Featured Members
Lauren Wilder is a Manager, Latin America for Repsol’s Latin America Business Development group located in Houston, Texas. Since joining Repsol in August 2014, Lauren has structured and negotiated a number of upstream oil and gas transactions in Latin America and the Caribbean. During the spring of 2015, Wilder was based in Calgary as a … Continue reading “Lauren Wilder”
Dario G. Lamanna is an Argentinian Attorney. He has an LLM in Oil and Gas Law and an MBA in Business Administration. He holds Degrees in the Senior Management Program (PAD), and in the Management Development Program (PDD), as well as the CICA executive program at IPADE Business School, Pan-American University. He specializes in oil … Continue reading “Dario Lamanna”
Kim Talus is a Professor of European Economic and Energy Law at University of Eastern Finland Law School and the Director of the Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law. He also serves as a Professor of Energy Law at the University of Helsinki. In January of 2018, Talus will join Tulane University as … Continue reading “Kim Talus”
Bellanne (“Belle”) Meltzer Toren, B.A.S., J.D., ICD.D has more than 32 years of experience in the petroleum industry and has worked as a general counsel as well as a lawyer (admitted in Texas and Alberta) or negotiator on projects in over 21 countries. She obtained her ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors in … Continue reading “Belle Toren”
João Verne Oliveira is a Portuguese/Angolan legal counsel supporting BP’s upstream activities in Angola and in other African countries. João focuses his activities in upstream contracts and in providing support to BP’s tax and procurement & supply chain management teams. João holds a degree in Law from the University of Lisbon, an LL.M in Energy, … Continue reading “João Verne Oliveira”
Kelli Kachur is an Australian Solicitor in the M&A, joint venture, projects, and equity space. She is the founder and Managing Director of Kachur Legal – a law firm based in Western Australia that offers on-demand and virtual legal services to in-house counsel and other law firms in the oil, gas and energy industry. … Continue reading “Kelli Kachur”
Michael Polkinghorne is a civil and common law qualified lawyer, head of the arbitration group at White & Case LLP in Paris and joint-head of the firm’s oil and gas practice. He has during his career lived in Australia, England, Vietnam, Thailand and France. He has served as counsel and arbitrator in disputes arising … Continue reading “Michael Polkinghorne”
Shakwa Nyambe is a Namibian specialized energy lawyer and the Managing Director at the law firm Shakwa Nyambe & Company Inc. Shakwa Nyambe & Company Inc. is a law firm with headquarters in Windhoek, Namibia solely dedicated to serving clients in the energy and natural resources sector. Shakwa holds a postgraduate degree of Masters … Continue reading “Shakwa Nyambe”
Jaime Bacud (‘’Jimmy’’) has recently assumed the position of Vice President for Upstream Operations in PNOC Exploration Corporation (PNOC EC), the oil, gas and coal subsidiary of the state-owned Philippine National Oil Company. PNOC EC is mandated by the Philippine government to take the lead in the exploration, development and production of the country’s oil, … Continue reading “Jaime Bacud (‘’Jimmy’’)”
Alexandra Rotar is an associate at the Moscow office of Morgan Lewis. Alexandra focuses on providing legal advice to companies investing and operating in the Russian and CIS oil and gas, power, renewable energy, metals and mining, and natural resource sectors. Over the past ten years, she represented clients on significant transactions in the … Continue reading “Alexandra Rotar”
Ha is a partner in VILAF’s Energy Practice Group and regularly counsels Fortune 500 clients in many of Vietnam’s largest acquisitions, concession right negotiations, project development and financing works, disputes, and regulatory audits and controversies. His works often involve complex and demanding legal, political, and diplomatic considerations. He has been instrumental in the formation and … Continue reading “Luu Hoang Ha”
Kelly Ripley completed a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish in 2001, Master of Science in Accountancy in 2002 from the University of Houston and a Juris Doctor from South Texas College of Law in 2007. She is a former certified public accountant and licensed attorney in the State of Texas. She began her career with … Continue reading “Kelly Ripley”
Elena Bolonina is a third-year law student at South Texas College of Law Houston graduating in May 2020. She is the Vice-President of AIPN’s Student Club at South Texas College of Law Houston and a member of AIPN’s Young Negotiators group. Elena was awarded an AIPN Scholarship for 2019-2020 and TYLA Diversity Scholarship first place … Continue reading “Elena Bolonina”
Is an LLM Candidate from the North Sea Energy Law Program. Among other international institutions that have hosted Isaac, he has done research in International Investment Protection and Unitization of Oil and Gas fields in the Aberdeen University Centre for Energy Law (Scotland) and the Scandinavian institute of Maritime Law (Norway), respectively. Isaac specializes in … Continue reading “Isaac De León”
Is a Commercial Advisor with ExxonMobil. Ken started his career with Anadarko in the Land Department, eventually moving to commercial roles on various projects in the U.S., Africa, and Latin America. Ken then moved to ExxonMobil, joining their business development group. He has also taught International Petroleum Transactions as an Adjunct Professor at South Texas … Continue reading “Ken Rice”
