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Our People

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Our people are the difference. Learn more about the Eavor Technologies team, area representatives, advisory board, subject matter experts, and its board of directors. Transitioning from traditional energy is a highly complex challenge that requires the best and brightest minds in energy. 

Directors

Douglas Beach

Chairman of the Board

Chad Bown

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Cynthia Johnston

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Yuta Kano

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Reinhard Oswald

John Redfern

Finian Tan

Leadership

John Redfern

President & CEO

Paul Cairns

Chief Business Development Officer

Shyamli Mohamed

Chief Financial Officer

Jason Rakochy

Chief Operating Officer

Matt Toews

Chief Technology Officer

Jeanine Vany

EVP / Corporate Affairs

Daniel Mölk

EVP / President Eavor GmbH

Bailey Schwarz

EVP / North America

Robert Winsloe

EVP / Origination

Neil Ethier

VP of Origination

James Heatherington

VP, Eavor Japan

Michael Holmes

VP, Central Business Unit

Patti Mailer

Director, Global People Operations

Matt Seager

Chief of Staff

Advisory

Michael Liebreich

Advisory Board Chair

Dr. Malcolm I. Ross

Black Swan Detector

Dr. Eric Van Oort

Professor in Petroleum Engineering

Dr. Jesse Jenkins

Professor in Energy Systems Engineering

Eavor's Documentary: Underground, Underdog: The Eavor Story

Underground, Underdog: The Eavor Story, spotlights Eavor Technologies Inc., a trailblazing cleantech company aiming to make geothermal energy scalable worldwide for the first time in history. This documentary follows the founding members, offering a glimpse into their story, narrating their origins, and illuminating the challenges faced in repurposing oil and gas expertise for new ventures in clean energy.

Douglas Beach

Chairman of the Board

Douglas Beach brings three decades of international energy, commodity and financial market experience to EavorTM. His career at Koch Industries included leadership of various trading, supply, and oil asset operations in England, Switzerland, U.S., Canada, Russia, and Singapore. Executive leadership of international commodity supply and trading businesses capped a career that includes successful business development, acquisitions, trading, directorship contributions, and innovations in infrastructure, trading, and analytical approach. His experiences include responding to counterparty bankruptcies, ship groundings, spills, pirates, and nearby terrorist attacks, creations of financial derivative products, business opening thrills, business closing sadness, a disgruntled oligarch, a successful public offering, failed trades, and the lists of smaller mistakes that add up to formative experience. Mr. Beach has a B.Sc. in Business from Emporia State University and is a graduate of the Directors Education Program at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary.

Chad Bown

Chad Bown is a Managing Partner on the bp Ventures team which has invested over $750m in disruptive technology companies across more than 40 entities with the backing of more than 250 co-investors. Chad’s investment focus for bp is in support of delivering efficient hydrocarbon operations in addition to advancing low carbon energy solutions. Chad brings financial leadership and commercial expertise alongside energy operational and business development roles with prior managerial work experience at Shell and Jacobs Engineering. Chad was a Captain in the United States Air Force and holds a degree in business from Texas A&M University as well as an MBA from Loyola Marymount University. Chad currently sits on the boards of Belmont Technology Incorporated (US), Fotech Solutions Limited (US), BiSN Limited (UK), Stryde Incorporated (US) and Silicon Microgravity Limited (UK). Chad was recognized as a Global Corporate Venturing Top Emerging Leader in 2020.

Cynthia Johnston

Cynthia Johnston is a Corporate Director. She was Executive Vice President, Gas, Renewables and Operations Services at TransAlta Corporation from 2015 until her retirement in 2017. Between 2009 and 2015, she held various positions, including Executive Vice President, Enterprise Risk and Corporate Services and Executive Vice President, Corporate Services at TransAlta. From 2013 until her retirement, she was Chief Operating Officer and served as a non-independent Director of TransAlta Renewables. Prior thereto, Cynthia held several executive leadership positions with TransAlta and FortisAlberta.

Cynthia has over 30 years of diverse experience in strategic planning, complex project management, operations, sales and marketing, customer service, stakeholder relations, economic analysis and regulation. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Calgary and a Masters in Applied Economics from the University of Victoria.

