2025 Board of Directors Election
The Nominating Committee, chaired by Past President Attila Szabo, presents the following members as candidates for the three positions open on the Board of Directors. All members and associate members in good standing may vote. The candidate receiving the most votes for each position will be elected. Each Director will serve for a three-year term beginning in January 2025. SPEE Board members do not represent a region but rather the Society as a whole. You are urged to consider the qualifications of all candidates, not just those in your own local chapter or area.
Your vote is crucial in shaping the future of our organization. In accordance with SPEE Bylaws, Article VII Section 5, voting shall remain open until the close of business on November 10th, 2024.
Thank you for participating in this very important privilege.
Candidates for Three-Year Terms beginning January 2025
Article VII, Section 5 of the Bylaws refers to “two candidates for each of the three director positions.”. Please cast your vote for one candidate in each position.
- Position 1 – James Sauseda and Kaleb Euseppi
- Position 2 – Oscar Valbuena and Gaston Fondevila
- Position 3 – Todd Broker and John Hornbrook
Please read all candidate biographies and vote below. You may vote only once.
Position 1
James Sauseda
James Sauseda has served as chairman of the SPEE Oklahoma chapter since 2021 and began serving on the Oklahoma board in 2020. He has successfully navigated the post Covid journey by hosting virtual webinars in conjunction with in person luncheons to maintain a healthy attendance. He has participated in the annual meetings for the past 3 years and is a member of the SPEE Monograph 6 committee. James is now looking to take his leadership to the national board to continue the SPEE legacy to the next generation of Petroleum Engineers.
James currently operates as the vice president of Cosmo Energy, a family office that originated in 2010. Cosmo’s primary focus is portfolio management, royalty acquisitions, and non-operated working interest. He has been with the company since graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 2014 with a degree in Petroleum Engineering. The beginning of James’ career at Cosmo Energy revolved around building mineral management and economic evaluation databases, processes, tools, and automations. He was also responsible for managing Cosmo’s reserves, as well as the company’s reserves-based loan. Since James’ promotion to Vice President of Engineering in 2017, he has underwritten over $100MM of acquisition, divestiture, and non-operated opportunities. His engineering practices and fundamentals have allowed Cosmo to make sound decisions regarding capital deployment in a high market price environment.
James is passionate about evolving technology and building efficiencies continuously over time. He was an early integrator of PHDwin Version 3 and became exceptionally proficient, especially in the minerals and royalties niche. His efforts and expertise resulted in an invitation to present at PHDwin Week in 2021 and 2022.
In addition to his continued work at Cosmo, James has begun two new ventures in 2024. He is a Co-Founder of Legacy Mineral Management and a general partner for a $20MM fund focused on PDP royalty acquisitions.
James and his wife Halie live in Edmond, Oklahoma, with their three young daughters
Kaleb Euseppi
Kaleb currently serves as a Principal at MAP Energy, a private energy investment firm. As the sole engineer at MAP Energy, he provides his expertise to validate the forecasts for the over 50,000 wells on over 25,000 properties in the portfolio as well as validating the type well profiles for those properties across every basin in the US. Kaleb coordinates and validates the depletion and reserves process for the partnerships. Further, his areas of focus are the Haynesville and Eagle Ford Shale plays, where he provides various evaluations on current assets and future acquisitions. Kaleb assesses and analyses all new software, from Reserves and Economic Tools to Engineering Databases, as well as constructing end-user visualizations that aid in current and future evaluations.
Before joining MAP, he served as a staff reservoir engineer and field development planning engineer at Devon Energy in Oklahoma City. Kaleb started at Devon in 2014 as part of the Junior Military Officer (JMO) Rotational Program, working in Midland on drilling, completions, and production assignments across Martin, Midland, and Ector Counties. Once in Oklahoma City, he worked as a reservoir engineer, serving as the reservoir engineering lead for the Mississippian Integrated Reservoir Characterization and assisting in the divesture of over $500 million in assets. As he moved into field development planning, he piloted, evaluated, and led the implementation of a new asset development software to simulate and test constraint-based development scenarios across the enterprise, as well as writing an internal paper (The Field Development Process: Building a Process to Model Future Development Plans at Devon Energy) to describe the links between the entire value chain from prospect to the portfolio. He also helped to design and evaluate the Corporate Stage Gate Process, which functioned as the primary communication tool for decision and risk analysis on E&P development opportunities for the executive team.
Before joining the oil and gas industry, he worked as a combat engineer officer for six years in the Army. He led a route clearance platoon of 27 soldiers on over 50 combat patrols in Iraq and supervised the engineering and contracting efforts for an Infantry Battalion in Afghanistan, managing over $100 million in projects. Kaleb ended his active-duty service in Hattiesburg, MS, leading a 5-person engineering team responsible for the planning, resourcing, and running of the day-to-day operations of a 50-person Engineer Battalion that trained over 15,000 Reserve and National Guard Soldiers for deployments.