Heike Trischmann earned a BSc/MSc in Biology from the University of Leipzig, Germany, and a PhD in Biotechnology/Bioengineering from the Academy of Sciences, Berlin, Germany. She became a legal practitioner in England and Wales in 2001. Heike is now a partner in the corporate group of Watson Farley & Williams, London. She works in … Continue reading “Heike Trischmann”
Latifat is the Company Secretary/Legal Adviser of the National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC). She heads the Legal Department providing support to key projects in Nigeria’s oil and gas engineering sector. The bulk of her 20-year career has been spent in … Continue reading “Latifat Folashade Yusuff”
Koichi Shimomura served 4 years as Audit and Supervisory Board Member of JAPEX (Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd.) in 2018 – 2022, and he is currently Audit and Supervisory Board Member of Japex Offshore Ltd., a subsidiary of JAPEX, who is operating the largest and only one offshore oil field in Japan. He is based … Continue reading “Koichi Shimomura”
Phillip Hanna is a dual Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration candidate at the University of Calgary in Canada. He is completing a legal internship through the Bill Winters MEGlobal Memorial Internship at the University of Calgary. His internship is with CITO Energy Law, Gran Tierra Energy, and Pacific Energy Canada, where he shares … Continue reading “Phillip Hanna”
Rafael Valdivieso advises upstream and downstream Oil & Gas companies in several strategic matters to channel their investments through viable legal structures. Rafael is an expert in drafting and negotiation of oil and mining industry contracts, corporate structuring, project finance, operating agreements, local and cross-border M&A. He is also an expert in Administrative Law and has … Continue reading “Rafael Valdivieso”
An expert energy sector lawyer, Saud Al-Motawa spent five years with Kuwait Petroleum Corporation between 2008 and 2013 before moving to its international upstream subsidiary, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC). As senior legal counsel with KUFPEC Saud takes charge of all M&A, operational and corporate legal matters in North America, UK, Egypt and Yemen … Continue reading “Saud Al-Motawa”
Kamil Valiyev is a Partner in Dentons’ Baku office. He has an extensive experience in advising private and public organizations in local and cross-border merger/acquisitions and commercial transactions in energy and other sectors of the industry. He focuses his practice in energy law (conventional and renewable energy), project development, corporate law, intellectual property law and … Continue reading “Kamil Valiyev”
Tara Graneri is an Australian qualified lawyer with a practice deeply aligned with the energy sector. Tara is currently working as a Senior Associate at King & Wood Mallesons, based in Perth, Western Australia. Advising a range of domestic and international clients, Tara has become known for her expertise in the sector with a focus … Continue reading “Tara Graneri”
Uisdean Vass has some forty years’ experience in the international and UK oil and gas business. In North America, his friends often know him as “Hugh”. Uisdean has been on a long and winding law firm journey through the oil patch. Admitted in Scotland and Louisiana, Uisdean graduated with an LLB Honours from … Continue reading “Uisdean Vass”
Nelia Daniel Dias is a Portuguese/Angolan lawyer with a Law Degree in Civil Law from Lusíada University of Lisbon since 1995 registered with the Portuguese (1995), Angola (2009) and São Tome Bar Associations (2018). Worked as a full time Lawyer in private practice in Lisbon from 1995 to 2007. Since 2019 Nelia is responsible … Continue reading “Nelia Daniel Dias”
Norman Nadorff is Special Counsel to the Mayer Brown law firm. He is located in Houston and works closely with the Rio de Janeiro office. His practice centers on energy law and transactions and ethics law compliance. For 30 years, Norman served as in-house counsel for major oil companies with primary focus on Latin … Continue reading “Norman Nadorff”
Alan Frederik has practiced law in the energy sector for more than 35 years. He has been, among others, the chief legal counsel of BP Tangguh LNG, BPMIGAS (Indonesia’s Government upstream oil and gas management agency), and PERTAMINA (the Indonesian oil and gas SOE). At present, he is an independent legal consultant to PLN, Indonesia’s … Continue reading “Alan Frederik”
Tony has a long history with the AIEN. From 2014 – 2017 he served as the Canada Chapter Regional Director, from 2018 – 2021 as the Board’s Secretary, then as the VP of External Affairs from 2021 to the present. Tony has also spoken at AIEN’s International Petroleum Summit in 2016 and 2017. He … Continue reading “Tony Cioni”
Rodrigo Jesus Navarro is an attorney and a master’s candidate in International Law at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). He holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and is currently pursuing a degree in accounting sciences at Estácio de Sá University (UNESA-RJ). Navarro … Continue reading “Rodrigo Jesus Navarro”
Rodrigo Carè is a dual qualified New York and Italian lawyer, with a focus on construction arbitration and commercial disputes in the Middle East. Early in his career, Rodrigo completed a long secondment with the LNG and Natural Gas divisions of Eni SpA. Rodrigo has significant experience representing clients in disputes before the … Continue reading “Rodrigo Carè”