January 2018, Vol. 245, No. 1

Company & Association News

Names in the News

Gulf Publishing Names New Group Publisher, Editor for P&GJ

Brian Nessen has joined Gulf Publishing Company as group publisher. He will head a group that includes Pipeline & Gas Journal, Pipeline News, Underground Construction magazines, as well as the Pipeline Opportunities Conference and UCT Conference & Exhibition.

John Royall, president and CEO of Gulf Publishing, said, “The pipeline segment gives us a very strong and growing business in the midstream market to complement our upstream and downstream operations. We have now strongly diversified into the growing underground infrastructure market. Brian is a pro and is the right person to build these businesses.”

Nessen has over 25 years of management, sales and marketing experience in business-to-business media and trade shows in oil and gas, power generation, chemical processing and automotive markets.

Joe Hollier is the new editor of P&GJ, replacing Jeff Share who retired after 22 years at the helm of the world-leading oil and gas pipeline publication. Hollier is a native Houstonian and a graduate of the University of Houston. He worked in broadcast media before spending 16 years in the corporate world as a communications and emergency response specialist for El Paso Corp., Kinder Morgan and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners Co. An avid outdoorsman, he and his wife live in Friendswood, TX, and have two sons, both recent graduates from Concordia University in Austin, TX.

The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) announced the retirement of Terry Boss, senior vice president of environment, safety and operations, after a 33-year career in the pipeline industry, including 23 years with INGAA. Boss led INGAA’s efforts on pipeline safety and operations as well as physical and cybersecurity.

“Terry will be deeply missed,” said INGAA President and CEO Don Santa. “He brought great value to INGAA and its members on a wide variety of matters on which he could apply the technical and practical experience that he developed at Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America and at the Gas Research Institute. While his principal focus has been pipeline safety, Terry was a big contributor on other matters ranging from gas quality and interchangeability to gas-electric coordination.”

Santa said Boss’ crowning achievement at INGAA was spearheading the industry effort to develop its Integrity Management Continuous Improvement in 2011. IMCI is grounded in the goal of zero pipeline incidents and is founded on principles of safety management systems.

INGAA also announced the hiring of Rebecca Massello as director of security, reliability and resilience. She and existing Operations, Safety and Integrity Director CJ Osman will acquire Boss’ portfolio. Massello will lead INGAA’s physical and cybersecurity efforts. She comes from the American Gas Association where she was manager of security and operations. Prior to joining AGA in April 2015, Massello was program manager for cybersecurity and critical infrastructure at Energetics Inc., a consulting firm specializing in energy and infrastructure resilience.

Osman will continue to head up INGAA’s pipeline safety, integrity and operations department. He came to INGAA in 2016 from Chevron where he held facility engineering, construction management, and project management roles on a variety of upstream and midstream projects in Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.

William M. Olson was named vice president of Operations for Gulf Interstate Engineering Company. He worked for GIE from 1981-2008, serving in numerous roles and projects around the world. Since his return to the company in July 2016, Bill has been director of Project Management. Prior to his return to GIE, Olson was manager of Facilities & Construction for Swift Energy, and earlier served as vice president of Pipelines and Oil & Gas Project Development for Worley Parsons.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners installed Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Vice Chair John W. “Jack” Betkoski III as its new president at its annual Meeting and Education Conference in Baltimore.

Kelly Youngblood has joined BJ Services as executive vice president and chief financial officer. He has 29 years of industry experience, most recently as senior vice president and CFO of Diamond Offshore. He also held several executive and leadership positions with Halliburton.

CSI Compressco named Owen Serjeant as its new president. He was previously the group vice president of global operational support for Schlumberger Lt. and has over 35 years of energy industry experience. He replaces Timothy Knox who announced his resignation in May. Serjeant had worked for Cameron International Corp. from July 1999 to April 2016, when it was acquired by Schlumberger.

Canadian oilfield services company Simmons Edeco appointed Niels Versfeld as CEO. With 14 years in the energy industry, Versfeld has spent the past 10 years managing sales, operations and business development for energy services companies. Previously, he served as general manager of Gibson Energy’s Environmental Services Division where he helped expand businesses in Canada and the United States.

Investment firm AltaCorp Capital Inc. reported that its founder and CEO, Calgary oil and gas financier George Gosbee, died suddenly on Nov. 12. He was 48. Gosbee was a former governor of the National Hockey League and, in 2013, led a group to purchase the Arizona Coyotes and restructure the team. Gosbee founded AltaCorp Capital in 2010, partnering with ATB Financial, an Alberta government-owned lender. In 2000, he helped found Tristone Capital Global Inc., an energy investment firm which he and his partners sold in 2009. Gosbee served as vice chairman of Alberta Investment Management Co., which managed $90 billion in provincial government pension funds, for eight years. AltaCorp said President Paul Sarachman will assume the role of CEO.

The Executive Assembly of Pipeline Research Council International, (PRCI), elected Jeff Whitworth, Reliability & Integrity Manager at Shell Pipeline Company LP, as chair for a two-year term ending in September 2019. He replaces Phillip H. DePriest, manager, Operational Excellence & Risk at Marathon Pipe Line LLC, who will continue serving on the Executive Board as past chair. In addition, Walter Kresic, vice president, Pipeline Integrity at Enbridge Pipelines, was elected as vice chair.