Gary Plisga

After graduating from New Mexico Tech in 1969, Gary hired on with BP Alaska and worked for BP in various roles and locations for 25 years in oil and gas operations, engineering and management both onshore and offshore within the United States, Middle East and South America. The work includes well servicing and production operations of all types from high pressure gas wells and oil wells flowing in excess of 15,000 bopd to stripper wells and gas processing plants. Specified test procedures, well evaluation, equipment design and installation.

After retiring from BP, Gary consulted on projects in Albania, Russia and Ukraine.          

Bob Meize

Bob Meize has over 25 years drilling and production experience in offshore and onshore operations. He has worked areas in West Texas, Rocky Mountain, Mid-Continent and Gulf Coast regions. He joined Anadarko in 1994 after a career with Arco and is currently Anadarko's Division Drilling Manager for Worldwide Deep-water Operations. He has been involved with developments in subsalt, deep-water and shelf drilling while at Anadarko. He has co-authored numerous technical papers on these subjects along with presentations to various industry groups. Bob holds a BS in Petroleum Engineering from New Mexico Tech and a Masters in Business Administration from Oklahoma City University.

Harvey Westbrook

Attended NMIMT from spring 1956 to Graduation in spring 1960 with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering. 

Harvey is a U.S. Navy/Marine Corps veteran and spent thirty-five years with Conoco, Inc. (now Conoco-Phillips) during which time he worked in the Rocky Mountain states, Texas, Offshore Louisiana, Houston Headquarters, London, England, Aberdeen Scotland and the Northern North Sea. Assignments included Engineering, Supervisory, and Management roles. He retired in October, 1994, as Director of Regulatory and Government Affairs, Upstream, North American Production resolving issues with State agencies, Indian tribes, and the Minerals Management Service. 

Harvey played an instrumental role in fundraising to establish the Langdon Taylor Endowed Chair in Petroleum Engineering. He was awarded Tech's Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 1992, and assisted the Petroleum Engineering Department personnel in creating the Industry Advisory Committee; serving as its Chairman for the first three years. He has also maintained close contact with TECH and the P.E. Department; recruiting engineers and summer students from 1965-1978, and again from 1982-1988. 

When retiring from Conoco, he established the Earl and Bess Douglas Scholarship at Tech to honor this family which contributed heavily to education in Socorro and throughout New Mexico. Virginia Marquez, Registrar Emeritus, at Tech is a Daughter of the elder Douglas.

Jay Paul McWilliams

Jay Paul McWilliams is the President of LOGOS Resources, LLC and has 11 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. LOGOS is an oil and gas acquisitions, development, and exploitation company focused on the San Juan Basin. Prior to founding LOGOS, Jay Paul was the lead acquisition engineer at LINN Energy where he led approximately $1 billion in successful transactions. In addition, he held various engineering positions while working for Burlington Resources and Resolute Natural Resources. Jay Paul earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from New Mexico Tech and a Master of Business Administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Matt Hill

Matt Hill is a project services specialist at Houston-based BHP Billiton Petroleum, supporting deepwater development projects in the US Gulf of Mexico and West Australia. Matt is responsible for BHP Billiton Petroleum's benchmarking of development project costs and schedules.

Matt joined BHP Billiton in 2006, providing concept development planning in support of global Exploration efforts. Prior to BHP Billiton, Matt worked for both oil companies and contractors. He traveled extensively over the past 20+ years in the oil and gas industry and lived in Jakarta with his family while working for Unocal.

Matt earned his BS in Petroleum Engineering from New Mexico Tech ('89), an MS in Petroleum Engineering from University of Houston ('95), and MBA from Southern Methodist University ('00), and a Masters Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University ('08). Matt is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and an active USA Judo coach.

Steve Trujillo

Stephen Trujillo currently serves as Operations and Engineering Manager for Samson Resource Company's Marcellus Shale project in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Mr. Trujillo has 27 years of experience in the upstream oil and gas sector in management, business development, operations, economics, and engineering. He has worked for Unocal Corporation for 17 years. He has held various roles in North America, South America, Southeast Asia, and Australasia.

Mr. Trujillo graduated from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology with a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering in 1983 and from Jones International University with an MBA in Global Enterprise Management in 2002.

Brett Wendt

Brett Wendt is among the most active and prominent of New Mexico Tech graduates. He graduated in 1992 with a bachelor's in petroleum engineering and has remained active with New Mexico Tech despite being out of the state since graduation.

Mr. Wendt is currently serving as the President of the New Mexico Tech Alumni Association. For the past three years, Mr. Wendt has worked with fellow alumni and New Mexico Tech staff to build a viable and active Alumni Association. He views this as his most important contribution to ensure the continued success of his alma mater through the lifelong relationships built during his tenure on the board of the Alumni Association.

