Board of Directors
Larry Harms
President
Larry Harms is a production optimization specialist at Optimization Harmsway LLC, established in 2016 after a 38-year career with ConocoPhillips. At ConocoPhillips he specialized in holistic production optimization and helped lead the Artificial Lift Network for 10 years. Larry has served on the ALRDC Board since 2008. He has written/co-authored 12 SPE papers on topics ranging from the application of artificial lift, velocity strings and compression to area optimization, integrated production modeling and real time optimization. Larry has conducted training courses for hundreds of industry and ConocoPhillips engineering, operations, and maintenance personnel on artificial lift, high pressure gas lift, compression, production optimization, systems nodal analysis, integrated production modeling and gas well deliquification
Victoria Pons Ph. D.
Vice President
Dr. Victoria Pons is the Director of Research and Strategic Development at WellWorx Energy where she leads the research, planning and implementation of innovative new programs and products for WellWorx. As an industry SME, Dr. Pons has greatly contributed to the advancement of new algorithms for rod pump control and other forms of artificial lift. Dr. Pons began her career in Oil & Gas with Weatherford where she pioneered new techniques for the calculation and treatment of downhole data using data analytics and artificial intelligence, while leading the product strategy for Well Pilot and LOWIS. During her time at Baker Hughes, Dr. Pons led the technical direction and customer focused strategy for Lufkin Well Manager, SROD and deviated downhole tools. Dr. Pons is the project Champion for the Horizontal Well Downhole Dynamometer Data Acquisition Project (HWDDDA) and has led this industry sponsored project aimed at designing and manufacturing downhole tools to provide downhole deviated data to the industry members of ALRDC, since 2015. Victoria holds bachelor’s in biology and mathematics, a Master of Science and Philosophy Doctorate in applied mathematics from the University of Houston. She also holds 12 patents in the discipline of Artificial Lift as well as over 40 publications. Dr. Pons has served on the ALRDC board since 2017 and was elected Vice President of Artificial Lift Research and Development Council (ALRDC) in 2020. Victoria is very passionate about Diversity and Inclusion and created a D&I Committee at ALRDC as well as helped create the SPE GCS D&I Committee to promote the advancement of diversity in the Energy Industry.
Ronda Brewer
Treasurer
Ronda began her career with the Southwestern Petroleum Short Course in 1991 under the direction of Duane A. Crawford and his wife, Ann Crawford. Since then, she has been active in overseeing the day-to-day business of the SWPSC, organizing and managing the annual workshop. In addition to SWPSC, she is involved with the Permian Basin Artificial Lift Forum, the Gas Well Deliquification Workshop (Artificial Lift Strategies for Unconventional Wells Workshop), the International Beam Pumping Workshop, the Gas-Lift Workshop and PLTech, LLC. During her time with Southwestern Petroleum Short Course, Ronda has invested herself in continually advancing her knowledge about the industry and widening her associations with the outstanding group of people who make up the petroleum industry.
Michael Romer
Secretary
Michael C. Romer, P.E. is a Senior Technical Professional: Artificial Lift Advisor at ExxonMobil Upstream Integrated Solutions. He has been with ExxonMobil since 2006. Michael’s current research interests include artificial lift, production surveillance and optimization, completions for unconventionals, and inflow/outflow modeling. He holds BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee and the University of Illinois, respectively. Michael is a Member of the SPE and IEEE.
Lynn Rowlan
Board Member
O. Lynn Rowlan education includes a Bachelor and Masters of Science degree in Civil Engineering graduating in 1976 from Oklahoma State University. Mr. Rowlan was registered as an Oklahoma Professional Engineer July 1980 and received: the 2000 J.C. Slonneger Award from the, SWPSC, SW Petroleum Short Course Association, Inc; the 2010 SPE Distinguished Production Operations Award; the 2011 SWPSC Crawford Service Award; and the SPE 2020 SPE Legend of Artificial Lift Award. During the 39 years of experience in the Oil & Gas industry Mr. Rowlan has authored more than eighty research works/papers for the SWPSC, ASME, the Solution Mining Research Institute, the Artificial Lift Research and Development Counsel, the Russian Oil & Gas Technologies Magazine, the Canadian Petroleum Society and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. He co-authored a book for gas well production optimization “Gas Well Deliquification” holds a US Patent # 6,634,426 on Plunger Lift Analysis. Beginning in September 2019 Mr. Rowlan retired from the position of Vice-president of Engineering for Echometer Company and now works as a consultant. His primary interest is to advance the technology of all artificial lift production systems and to present seminars and talks on the efficient operation, analysis, optimization, and troubleshooting of oil and gas wells.
Rick Webb
Board Member
I started in the oilfield service industry in 1980 with CMI Corporation in Oklahoma City working with improved geometry pumping units. I have remained in artificial lift for 40 years. The last 26 being with what is now called Distribution NOW. I work primarily with rod pump and progressing cavity pump system design and service.
Dr. Rajan Chokshi
Board Member
Dr. Rajan Chokshi has over 35 years’ work-experience in artificial lift, real-time production optimization, software development, and management. His current work is on artificial lift optimization, multi-phase flow calculations, failure prediction, virtual flow meter, emission reduction, and competency management. Chokshi has worked for national oil companies, majors, independents, service providers and technology companies. He has co-authored over fifteen SPE papers, two patents, and has delivered several SPE webinars and training courses. Besides conducting professional workshops globally, he has taught at Texas Tech, Missouri S&T, U of Southern California and U of Houston. Twice selected as an SPE distinguished lecturer, he volunteers on multiple SPE technical committees, and on the ALRDC Board of directors. Dr. Chokshi holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s in chemical engineering from the Gujarat University and IIT-Kanpur, India, and a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa, USA.
