Carlos Garibaldi

Founder and Chairman

Houston – Montevideo

Pet Eng / MSc / MBA / M&A Banker

Professional background

Carlos is the Executive Secretary of ARPEL. Prior to cofounding Plata Energy, Carlos worked in  engineering, commercial and executive positions in Amoco, Plains Resources, San Jorge,  Chevron, cofounded G&G Energy Consultants, Tecpetrol, Ecopetrol, Harrison Lovegrove, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC and Arthur D. Little, focused on the Americas.

Education

BSc in Chemical Engineering (U de Buenos Aires, Argentina), MSc Petroleum Engineering (U of Tulsa), and MBA (Rice U). Non resident Fellow of the Institute of the Americas, University of California San Diego

Max Torres

Founder and Board Member

Houston – Lima

Geoscientist / MSc

Professional background

Max is currently VP Exploration at Petrotal. Prior to cofounding Plata Energy, Max was the CEO and founder of Selva Energy and has worked in exploration and executive positions for Astra, Bridas, Repsol, and Ecopetrol, where he was VP of Exploration.  Deep experience in LatAm, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the FSU

Education

BSc in Geology (U of Tucuman, Argentina), MSc In Stratigraphy (Georgia State U).

Diego Diaz Baldasso

Managing Partner & Board Member

Houston

MSc / MBA / Mgmt Cons

Consulting focus

E&P Operations, Subsurface, Integrated Project Management, Project Execution, Reserves Reporting. Petroleum Economics, Oil and Gas Business Strategy, Leadership & Organization

Professional background

In addition to running day-to-day operations at Plata Energy, Diego is the CEO and Founder of Orion Energy, a consulting and manpower firm based in Houston

Diego has held various technical and executive roles in leading E&P companies, including Repsol, Maxus Energy Corp, YPF, and Astra in Argentina. He served as President of Repsol Bolivia, E&P General Manager in Peru, and Managing Director for Akakus Oil Operations, a 350,000 bopd operation in Libya. Additionally, Diego led the technical evaluation for Repsol’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Shenzi, a major deepwater oilfield in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Education

BSc, MSc in Physics, Instituto Balseiro, Argentina. MBA, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Ivan Terez

Houston

Pet Eng / PhD Geosciences / MBA

Consulting focus

Exploration/appraisal and field development for onshore and offshore (shallow and deep), new ventures and assets, portfolio optimization; reservoir engineering advisory, conventional and unconventional EOR recovery, reserves management, economic and financial feasibility studies; decision-making, asset restructuring.

Professional background

Ivan is Founder and CEO of Renascent Energy  and has held management and technical advisory positions in Chevron, Eni and Casa Exploration LP.   He has broad experience in LatAm, GoM, UKNS, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia.

Education

BSc/MSc in Mechanical Engineering (MIPT, Russia),   MSc in Petroleum Engineering  (U of Houston), PhD in Environmental and Geosciences (Texas M&A), MBA (AFW Wirtschaftsakademie Bad Harzburg, Germany).

Carlos Vargas

Bogotá

Petroleum Engineer

Consulting focus

Corporate transformation, control of capital deployment in projects, operations management, drilling, & completion.

Professional background

Carlos worked in engineering, management and executive  D&C positions in BP, Pan American Energy and Equion Energía in Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia and other world regions.  He was recently VP of Transformation for Ecopetrol, achieving US$ 3.2 B in structural and sustainable cost optimizations through three consecutive years.

Education

BSc in Petroleum Engineering (U de América, Colombia).

Adriana Hilal

Rio de Janeiro

MBA / DSc Admin / Academic / Mgmt Cons

Consulting focus

General management; negotiations; strategic planning; decision theory; organizational behavior; leadership development; cultural change; international business and cross-cultural organizations; post-transaction M&A (post-merger integration).

Professional background

Adriana is a professor and an independent management consultant.  She was until recently the Halliburton Chair of Behavioral Studies and International Management at the COPPEAD Graduate School of Business (U Federal de Rio de Janeiro), formerly also Associate Dean, and also Global Partners Director with Georgia State U and La Sorbonne. She is trilingual English-Spanish and Portuguese.