Mr. Wendt has filled various engineering and geology positions with Conocophillips' Global Exploration division. For ten years, Mr. Wendt worked in exploration and development in The Gulf Of Mexico, West Africa, Venezuela, Russia, and Vietnam.

Warner Williams

Warner Williams is Vice President of Chevron's Gulf of Mexico business unit, one of the largest producers of crude oil and natural gas on the Gulf of Mexico shelf. In his role, headquartered in Covington, Louisiana, Warner is responsible for Chevron's offshore shelf and deep-water production operations and the shelf exploration activities.

Warner earned his petroleum engineering bachelor's degree from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1974 and joined Chevron as a production engineer that same year.

Over and illustrious 30+ year career at Chevron that took him around the globe, Warner has held several leadership roles for Chevron:

• Manager of Engineering Training
• General Manager of International Relations
• General Manager Southern Africa Business Unit
• General Manager for Chevron/Texaco Merger Team
• Vice President of Health, Environment and Safety
• Vice President Chevron North America Exploration and Production

Warner is active on several professional boards including the American Association of Blacks in Energy, Executive Business Council of New Orleans, Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, New Mexico Tech Industry Advisory, and the Board of Councilors Viterbi Engineering School USC.

Amit Sharma

Amit holds dual Masters degrees in Engineering: Chemical Engg. (IIT Kharagur, India '95) and Petroleum Engg (New Mexico Tech, Socorro '98) respectively. In '95, he started his oil and gas career with Reliance Industries Ltd in Bombay, India working downstream in their petrochemical complex.

After graduating from NMT, he joined Burlington Resources and later ConocoPhillips in Midland, Texas, worked in a variety of engineering and leadership positions in their US onshore exploration and development plays. He joined EnCana's Mid-con BU in September of 2006 and has held various leadership positions in the planning, BD, Midstream operations and E&P in the BU.

He serves on the governing council of Indian Institute of Technology and Management. New Delhi, India and since 2001 is serving on the industry advisory board for New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM.

Amit has extensive business and entrepreneurial background and has founded several non-oil and gas businesses. He and his wife Shanu currently live in Plano, Texas with their three kids and black lab.

Jim Linville

Jim is employed by Devon Energy as Manager Operations Engineering- Rocky Mountains.

Jim has managed projects in all major basins of the lower 48, including offshore California. His role has typically been one of Petroleum Engineer covering reservoir, production operations and business development. He has also managed an offshore drilling project in New Zealand.

Jim holds a BS in Petroleum Engineering from New Mexico Tech ('87), and an MS in Environmental Engineering from Marshall University ('00).

Jim and his wife Barbara live in Edmond Oklahoma.

John A. Crum

John A. Crum was appointed co-chief operating officer and president - North America of Apache Corporation in 2009. He leads 6 North America Regions, as well as the Worldwide Drilling and Purchasing groups.

Mr. Crum previously served as the president of Apache Canada and earlier led the Company's North Sea and Australia subsidiaries. Mr. Crum served in executive and management roles with Aquila Energy Resources Corp. Pacific Enterprises Oil Co., Southland Royalty Co. and Conoco.

He holds a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Crum served as chairman of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Dan Voecks

Dan has been working in the oil and gas industry for over 30 years beginning in 1980 when he joined Drake Well Service as a rig operator in the San Juan Basin. Dan took the time in 1988 to return to school at New Mexico Tech and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering in 1993. After graduation he spent a short time in South Texas before returning to the San Juan Basin working for Meridian Oil as a drilling engineer.

Dan has continued his career in the San Juan basin. He currently works for ConocoPhillips as a Manager over the Well Intervention Rig Fleet that ranges form 8-16 rigs annually and the first Gas Sales Optimization Groups which optimizes new production and then transfers the wells to the Operations Group.

Jennifer Julian

Jennifer Julian is a Well Intervention Senior Advisor with BP in Alaska. She has over 27 years diversified operations/production engineering experience. She holds a BS in Petroleum Engineering (1985) from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. She has over 23 years of well intervention experience (6 as wellsite leader for stimulations, coiled tubing, & wireline) and is a recognized leading authority within BP and externally on non-rig remediation, well integrity, and non-rig artificial lift. She has authored 16 SPE papers in all aspects of well intervention and a 2012 SPE Distinguished Lecturer with the topic "Twenty Years of Innovations and Interventions in Alaska". She has received 11 technical achievement awards from Arco and BP recognizing her contributions to the well intervention discipline.

She is a three time BP Helios Finalist, and won the 2011 Helios Value Category for Thru Tubing Conveyed ESP's, as well as a 2012 Team BP individual Helios. Other awards include SPE Western N. America Region Drilling and Completion Engineer (2007) and Prod & Ops Engineer (2010) and Alaska Chapter SPE Engineer of the Year (2007).