Cynthia serves on the Board of Directors of AltaGas Ltd. and Russel Metals Inc. and is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Cynthia was appointed by Canada Growth Fund Inc. (CGF)

Yuta Kano

Yuta Kano has been with Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc., for more than three decades joining upon graduation from Aoyama Gakuin University. Yuta also earned MBA at International University of Japan combining international exchange experience at University of Washington, Seattle. Yuta has been in Chubu’s international business for more than twenty years managing and/or heading Fuels Department groups, including Nuclear Fuels and Upstream Equity for LNG/natural gas projects. He was Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Chubu Electric Power Australia Pty Ltd., representing CHUBU group at the Operating Committee of Gorgon LNG project and at the board of directors meeting of Ichthys LNG project . He was then seconded into JERA, returning to CHUBU, Global Business Division, Clean Energy Solution Unit.

Reinhard Oswald

Reinhard Oswald is heading the newly created “Tech Center” within the Energy department of OMV, a global energy, fuels & feedstock and chemicals group with headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

Reinhard is a petroleum engineer and has a drilling background with over 28 years of international experience in the Energy industry, having held several Drilling, Workover, Asset Management and Project Development leadership roles in Pakistan, Libya, Romania and Austria. He was General Manager of OMV Tunisia and OMV Austria as well as HR manager of the global E&P business of OMV. In the recent years he was heading OMVs global E&P operations and project development as senior vice president.

He has a degree in Petroleum Engineering from Mining University in Leoben, Austria, as well as an education in export techniques from the Business University Vienna.
Prior to joining OMV in 1998, Reinhard held technical product development roles at Hoechst and Clariant.

Since 2020 he is also serving as president of the Austrian Society of Energy Sciences ÖGEW.

John Redfern

President / CEO & Co founder

John Redfern is the President and CEO at Eavor. To this role, John brings his expertise as an investor, advisor, and serial entrepreneur in the data analytics, oil service, and energy tech verticals.

He has held executive roles at multiple international oil companies and oil service companies, including as a Director at Hess in London, President of Accumap in Calgary, and President of IHS Energy in Denver.

Prior to Eavor, John spent 13 years in China co-founding a series of start-ups, the most recent of which is LocalGravity, a leading retail data analytics platform in China.

He holds a degree in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University in Kingston, Law degrees from McGill University in Montreal, and an MBA degree from INSEAD in France.

Finian Tan

Dr. Finian Tan founded Vickers Venture Partners in 2005 with four partners. He is currently based in Singapore. Before starting Vickers, Finian was a Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, acting also as the founding partner of its Asia Pacific Operations, he discovered Baidu and led all the investment rounds into Baidu, and remained its largest backer until IPO. Prior to DFJ, Finian was Deputy Secretary of Trade and Industry for the Singapore Government where he oversaw the creation of the billion-dollar TIF fund and was subsequently appointed as chairman of the fund. As part of his earlier career path, Finian ran Goldman Sachs Asian trading arm. Finian received his Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Philosophy in Engineering from Cambridge University. He received his B.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Glasgow.

Paul Cairns

Chief Business Development Officer

Paul Cairns is the Chief Business Development Officer at your head office in Calgary. His responsibility is to focus on the development and incubation of new ventures in the energy and technology verticals.

Paul has spent close to 20 years in these sectors. He has been on the executive team that has spanned the entire start-up life-cycle and brought firms from initial inception to IPO. After years with Acumen Capital Partners and Stephen Avenue Securities, Paul founded Cairns Capital Corporation to provide capital solutions to the energy and technology sectors. He is a well-known incubator and developer of new and IP-grounded ventures.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calgary.

He is one of Eavor’s Founders and sits as an observer to the Board.

Shyamli Mohamed

Chief Financial Officer

Shyamli Mohamed is the Chief Financial Officer at Eavor, based out Houston, Texas . She is a Senior Finance Executive with more than 15 years of global international leadership in finance and operations management with multinational public companies. Her role is to drive growth and strategic partnerships across functional leaders to effectively bridge the gap between operational decisions and financial targets.

Most recently, Shyamli served as Senior Vice President, Finance with Consolidated Communications Inc, an American broadband and business communications provider. During a transformational time for the company, she oversaw and supported Financial Planning & Analysis, Strategic Finance leadership, Long range business strategic planning, and reporting.