Education

BSc in Business Administration (U Cándido Mendes, Brasil), MSc in Marketing and MBA (U Católica de Rio de Janeiro,Brasil), DSc in Administration (U Federal de Rio de Janeiro, Brasil), Postdoctoral Fellowship (IRIC, U of Tilburg, Netherlands

Myriam Juritz

Seattle

Chem Eng / Dr Pet Eng / Mgmt Cons

Consulting focus

Reservoir engineering, integrated reservoir management, simulation, EOR, exploration new ventures, economics, international management and strategy, organizational performance, process improvement.

Professional background

Myriam is an independent petroleum and management consultant and has been a lecturer at Texas A&M. She gas worked for INTEC Engineering, San Jorge International, Tecpetrol, Accenture, Oliver Wyman, The Scotia Group, Arthur D. Little and Holland & Davies.

Education

BSc/MSc in Chemical Engineering (U of Buenos Aires, Argentina), International Petroleum Management Degree (Texas A&M) and Dr of Engineering on Petroleum Engineering (Texas A&M).

Aníbal Cáceres

Buenos Aires

Production Geologist

Consulting focus

Reservoir geology, petrophysics, reserves estimation, project evaluation, development planning, field testing and completion operations; new ventures.

Professional background

Anibal has worked in multidisciplinary technical and managerial positions for YPF, Halliburton, Bridas, Petrobras and Repsol, focusing on development and reservoir geology in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Education

BSc In Geosciences (U Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina), and post-graduate degree in Petroleum Geology (U. de Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Martin Volpacchio

Buenos Aires

Data Scientist / MSc

Consulting focus

Data Analytics applied to diagnoses and preventive failure analyses, production optimization, generalized decline curves, water injection in layered reservoirs, exploration drilling; Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.  Developed ACD TM (automatic chart diagnosis), a unique solution to sucker rod pump failure prediction.

Professional background

Martin co-founded Analytics Solvers, a  pioneer in Latin America on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, consulting for several oil companies and other industries.  He was in charge of Data Analytics in Telefonica Argentina and is Professor of DA, AI and ML at the Universidad Austral, Argentina.

Education

BSc In Agricultural Engineering (U Católica Argentina) and MSc in Mathematical Economics (U de  Buenos Aires, Argentina).

William Hitters

Houston

Chem Eng / MBA / MA

Consulting focus

Unconventional hydrocarbons, logistics and supply chain, in particular frac sand and water management projects.  Patented slurry-line and wet frac sand-management technology. Renewable energy. Sustainability and ESG.

Professional background

William is the founder of Luxmath Consulting and has worked in technical and managerial positions for Imperial Chemical, Dow, Allied Signal, Honeywell, Advanced Organic Materials, Tenaris and Unimin in USA, Brasil and Argentina.

Education

BSc in Chemical Engineering (IT Buenos Aires, Argentina), MBA (U of Texas), MA International Relations (U of London).

Libia Landaeta

Bogotá

Petrophycisist

Consulting focus

Petrophysical interpretation for exploration, development completion and recompletion, integrated field studies, static modeling, field geology, operations geology.

Professional background

Libia has worked on a senior capacity for  PdVSA, Petrotrin-Trinmar, Halliburton-Landmark, Repsol, Metapetroleum, CPVEN and Pacific Energy in Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Trinidad-Tobago, Mexico, and  Guatemala.

Education

BA in Geological Engineering (U. Central de Venezuela).

Lucas Santimoteo

Buenos Aires

PETROLEUM ENGINEER

Consulting focus

Unconventional resources, strategic planning, reserves and resources estimation and certification, reservoir management, and production optimization.

Professional background

Prior to joining Plata Energy, Lucas worked in production and reservoir engineering,  strategic planning , development planning, reservoir management and operations, exploration new ventures, M&A, reserves, and unconventional  oil positions in Chevron and Vintage Oil Argentina, in Vaca Muerta (Argentina), Permian and Woflcamp (US), and offshore  positions in the North Sea.

Education

BSc Industrial Engineering (Catholic University in Buenos Aires, Argentina), Post graduate in Reservoir Engineering (U de Buenos Aires, Argentina), and MBA (U Austral – IAE, Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Kenneth Kibodeaux

Houston

Petroleum Engineer / PhD

Consulting focus

Reservoir engineering focus in conventionals and unconventionals (including shales and heavy oil), Enhanced Oil Recovery methods, reservoir performance prediction and optimization, reservoir characterization.

Professional background

Kenneth is co-founder and CTO of Renascent Energy, having held technology development and deployment positions in Texaco, Shell, and Saudi Aramco, and consulting work for PetroChina, with experience in US, Canada, China, Trinidad, Venezuela, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. SPE Distinguished Member.

