RICK HARRIMAN, SENIOR FELLOW, SYNECTICSWORLD

Co-author of Creativity, Inc: Building an Inventive Organization, Rick Harriman is a Senior Fellow at Synecticsworld, and a widely recognized leader in the area of return on investment for creativity and innovation programs.

Rick lectures on creativity and innovation at universities across North America and Europe, and teaches an Innovation in Science and Engineering course at Harvard University. Previous to his current role as Senior Fellow, he served as CEO and Managing Partner of Synecticsworld. His three principal areas of research and interest are social innovation, strategy and building capability for innovation.

Prior to joining Synecticsworld, Rick held positions in marketing management and new product development at General Foods. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA from Columbia University. A resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, he is active in several community organizations and currently serves as President of the Board of Overseers of The Cambridge Community Foundation.

JOHN WILSON, CEO AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, QUANTAPOINT

John Wilson brings over 30 years of executive management expertise in various E&P capacities. He currently serves as CEO and Executive Director of Quantapoint Inc., a technology and services provider specializing in deployment of laser scanning technology to improve exploration performance and operational efficiency. He is also a founding partner of Seacrest Capital Ltd., a Bermuda-based private equity fund focusing on oil and gas exploration.

John also currently serves as non-executive director of both Badger Explorer ASA and Azimuth Ltd. Badger is a Norwegian public company focused on autonomous drilling and geoscience; Azimuth is an oil and gas exploration company. In recent years he has raised over $100 million USD in venture capital and private equity for these and other client companies.

His previous experience includes management positions with Landmark Graphics (Halliburton) and Schlumberger. John holds a BSc. Honors in electronic engineering and physics from Loughborough University, and an MBA from Polytechnic of Central London (University of Westminster). A native of the UK, he currently resides in Houston.

W.J. (ZEKE) ZERINGUE, PRESIDENT, ZZ CONSULTING

Former Halliburton president, Zeke Zeringue recently founded ZZ Consulting with offices in Houston and New Orleans to provide advisory expertise to clients in the oil and gas services industry. Zeringue is a widely recognized figure in the energy industry; after spending 26 years with Halliburton in progressive engineering and management roles, he joined ION Geophysical (formerly Input/Output Inc.) where he served as CEO and Chairman of the Board.

He is a member of SPE, International Association of Drilling Contractors, American Petroleum Institute and the International Association of Geophysical Contractors. Zeringue is a frequent speaker and contributor on topics related to emerging trends in oil and gas exploration.

Zeringue holds a BS in petroleum engineering from Louisiana State University. He actively serves on the Advisory Board for the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas Tech University.

LEON THOMSEN, Geophysicist

Leon Thomsen is recognized worldwide as an innovator in applied geophysics and has over 30 years of experience in the E&P industry. Following retirement from BP in 2008, he remains professionally and scientifically active as Chief Scientist of Delta Geophysics, as Research Professor at the University of Houston, and as Visiting Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Thomsen’s industrial career began in 1980, at Amoco’s famous Tulsa Research Center. In 1995, he moved to Amoco’s Worldwide Exploration Group in Houston, to help implement the ideas that he had earlier helped to invent. Following the 1999 merger, he served in BP's Exploration and Production Technology Group in Houston as Principal Geophysicist and Senior Advisor.

Thomsen has led technical development in applied geophysics through innovation in vector seismics; in pore-pressure prediction; and most recently in CSEM and fluid dependence of seismic response, through numerous SEG publications and presentations, and many patents.

Leon Thomsen holds degrees in geophysics from Caltech (BS, 1964) and Columbia (PhD, 1969). His academic career began with postdoctoral appointments at CNRS in Paris, and at Caltech, followed by tenured faculty appointments at the State University of New York at Binghamton (1972-80). Thomsen has received many industry honors, including serving SEG as Vice President, as President-Elect, and as President (2006-07).