Kaleb holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also holds an MS in Engineering from the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville, a MS in Agricultural Economics from Purdue, an MBA from Indiana University, and a Graduate Certificate in CCUS from Colorado School of Mines. He is a lifetime member of Tau Beta Pi and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Societies. Kaleb is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Texas and a Project Management Professional (PMP).
He has served as secretary and treasurer of the SPEE Oklahoma Chapter since 2023. He is a member of SPEE and SPE. He serves as the co-President for the West Point Society of Central Oklahoma and is on the board of directors for the Arkansas Armed Forces Alumni Society. He serves as a co-chair on Subcommittee 9 for the community investment committee of United Way of Central Oklahoma.
Position 2
Oscar Valbuena
Oscar is a Petroleum Engineer with over 30 years of experience (Universidad de América, 1993) with a Graduate Diploma in Finance (Universidad del Rosario, 1998), a Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering (University of Texas at Austin, 2007), and an MBA in Oil & Gas Management (Heriot-Watt University, 2020).
He has a strong background in reservoir engineering and assets development, with proficiency in reservoir management, characterization, 3D modelling, numerical reservoir simulation and enhanced oil recovery. Extensive experience in evaluation and integration of long-term field depletion plans, project economics, portfolio management, M&A, and new ventures.
With over 20 years of experience in this area, Oscar has expertise in reserves evaluation and reporting under SEC, PRMS, and NI 51-101 guidelines; leadership in defining and implementing corporate reserves processes, complemented with own training programs in the subject.
Oscar started his professional career in Ecopetrol, the Colombian national oil company, and has had the opportunity to work for Schlumberger, Petrobras, Sinochem, Pacific Rubiales, and Frontera Energy, an independent Canadian O&G company with operations in Latin America and Guyana, where He is currently the Director of Reserves and Development Technical Support, being responsible for the corporate reserves/resources process, and, the processes of reservoir characterization and modelling and field depletion plans evaluation and definition. During his career, he has evaluated assets in oil and gas basins around Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Brazil, US-GoM, and Guyana.
Oscar is affiliated to SPEE since 2021, being one of the founding members of the Latin America chapter and current Chairman, having as main goals to give continuity to the growth of the chapter and add value by supporting the materialization of the objectives of the SPEE, especially those related to the definition of best practices, professional growth of affiliates and education of the society on issues related to asset evaluation.
Oscar is a persevering person who enjoys traveling, sharing with family, and undertaking new personal and professional challenges with excellence and passion. He lives in Colombia and considers himself very fortunate to share life with his wife, Alba, and his daughters, Valeria and Isabella.
Gaston Fondevila
Gastón has been actively involved in the formation of the Latin American Chapter of the SPEE and has been an engaged member since joining in 2021. He is running for the board to contribute to SPEE’s mission of advancing the profession of Petroleum Evaluation Engineering in Latin America, with a particular focus on expanding chemical EOR in mature fields and unconventional reservoir development of Vaca Muerta.
Gastón began his career at Petrobras Energía S.A. in 2007 as a field reservoir engineer at the Puesto Hernández field (Neuquina Basin, Argentina), a mature, multi-layered light oil waterflood. He later held various engineering roles within the CAPSA-Capex group, where he played a key role in implementing the first chemical EOR (polymer flooding) pilot at the Diadema field (San Jorge Gulf Basin, Argentina) in 2007. This project and subsequent expansions eventually accounted for 20% of the field’s oil production through EOR. Gastón also contributed to the development of tight-gas reservoirs at the Agua del Cajón field (Neuquina Basin, Argentina), overseeing the drilling of more than sixty wells. Additionally, he led the reserves certification process for Capex’s international bond issuances in 2011, 2017, and 2023, totaling over $300 million. Since 2011, he has contributed to the appraisal and development of the Vaca Muerta shale oil formation in Agua del Cajón, focusing on reservoir engineering.
Since 2018, Gastón has served as Engineering Manager for the CAPSA-Capex group, overseeing asset evaluations for farm-in and farm-out opportunities. He has played a key role in evaluating farm-in prospects for assets such as Pampa del Castillo and Bella Vista Oeste (mature oil fields) and Puesto Zúñiga (tight-gas field), as well as managing the farm-out of unconventional pads at Agua del Cajón. His responsibilities also include leading the reserves certification process and overseeing special projects, such as a surfactant-polymer flood pilot and produced water treatment and desalination pilots. Additionally, Gastón is in charge of chemical EOR expansions, including both modular and centralized facility strategies and conformance gel treatment campaigns. He provides numerical and compositional simulation support, coordinates technical exchanges to accelerate learning with world-class operators (CNRL, PDO, OMV, MOL, among others), and offers technical support for partners under Joint Operating Agreements (JOAs) and interactions with governmental authorities.
Gastón holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires (2007) and has been a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) since 2005. In 2023, he earned an MBA (Cum Laude) from IAE Business School. Since 2009, he has also served as an Adjunct Professor in Petrophysics and Reservoir Fluids Thermodynamics at the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires. He has published eight technical papers with the SPE and the Instituto Argentino del Petróleo y del Gas (IAPG). He has actively inspired young professionals as a keynote speaker in roundtable discussions on upstream and mature fields, featured in the Jóvenes Oil & Gas journal at the Argentinian Oil & Gas Expo.