Education

B.S. in Petroleum Engineering (U of Texas at Austin), M.S. in Petroleum Engineering (U of Texas at Austin), Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering (U of Texas at Austin).

Joselin Hernandez García

Madrid

Senior Geologist / Geoscientist

Consulting focus

3D geo-cellular models, reservoir geology, integrated field development, seismic interpretation, reserves estimation, training, and coaching.

Professional background

Joselin is a senior geologist having worked for Halliburton (Landmark) and Schlumberger (SIS). Strong experience providing support to O&G exploration and development projects in Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador and Perú. Proven experience delivering G&G training worldwide.

Education

BSc in Geoscience (Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Bogotá).

Diego Diaz

Quito

Economist / MBA

Consulting focus

Companies’ productivity optimization and sustainable value creation. Identifying the root cause of process gaps and implementing best practices and available solutions to drive excellence in leadership, cultural change, and innovation.

Professional background

Diego  held management positions for technical, strategic, and administrative departments in prominent organizations such as ENAP, Occidental Petroleum, Central Bank and Banco Popular del Ecuador, with work experiences in Ecuador, Oman, Egypt, the Bahamas, and the United States.

Education

BSc in Economics (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador), MBA (University of Notre Dame)

Manuel Pagá Castellanos

Madrid

Facilities ENG/ MSC

Consulting focus

Facilities and Project Engineering for greenfield and brownfield development, both onshore and offshore, with expertise in conducting multidisciplinary risk and opportunity assessments for the stage-gate investment.

Professional background

Extensive experience in upstream management, engineering, construction, and providing technical insights for investment decisions on megaprojects. He has collaborated with international oil and gas companies and academic institutions across multiple countries in Research and development, standardization, and the application of innovative technologies.

Education

Civil Engineering (Magna Cum Laude), Universidad de Los Andes, Venezuela. MSc in Earthquake Engineering (with Honors), Universidad Central de Venezuela.

José Foucault

Houston – Buenos Aires

Geoscientist / MSC

Consulting focus

Geophysics and Geology, onshore and offshore exploration, field development. Asset and Prospect generation. Mature assets evaluation. Portfolio valuation.

Professional background

Jose has more than 40 years of experience, having worked for companies such as YPF, Schlumberger, Western Atlas, Petrolera San Jorge, and Chevron. Throughout his career, he has held various responsibilities, ranging from geophysicist to exploration manager. For over 10 years, he has served as a consultant, collaborating with different companies overseas. His work spans a wide variety of basins and geological settings, managing portfolios, field surveillance plans, strategies delineation and business plans, locating new exploration wells, assets evaluations.

Education

Mines Engineer, University of San Juan- Argentina. Geophysical Interpretation, Master degree, ISEP – Universidad de Cuyo.

Daniel Verdala

Caracas

Business Adm – Econ & Fin – Accounting / MSc

Consulting focus

Commercial Practice, Supply Chain, Finance, Accounting and Tax for Oil and Gas

Professional background

Over 20 years of experience in the fields above, with expertise in project finance and operational leadership. Senior roles at leading organizations, including Equinor (formerly Statoil), ConocoPhillips, and VISCO Orinoco within the Jindal Steel and Power Group. Daniel has also served on boards, chaired technical committees, and steered project feasibility and start-up operations.

Education

MASTER IN FINANCE, Institute of Superior Studies in Admin. IESA – Venezuela, Bachelor in Economy, Accounting and Administration Catholic University / Venezuela, Bachelor in Business Administration, Yorkville U – Canada

Jacques De Bruijn

Netherlands

Chemical Eng / MSc / MBA

Consulting focus

Health, Safety, and Environment; Operational Excellence; Process Safety; Asset Integrity

Professional background

Over 30 years in the O&G industry with vast expertise in gas treatment, LNG, GTL, chemical, and refinery processing. He has held key roles at Shell and other multinational corporations, and is Founder and MD of ICUCme, a consulting firm based in the Netherlands. He excels in creating HSE cultures, leading incident investigations, safety risk assessments (HAZOP, HAZID, QRA), and engaging stakeholders worldwide.

Education

BSc Chemistry (Hogeschool Zeeland, Netherlands). MSc Chemistry (U of Amsterdam, Netherlands). MBA (TSM Business School, Netherlands).