Prior to that, she served as Vice President, Finance, and held several Senior Finance leadership positions within the energy industry at SLB (Schlumberger), Halliburton and C&J energy across the globe. Her senior positions included Corporate Reporting, Treasurer (Financing, Capital allocation and Liquidity management), Financial Planning & Analysis, International Tax Management, Mergers and Acquisitions, Divestitures, Post-Merger Integration, leading Finance, and digital transformations operating model.

Shyamli graduated from the University of Mumbai with a degree in accounting and finance. She is also a Chartered Management Accountant (CMA), and a graduate of Harvard Business School’s General Management Program. She also currently serves as a board member of a Healthcare non-profit organization.

Jason Rakochy

Chief Operating Officer

Jason Rakochy is Eavor’s Chief Operating Officer, based at the corporate headquarters in Calgary. As an energy industry leader with over 25 years of global experience, Jason has held leadership roles in technical, operational, project execution, commercial, technology development, and corporate strategy sectors. His career spans across upstream and downstream oil and gas, renewable energy, plus power and electricity markets.

He has held roles as Senior Vice President Strategy and Growth for Hydro One Inc. and Vice President Upstream Projects for Suncor Energy Inc.

Jason holds degrees in commerce and chemical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s General Management Program.

Matt Toews

Chief Technology Officer

Matt Toews is the Chief Technology Officer at Eavor, based at the company’s head office in Calgary, where he oversees technology development, intellectual property, and the overall technology strategy of the firm.

As a co-founder of the company, Matt’s leadership has played a pivotal role in building Eavor’s core technical teams and successfully guiding the development and testing of the company’s innovative technology from the lab to the field. He has a professional engineering background and 16 years of experience, and previously worked in a variety of technical and managerial roles in the energy industry.

A graduate with Distinction from the University of Calgary in Oil and Gas Engineering, Matt’s contributions to the industry are reflected in over a dozen patents granted or pending.

Jeanine Vany

Executive Vice President / Corporate Affairs

Jeanine Vany is a Co-founder and Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs at Eavor Technologies Inc., headquartered in Calgary, AB. Jeanine spearheads worldwide policy initiatives and energy advocacy efforts, driving Eavor’s policy agenda and overseeing public affairs initiatives. She also actively shapes industry policies and advancements in the geothermal sector. 

Jeanine plays a key role in Eavor’s innovation and strategic growth and has over two decades of experience as an APEGA-registered professional geologist in the oil, gas, and geothermal industries.  Prior to her current role, she built and led the Geoscience team in delivering specific geoscience subsurface characterization methods for Eavor Loop technology demonstrations in addition to establishing a global land portfolio.

Jeanine holds an Honours B.Sc. degree in Geology and Environmental Studies from Saint Mary’s University and a Business Essentials Certificate from the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. She is an active community volunteer, serving on several nonprofit boards, the Geothermal Rising Board as Vice President and as a Director on the GeoConvention Board in Calgary.

Jeanine was honored with the inaugural Patricia J. Lee Trailblazer Award in 2021 and the Young Women in Energy Award in 2019.

Daniel Mölk

EVP & President Eavor GmbH

Daniel Mölk is the EVP & President of Eavor GmbH based in Düsseldorf, Germany. His responsibility is to develop the German and European market for Eavor and its technology. The basis for this is the world’s first commercialized Eavor-Loop™ for heat and electricity that is currently being created in Geretsried, Germany.

Daniel has 15 years of experience in geothermal development. He worked as VP Geothermal Development and Country Manager for one of Germany’s largest power companies and has held the position of President of their subsidiary in Indonesia for six years.

He has a degree of mechanical engineering of the University of Iceland.

Bailey Schwarz

Executive Vice President / North America

Bailey Schwarz is the Executive Vice President for North America, based in Calgary Head office location. She is accountable for managing the North American project portfolio and development strategy. 

Bailey has over a decade of hands-on engineering experience and a strong passion for innovation. She led construction of the Eavor-Lite facility in Rocky Mountain House and execution of the Eavor-Deep project in New Mexico. Prior to joining Eavor, Bailey worked at Cenovus Energy where she led a multi-disciplinary team of engineers to commission and operate industry-leading, large-scale steam assisted gravity drainage facilities spanning cogeneration, steam generation, processing, and water treatment.