Greg Stephenson
Board Member
Greg Stephenson is the Chief Production Engineer at Occidental Petroleum and is based in Houston, Texas. In this role, he has functional responsibility for the production engineering discipline; he leads a team of Artificial Lift subject matter experts; he leads the Oxy Engineering Development Program for recent engineering graduates; and he provides technical support, mentoring and training for multiple artificial lift techniques. Throughout his career, Greg has specialized in the various aspects of artificial lift, production surveillance, automation and optimization. He has taught numerous industry courses throughout the world and written a variety of technical papers and publications on the subject. In addition to his work at Oxy, Stephenson recently served on the JPT Editorial Committee as Technical Editor for Artificial Lift; he serves on the SPE Production and Facilities Advisory Board; he served as the Program Chairperson for the 2018 SPE Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition – Americas; he serves on the Board of Directors of the Artificial Lift Research and Development Council; and he chairs API Task Group 19G/11S, which manages 25 product standards, recommended practices and technical reports related to artificial lift technology. Greg holds a BS in Petroleum Engineering from Texas Tech University. He can be reached at [email protected].
Steven Freeman
Board Member
Steven Freeman has spent the last twenty years working in Oil and Gas in the area of artificial lift. He started his O&G career with Weatherford working with gas lift, progressive cavity pumps and reciprocating rod lift. He later joined Schlumberger where he focused on gas lift for the Barnett Shale boom, offshore gas lift in the GOM, Alberta and Eastern Canada. He is currently employed at Shell where he is recognized as a subject matter expert of gas lift and provides global support to Shell’s assets for gas lift and product development.
Matt Young
Board Member
Matt Young is the Technical Sales Director for Flowco Production Solutions, an artificial lift service and manufacturing company based in Houston, TX.
Knowledge and Experience include:
•NODAL Analysis
•Multiphase Flow Calculation
•Gas Lift Design
•Production Engineering and Operations
After graduating from Texas A&M in 2006; Matt started his career with BJ Services as a field engineer in the cementing division in Hobbs, New Mexico. After leaving BJ Services, Matt joined International Lift Systems (ILS) as a Field Service Technician, for the gas lift and plunger lift product line, for the three years before ILS was acquired by Lufkin Industries. During the Lufkin/ILS acquisition Matt moved into the Mid-Continent Operations manager, handling gas lift and plunger lift technical support, and installation. Matt was promoted into the North American Operations and Sales Manager with Lufkin and continued in that position through the GE Oil & Gas acquisition. After a year with GE Matt left to join Flowco. Matt has worked as the Technical Sales Director for Flowco Production Solutions since 2014.
Matt has worked on gas lift and plunger lift installs and optimization projects throughout Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Louisiana oil and gas fields. Working a brief stint in Canada and MENA with various technical and sales positions.
In addition to working various roles in the artificial lift industry, Matt has been a dedicated member to the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and Artificial Lift Research and Development; as a presenter, lecturer, and conference attendee.
Joseph A. Norman
Board Member
Joseph A. Norman is an experienced oil and gas upstream optimization consultant. His career started as a contract lease operator for independent and large oil and gas operators in the Permian Basin. In this role he helped manage the oil and gas operations for multiple companies under the family owned business MIdland Lease Operators. With extensive experience in rod pump systems, Mr. Norman and his wife founded FORTY A&M LLC in 2012. FORTY A&M LLC helps operators optimize artificial lift systems by utilizing data monitoring tools to prevent failures and reduce operating expenses. Since 2012, FORTY A&M LLC has helped over 45 different operators with optimization consulting and has expanding into offering automation and bottom hole assembly tools.
Ross Stawaisz
Board Member
Coming soon!
Belle Ibanez
Board Member
Belle Ibanez is a production engineer at Shell USA, supporting deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Since starting her career, Belle has supported multiple gas lifted assets from late-life to newly installed. Skills and experience include gas lift design, modeling, system optimization, troubleshooting, and intervention. She is recognized within Shell as an associate Subject Matter Expert in gas lift and advises existing assets, new projects, and new technology development for the Gulf of Mexico. Outside of Shell, Belle has been a presenter for Artificial Lift Research and Development Council (ALRDC) and served as chair for the gas lift sub-committee at the 2022 SPE Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition. Belle graduated from Texas A&M in 2014 with a BS in Petroleum Engineering.
Dakai Yin
Board Member
Dakai Yin is an industry-recognized expert in Electric Submersible Pump (ESP) technology with over 20 years’ experience. Driven by passion, she takes pride in providing the best and most practical technical solutions for ESP design, operation, optimization, and failure analysis. After earning her Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Tsinghua University, Dakai entered the Oil and Gas industry. Dakai joined Oxy in 2014 as the ESP engineer supporting Oxy’s offshore operations in Qatar. Prior to Oxy, she spent 12 years at Schlumberger working in a variety of roles, including Field Engineer, Application Engineer, and Technical Sales Lead. As a senior Subject Matter Expert (SME) in Oxy’s Production Operations Technical Support Team, her goals include new technology evaluation and trial, vendor qualification and management, and root cause failure analysis. In addition to her primary job function, Dakai has been recognized by young engineers and field operators for her extraordinary commitment to training. She is also involved in SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) career fair events, and the program committee for SPE Gulf Coast Section’s ESP Symposium.