Sunday, February 5th, 2012
Keynote Speakers
Charles R. (Chuck) Williamson
Former Chairman & CEO, Uncal Corp
Chuck serves as Chairman of Weyerhaeuser Co and Talisman Energy. He is a a director of Paccar Corp and a member of the advisory board of Pacific Renewable Fuels. He was Chairman and CEO of Unocal Corp from 2001-2005 and served as Executive Vice President of Chevron Corp after Unocal was acquired by Chevron. He started his career with Exxon and spent 28 years with Unocal in a wide variety of positions including overseas assignments in the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Thailand.
Chuck served as Chairman of the US-ASEAN Business Council and remains active with several university advisory boards. He received his PhD in geology from the University of Texas, Austin in 1978 and currently resides in Sonoma, CA.
Richard Court
Former Premier, Western Australia Government
Richard Court was Premier and Treasurer of Western Australia from 1993-2001. He retired from Parliament after nineteen years as the Member for Nedlands. His Government led the LNG marketing push into new markets, the successful deregulation of the Western Australian gas markets and the successful privatizations of the SGIO, BankWest, AlintaGas, Westrall Freight and the DBNG pipeline. Mr. Court was appointed a Chairman of GRD on May 29, 2006. GRD is an engineering company specializing in the design and construction of mineral processing plants globally having been in operation for more than thirty years.
Michael Ware
Correspondent, CNN
Michael Ware is a CNN correspondent based in the international news network's Baghdad bureau. Ware joined CNN in June 2006 and quickly established himself as one of the foremost on air experts on Iraq, providing in-depth analysis and reports across all CNN networks. Since joining CNN, Ware has also reported from Lebanon where he was involved in the network's coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah crisis in the summer of 2006.
Prior to joining CNN, Ware was TIME Magazine's Baghdad bureau chief, a post he had held since 2004. Ware began writing for TIME in 2001 with an assignment in the Solomon Islands and then one during the war in Afghanistan later that year. As coalition forces began preparations for war in 2003, Ware relocated to Iraq and became an embedded reporter with U.S. forces. He gained notice as one of the few Western journalists to travel to insurgent camps and report on that perspective of the war. He was also the only embedded journalist to cover the September 2005 assault on Tal Afar.
Peter Beattie
Former Premier, Queensland
The Honourable Peter Beattie is Queensland's Trade and Investment Commissioner for the Americas. He was Premier (Governor) of the state of Queensland from June 1998 to September 2007.
As Premier his key strategy was to turn Queensland into Australia's Smart State by refocusing the education system, skilling the workforce, encouraging research and development and creating thousands of long-term, new-age jobs in high tech industries such as biotechnology, information technology and aviation.
After working as a lawyer, Mr. Beattie was elected to State Parliament as the Member for Brisbane Central in 1989. He was immediately appointed as the chairman of the reforming Parliamentary Criminal Justice Committee. From July 1995 he served as Minister for Health before becoming Leader of the Opposition in February 1996.
After forming a minority government in 1998, Mr. Beattie's Government was re-elected three times, winning 66 of the 89 seats in Parliament in 2001, 63 seats in 2004 and 59 in the September 2006 election.
Peter Beattie was born on November 18, 1952, the youngest of seven children. He is married with three adult children. His qualifications include B.A., LL.B., M.A., while in 2003 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Queensland "in recognition of his leadership and commitment to higher education through Smart State initiatives and his support for research in the fields of biotechnology and nanotechnology". In 2007 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of South Carolina. Mr. Beattie also has Honorary Doctorates from Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology and Bond University.
Mr. Beattie's interests include economics and trade development, biotechnology, aerospace, international relations and creative industries such as music, photography and architecture. He is a keen walker and the author of three books: the autobiographical In the Arena and Making a Difference (2006) and a thriller, The Year of the Dangerous Ones.
Bruce Vincent
IPAA Chairmen and President of Swift Energy
Mr. Vincent is President and Director of Swift Energy Company and has been employed at Swift Energy since 1990. Swift Energy Company, founded in 1979 and headquartered in Houston, engages in developing, exploring, acquiring and operating oil and gas properties, with a focus on oil and natural gas reserves in the onshore and inland waters in Louisiana and Texas. Over the Company's 30-year history, Swift Energy has shown long-term growth in its proved oil and gas reserves, production and cash flow through a disciplined program of acquisitions and drilling, while maintaining a strong financial position.
Before joining Swift Energy Company, Mr. Vincent held management-level positions in the oil and gas industry with public companies Energy Assets International Corp. (Director/EVP/COO/CFO), Tangent Oil and Gas Co. (Director/P/CEO) and Peninsula Resources Corp. (Director/EVP/COO/CFO). He served as Managing Partner of the investment banking firms of Vincent & Company and Johnson & Vincent as well as serving as Vice President and Group Manager of First City National Bank of Houston.
Mr. Vincent is currently Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and a member of the Executive Committee and Regional Board of Directors, as well as past Chairman of the IPAA's Capital Markets, Communications, International and Program Committees. He is also a founder and past chairman of IPAA's Oil and Gas Investment Symposium (OGIS) as well as IPAA OGIS London. Mr. Vincent was named the initial recipient of the IPAA Leadership Award in 1996.
Mr. Vincent is also a member of the Board of the Natural Gas Council as well as a founder and former Board member of NAPE (formerly the North American Prospects Expo) and was Chairman of NAPE 2002. In addition, he is past co-chairman of the Houston Energy Finance Group and has previously served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Investment Program Association.
Mr. Vincent currently serves as a member of the National Petroleum Council, a federally chartered and privately funded oil and natural gas advisory committee that represents the views of the oil and natural gas industry in advising, informing, and making recommendations to the Secretary of Energy.
Mr. Vincent is also a member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) in Houston. Additionally, he is an Advisory Director and previously served as Chairman of the Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Houston. He and his wife have been matched with an 19-year old little brother for the last ten years.
Mr. Vincent served as a Naval Supply Officer from 1969 to 1973. He earned a BA in Business Administration from Duke University in 1969 and an MBA in Finance from the University of Houston in 1976.
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