She graduated with a Degree in Chemical Engineering from McGill University and passed her CFA Level I exam.

Robert Winsloe

Executive Vice President / Origination

Robert Winsloe is Executive Vice President Origination and Managing Director of Eavor GmbH based in Düsseldorf, Germany. His primary role is to communicate how geothermal energy in general, and Eavor’s technology in particular, can transform the energy balance, independence, and security of countries and corporations globally.

Robert Winsloe brings with him almost 40 years of experience in international business development, sales, marketing, and management in the energy industry. He spent the first seven years living and working in Indonesia, Australia, and India for Schlumberger. Returning to Europe he joined IBM as a salesman, before going on to build and manage international sales and marketing organizations for Halliburton and IHS, as well as personally closing multi-million-dollar contracts across Europe, Asia and Africa and North and South America.

Robert Winsloe has been a frequent consultant to the World Bank on projects ranging from energy planning in Angola to infrastructure development and capacity building in Mauritania, and has advised state companies in China on strategic gas development. Robert Winsloe has a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Neil Ethier

Vice President of Origination

Neil Ethier is Vice President Origination based out of the Calgary office. His responsibility is to oversee a talented group of business development professionals globally.

Neil has been at Eavor since 2020, where he has held various roles in both Corporate and Business Development. Prior to Eavor, Neil spent 20 years as a geophysicist in the oil and gas sector. He has global expertise in strategic business development, with a technical focus. He brings an enhanced intercultural perspective, honed from living on three continents and analyzing and evaluating assets in over 50 countries and 100 basins.

Neil holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours Geophysics) degree from the University of Alberta, where he was awarded the APEGA Gold Medal for the highest academic standing in the Geophysics program.

James Heatherington

VP, Eavor Japan

James Heatherington brings over 25 years of international energy experience in engineering, sales and entrepreneurship. Starting with a B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering, he has excelled in consulting and field operations first onshore with the Evaluators in Alberta and then offshore with the Japan Drilling Company. With IHS Energy in Tokyo, he drove sales and consulting to clients across APAC; managing teams and leading projects to help international oil/gas and energy companies and government with their daily workflows and to solve intractable issues. Project types included country entry, LNG, exploration, development, M&A, geopolitical and energy economics. James is a long-term Yokohama resident.

Michael Holmes

Vice President, Central Business Unit

Michael Holmes leads Eavor’s Central Business Unit, based out of Calgary. His team is responsible for the engineering and geoscience design, optimization of Eavor’s projects globally, integration of Eavor’s proprietary technologies into its commercial projects, and the technical training of all staff globally.

 Michael has been with Eavor since 2020 working in various roles spanning engineering, technology development, R&D, operations, business planning, and corporate strategy. He led the development of Eavor’s in-house thermodynamic modeling tools, is a named inventor on many of Eavor’s patents, lead or co-author on many of Eavor’s technical papers, and led Eavor’s successful $182MM Series B equity raise in 2022.

Prior to Eavor, Michael worked at Cenovus Energy, tackling projects ranging from rethinking thermal wellbore design to portfolio-level strategic analysis and advisement.

Michael is a First-Class Honours graduate from Queen’s University, where he was awarded the E.T. Sterne prize for the student with the highest aggregate standing in Chemical Engineering. He is currently pursuing his CFA designation, having already completed his Level 1 and Level 2 exams.

Patti Mailer

Director, Global People Operations

Patti Mailer is the Director of Global People Operations at Eavor, based in Calgary. She leads Eavor’s Global Human Resources function, working with a multidisciplinary global team and is responsible for supporting the global team for all processes, policies, and practices related to people.

Patti joined Eavor in January of 2024, bringing over 30 years of HR expertise from a variety of related industries including energy, oil and gas, high tech, and manufacturing/construction. She is a dynamic, self-directed leader committed to cultivating a culture that enables the organization to deliver innovative geothermal solutions while caring for people, communities, and the planet.

