advising clients has earned Cliff acknowledgment in numerous industry publications. Cliff is currently ranked in Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in Corporate/M&A-Texas, been selected as a leading Energy lawyer in Who’s Who Legal for 2019 and is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America for his work in Energy Law. Additionally he has been showcased in Euromoney’s 2018 Energy and Environment Expert Guide and recognized in Oil & Gas Investor, Midstream Business and E&P Magazine. Cliff has also been featured in The Oil and Gas Investor, Midstream Business, Houston Business Journal, The Oil Council’s publication and other publications for his thought leadership.
https://www.sidley.com/en/us/services/energy/

Godswill Knwankwo | Managing Partner | Prospero Financial

Godswill is an engineer, computer scientist, MBA, oilfield veteran and deal partner, he works with his team and affiliates to implement proprietary deal flows and value growth strategies that ensures portfolio companies out-performs their industry comparables while delivering superior returns to investors.
Godswill has more than a dozen years of international and multi-cultural oil and gas drilling experience. He has executed drilling projects overseas and all over the United States - New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana, North Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, California, Oklahoma Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.

Godswill possesses a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with specialization in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Computer Science with specialization in Cognitive Artificial Intelligence. He also have a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in Finance with specialization in Private Equity and Investments.
www.prosperofinancial.com

Jesse Thompson | Senior Business Economist | Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas | Houston Branch

Jesse Thompson serves as senior business economist at the Houston Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Thompson, who joined the Bank in 2010, performs research and analysis on issues affecting the Houston and Gulf Coast economy. In particular, he studies issues surrounding area hydrocarbon industries. He also collects information for the Dallas Fed’s Beige Book summary of current economic conditions. He is author of the monthly Energy Indicators, the Houston Economic Indicators, and contributes to the quarterly publication Southwest Economy.

Thompson earned an MA in economics, with emphasis on empirical microeconomics, and BA in philosophy and economics from the University of Houston. www.DallasFed.org/


Mark Hamzat O. Erogbogbo | Chairman Energy & Natural Resources Special Interest Group | Managing Director | www.ProsperoFinancial.com