Gastón lives in Manuel B. Gonnet, Buenos Aires province, Argentina, with his son. He enjoys running regularly and playing soccer weekly, and is an enthusiast of trail running, mountaineering, and skiing.
Position 3
Todd Brooker
Todd believes in educating the world on the importance of hydrocarbons to societies and spends much of his time participating in conferences, meetings, and other events to not only develop business leads but also to engage in deep conversation to spread and gain knowledge. It is a pivotal time regarding the future of the oil and gas industry, and he feels that the SPEE organization can play a vital role in crafting the long-term narrative on reserves evaluations, ethical standards, and public education. Because of this, Todd would welcome the opportunity to serve on the SPEE Board of Directors and provide support to the organization in the areas of most need.
Todd is based in Austin, Texas, and is President of Cawley, Gillespie & Associates, Inc. (CG&A), a petroleum consulting firm specializing in reservoir engineering, with three Texas offices in Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin. He joined the firm in 1992 as a reservoir engineer and was promoted over the decades into various roles of increasing responsibility, becoming President in 2017. After almost a decade working in the Fort Worth headquarters of CG&A, Todd opened the Austin office in 2001 and grew the client base as well as expanded to 15 personnel in Austin.
On a day-to-day basis, Todd is responsible for reserve and economic evaluations, fair market valuations, expert reporting and testimony, field/reservoir studies, pipeline resource assessments, field development planning, acquisition/divestiture analysis, and business development. His reserve reports are routinely used for public company U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosures. His experience includes significant projects in both conventional and unconventional resources in every major North American producing basin and abroad, including oil and gas shale plays, coalbed methane fields, waterfloods, CO2 floods, and complex, faulted structures.
Prior to joining CG&A, Todd worked in Gulf of Mexico (GoM) drilling and production engineering at Chevron USA. Based in New Orleans, Louisiana, Todd started his career in the shallow GoM waters supervising wellbore repairs and production restoration in mature oil and gas fields utilizing contracted mobile jack-up rigs and crews. His offshore rig supervision work progressed to deeper waters and drilling operations, upsized scheduling and procurement, and increasingly intense drilling decisions and situations. Following his offshore efforts, Todd moved into a new role as Production Engineer focused on maximizing production in a mature, shallow GoM field.
Todd graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989 with a B.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas (License #83462), and a member of the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers (since 2018), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (since 1989), and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (since 2009). He and Liza, his wife of 31 years, reside in Austin, Texas, and have three daughters.
John Hornbrook
Dr. John Hornbrook received a B.S. degree with honors in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa in 1986. From Stanford University he earned an M.S. degree in 1991 and a Ph.D. degree in 1994 in petroleum engineering with a Ph.D. Minor in civil engineering. He received numerous educational honors and has contributed technical articles to industry journals and educational publications.
From 1994 to 1997, Dr. Hornbrook worked as a reservoir engineer for BP Alaska, where he focused on development of the Prudhoe Bay reservoir. He assisted with annual Reserves evaluations and performed modeling support for ongoing Reserves assessments. From 1997 to 2002, Dr. Hornbrook worked for Cawley, Gillespie, and Associates as an engineer on a variety of domestic and international projects. He performed Reserves evaluations and provided modeling support for Reserves evaluations on a variety of projects including conventional oil, gas, and heavy oil projects.
From 2002 through 2022, Dr. Hornbrook worked for DeGolyer and MacNaughton in various roles including Vice President (2004), Senior Vice President (2010), and Executive Vice President (2021). He provided engineering and management for projects around the world and gained in global venues including U.S. onshore, the shelf, and deepwater Gulf of Mexico; South America, the Midde East, Europe, Western and Eastern Siberia, Australia, Asia, and West Africa, and North Africa. Hornbrook’s experience includes field development studies, probabilistic analysis, Reserves and Resources estimation, property valuation, well test design and analysis, gas storage assessment, and analysis of improved oil recovery mechanisms. He is experienced in oil and gas, heavy oil, geothermal, and coal bed methane applications. He also developed and constructed a proprietary quick-look simulation-based model used in development and Reserves evaluations.
In 2023, Dr. Hornbrook founded Stratum Solutions, LLC, an independent petroleum consulting firm with a focus on field development optimization and Resources evaluations. Hornbrook also became Executive Director – Development and Engineering for Alpha Energy, a petroleum development company with a focus on field development rehabilitation and optimization.
In addition to the experience summarized above, Dr. Hornbrook has served as an expert witness on multiple significant arbitrations involving disputes on field development planning, Resources evaluations, and asset valuation. Dr. Hornbrook has written extensively and testified on a wide variety of related topics including, among others, development evaluation procedures, modeling techniques, PRMS and SEC Reserves evaluation and reporting procedures, development decision-making, and the estimation of fair market value.
Dr. Hornbrook is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers, and the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, and has served as technical editor for the “SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering” magazine. Dr. Hornbrook is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas.