Patti was born and raised in Calgary and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and Psychology from the University of Calgary. In her spare time, Patti enjoys spending time in the mountains in BC and Alberta with her family, international travel, and continuous learning in her field where she is currently pursuing her executive coaching designation.

Matthew Seager

Chief of Staff

Matthew Seager is Eavor’s Chief of Staff, based at the corporate headquarters in Calgary. Matthew is responsible for supporting the CEO in the execution of his duties and facilitating the effective and efficient functioning of the company, while serving as a trusted advisor on all matters of the corporation.

Matthew joined Eavor in 2021 and has served in development engineering and management roles, focused on advancing Eavor-Loop™ projects in Europe and North America. Prior to joining Eavor, he spent a decade working in the oil and gas industry, with experience in operations, resource development, and commercial agreement origination and evaluation.

Matthew graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in Geological Engineering.

Michael Liebreich

Advisory Board Chair

Michael Liebreich is Chairman and CEO of Liebreich Associates, but he is perhaps best known as Founder and Senior Contributor to Bloomberg New Energy Finance – the world’s leading provider of information and research on clean energy and transport. He is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, a member of the UK Department for International Trade’s Capital Investment Advisory Board and the Policy Committee for the UK Climate Change Committee’s 6th Carbon Budget, a member of Equinor’s International Advisory Group, and recently joined Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL) as a Senior Adviser. In June 2019 Michael joined the IEA’s Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency. Until recently he was a long-standing board member of Transport for London and a member of the high-level group for the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative. Michael is an angel investor and philanthropist and skied for Great Britain at the 1992 Albertville Olympics

Dr. Malcolm I. Ross

Black Swan Detector

Dr. Malcolm I. Ross is an innovation-focused geoscientist. Now a consultant, he recently worked for the New Energies Research & Technology Team at Shell, focusing on pre-strategic opportunities in the New Energies space, especially geothermal energy. He continues to teach a GIS class at Rice University. While in the Shell GameChanger team, he discovered, funded, and mentored numerous startups, including those focused on geothermal topics, and helped lead the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE as a science advisor and judge. He holds degrees from Rice University (Ph.D.), the University of Texas (M.S.), and Colgate University (B.A.). He is currently focused on building networks of people and companies focused on accelerating commercial geothermal opportunities and R&D to meet the rising tide of expectation for a sustainable low-carbon world.

Dr. Eric Van Oort

Professor in Petroleum Engineering

Dr. Eric van Oort became Professor in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin in 2012, after a 20-year industry career with Shell Oil Company. He holds a PhD degree in Chemical Physics from the University of Amsterdam. He has (co-)authored more than 200 technical papers, holds 14 patents, is a former SPE Distinguished Lecturer, an SPE Distinguished Member, and the 2017 winner of the prestigious international SPE Drilling Engineering Award. At UT Austin, he directs drilling-related R&D in two industry consortia (RAPID and CODA) with over 25 industry company sponsors, covering drilling automation & control, sensor design, big data analytics, complex well construction challenges, and well abandonment & decommissioning. Recently, he has become involved in deep closed-loop geothermal drilling through UT’s new GEO initiative, for which he is the technical lead. In addition, he is the co-founder of 3 start-up companies and is the CEO of his own consulting company.

Dr. Jesse Jenkins

Professor in Energy Systems Engineering

Dr. Jesse Jenkins is an assistant professor at Princeton University with a joint appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment and courtesy appointments at the School of Public and International Affairs and the High Meadows Environmental Institute. He is a macro-scale energy systems engineer with a focus on the rapidly evolving electricity sector, including the transition to zero-carbon resources, the proliferation of distributed energy resources, and the role of electricity in economy-wide decarbonization. Jesse leads the Princeton ZERO Lab (Zero-carbon Energy systems Research and Optimization Laboratory), which focuses on improving and applying optimization-based energy systems models to evaluate low-carbon energy technologies and generate insights to guide policy and planning decisions in national and sub-national jurisdictions transitioning to net-zero emissions energy systems. Jesse earned a PhD and SM from MIT, worked previously as a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, and spent six years as an energy and climate policy analyst prior to embarking on his academic career. He also works with DeSolve, LLC and independently to provide decision support, analytics, and policy advisory services to non-profit and for-profit clients working to accelerate the deployment of clean energy.

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