Valerie Miller

Nicholas's Bio

Nick Ayre is the Team Lead of Business Development Geosciences at Strathcona Resources Ltd., a rapidly growing Calgary-based company specializing in oil and gas resource development in Western Canada. In his capacity of Team Lead, Nick oversees all Geoscience contributions with acquisition appraisals, regional evaluations, sustainability initiatives such as carbon capture, and Petrophysics.

Before working at Strathcona, Nick has been employed in both large and small Calgary based energy companies establishing multi-year exploration and development drilling programs, mentoring staff, acquisition appraisals, and divestment program.

In addition to his role at Strathcona, Nick has been actively involved with the Canadian Energy Geoscience Association (CEGA) where he served as the Conference Director overseeing all society conferences between 2021-2023, and co-chaired/advised CEGA’s annual Core Conference between 2020-2024. Nick’s roles at CEGA underscore his belief that organizing geoscientific events are critical for the promotion of geosciences to the general public, professional networking, and career development within the energy and geoscience communities.

Strathcona Resources Ltd.

Janelle's Bio

Janelle Watson has over 15 years of experience from the energy sector across various locations in Alberta, and with exposure to international operations in California, Texas, Colorado, Oman and Holland.

She received an Associate SME designation in Thermal Recovery while at Royal Dutch Shell. Ms. Watson is an entrepreneurial minded leader that is passionate about new business ideas and uses a collaborative, inquisitive approach to solving problems. She spent the past six years launching two startup organisations as Business Development Lead and VP Operations. Notably, she won the Energy New Ventures pitch competition in 2019 worth $125,000 and audience choice award.

Ms. Watson has extensive experience in technical and business operational roles while in energy, tech and the insurance sectors. She has also pursued certifications in data science and analytics, machine learning, and cybersecurity to bolster her knowledge in leading edge technologies to enAlbertale efficient business operations. While new to the renewable energy sector, she has worked with LV and MV power systems, electrical and instrumentation specialists for wellsite and facilities requirements throughout her career and is a strong advocate for sustainability practices.

BBA Engineering

Tamara's Bio

Tamara is the Senior Marketing and Communications Manager at Carbon Management Canada. She is a communications and marketing professional with extensive experience in brand and strategic communications management, public, stakeholder and rightsholder engagement, and content creation. Tamara specializes in communicating fabout Canada’s energy industry, including emerging clean energy sectors.

Tamara is a co-host of Not Your Grandpa’s Energy Industry podcast and supports the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in a variety of volunteer roles. She has won awards for brand representation and website development in online publishing.

Carbon Management Canada

Tanya's Bio

Tanya Richens, P.Ag. has over 24 years of experience working in the field of oil sands reclamation. In 2024 Tanya started her own consulting company and has since authored two children’s books.

The books, Adventures in Land Reclamation: Exploring Jobs for a Greener Future, and From the Earth to Us: Discovering the Origins of Everyday Things, aim to connect people of all ages to the reality of living in a world that relies on responsible natural resource development.

TCR Environmental Consulting Ltd.