ESG in the Energy Industry
There is a strengthening trend in the energy industry towards Environment, Social, and Governance (“ESG”)-focused management, operations, and reporting standards, yet there is a lack of opportunity for energy professionals to gain understanding of what ESG is, how it affects their work, and how they can leverage the concepts to benefit their company or organization. The purpose of the “Introduction to Energy ESG” professional development course is to provide participants a working understanding of ESG, how it impacts the energy industry, and ways in which they can add immediate and sustainable value to their organization while operating in an environment framed by ESG-driven concepts, policies, and considerations.
Speakers
Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes
Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes is an engineer with nine years’ experience in acquiring, financing, and developing both greenfield and brownfield natural resources projects around the globe. Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes currently serves as a Director, Co-Founder, and President of Black Mountain Metals, a private battery metals mining company, Black Mountain Exploration, a private natural gas company, and Black Mountain CarbonLock, a private carbon negative company. Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes also serves on the Strategic Advisory Board for Hennessy Capital’s fifth SPAC (NASDAQ: HCICU), the Female Venture Fund, TCU’s Energy Institute, Polestar (Volvo’s EV brand), and OU’s School of Petroleum Engineering.
David Ferris, Ph.D.
Ferris is the Chief Sustainability Officer for Laredo Petroleum. Dr. Ferris has more than 20 years of experience in the upstream oil and natural gas industry, having held leadership, strategy and technical roles for Devon Energy, Anadarko Petroleum and Crawley Petroleum. He attended OU and earned a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering, a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Natural Gas Engineering and Management. Dr. Ferris also earned a Doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California.He serves as a Director for the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, The Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma and the industry advisory board for the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering at OU.
