Deanna YoungPresidentManaging Director, Opportune - National SponsorDeanna Young is a Managing Director of Opportune LLP. Deanna has over 15 years of consulting, management, and business strategy experience serving clients in the energy sector. Prior to joining Opportune, Deanna was the Co-Founder and President of AXIA, a professional services firm that focused in financial consulting, SEC research, IPO Advisory and Risk Management. Deanna led diverse teams of consultants in developing business strategies, organizational structures, and achieving financial success. Deanna started her career at Deloitte with a focus in the energy, manufacturing, and construction markets. While at Deloitte, she was selected to perform an international assignment with a major Russian energy company. She then expanded her international experience by accepting a position with Keystone International, where she focused on the operational control structure of various manufacturing plants located in Scotland, China and Mexico. Deanna also spent five years with a boutique consulting firm where she led business development activities and helped clients from throughout the energy sector accomplish their organizational and talent development strategies. A certified public accountant, Deanna received her Bachelors of Business Administration degree with honors in Accounting from Stephen F. Austin University and her MBA from Rice University. In 2013, she was awarded the Jones Citizen Award by the faculty at Rice University Jones School of Business for her commitment to serving others and exemplifying the leadership attributes of the university. Deanna currently serves as board member for WEN (Women’s Energy Network), Junior Achievement, She is a former board member of His Grace Foundation and Discovery Fitness Foundation.
Deborah MerrilPresident ElectPresident, Retail, EDF Trading North America, LLCDeb is the President of Retail at EDF, one of the top five suppliers to the large C&I segment. EDF’s knowledgeable teams provide a spectrum of solutions and access to insights that navigate the evolving energy landscape. The platform provides a suite of products including power, gas, renewable energy, demand response, energy efficiency and on-site generation management. It also includes technology solutions for greater transparency including EDGi, a customer portal that provides customer specific data and usage, billing, daily market reports, real time market prices, weather and news. Prior to EDF, Deb led Just Energy for four years as the President and co-CEO where she led the company through a transformation to a consumer-focused retail energy provider delivering real value to consumers. During her time as co-CEO, she improved the business performance and expanded outside North America by adding operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and Japan. Deb holds a BA from the College of Wooster, as well as an MBA from Texas A&M University. She is active with various organizations including serving on the advisory board for the Women’s Energy Network and the Hawthorn Club.
Gloria GoffSecretaryDirector of Client Services, Virtus Partners LLCGloria Goff has over 17+ years’ experience working in various fields of finance, sales, and business development. She has 12+ years working with executive leaders of corporations, entrepreneurial companies, municipalities, and school districts. Gloria is a Director at Virtus Partners, LLC working with investors and portfolio managers to provide collateral administration, portfolio analysis, and settlements. She began her career in Treasury Services with JP Morgan Chase then with International Loans managing European portfolios. She moved to Corporate Trust and was part of the asset swap that occurred between JP Morgan and BNY Mellon. She progressed to various roles at BNY Mellon leading up to Vice President and then to the Business Development team where she managed trust and escrow accounts for corporations in energy, healthcare, insurance, technology, and real estate for the Texas and Colorado regions. Through the years, Gloria built trusted relationships and gained valuable experience which provided the opportunity to move to a sales and business development role within Amegy Bank where she continued to improve client service for energy companies, municipalities, and school districts within the Houston, San Antonio, and Austin regions. Gloria enjoys being an active member of her community. She has served as Mentoring Chair for Women’s Energy Network from 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. She was awarded Volunteer of the Year in 2014 then Chair of the Year in 2015 and 2016 for Women’s Energy Network. Gloria is a member of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo where she volunteers her time on the Ticket Services Committee during the Rodeo Season. She is a founding member of Women on Course formerly known as Events 19, a professional women’s organization created to provide opportunities for women to play golf, network, and participate in various events.
Lily NieTreasurerSenior Associate, Alvarez & MarsalLily Nie is a Senior Associate within the Dispute and Investigation group at Alvarez & Marsal. In her role, she provides financial and accounting analysis regarding lost profit, bankruptcy, international arbitration, and litigation matters. Lily earned her M.S in Accountancy and B.A. in Mathematics Business at Wake Forest University. She is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Fraud Examiner. Lily is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. Lily is passionate about promoting diversity and helping others achieve their full potential. She has two cats: Cash and Grayson. In her spare time, she enjoys art, yoga, and spicy food.
Cindy DartezChief of StaffFirm Initiatives Specialist, Opportune - National SponsorCindy Dartez supports talent development and client relationship initiatives across the business practices of Opportune LLP, a leading global energy business advisory firm specializing in adding value to clients across the industry. She works closely with firm management and professional staff to promote strategic collaboration, while also helping cultivate client and stakeholder relationships. For almost twenty years, Cindy has been actively engaged in brand management, business development, and strategic marketing for private and public sector clients. An entrepreneur at heart, she founded a successful consulting firm specializing in graphic design, advertising, and marketing prior to joining Opportune. Her client portfolio included energy, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, and professional services firms. They recognized her unique talent for crafting and communicating concise value propositions across print and digital media. Cindy has also demonstrated a commitment to helping the local professional and non-profit community. Recent volunteer activities include supporting efforts at the Women’s Energy Network (WEN) Houston Chapter, Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas, and other service organizations. Cindy served as Luncheon Chair for WEN in 2018 and currently serves as Chief of Staff for the 2019 – 2020 term.
Manasi PandyaMembership DirectorCrestwood Equity Partners LP - Houston SponsorManasi Pandya is the Senior Director, HR & Organizational Development at Crestwood Midstream Partners. She joined the company in 2016. Manasi brings 10+ years of experience in Human Resources experience supporting the Oil & Gas industry. Prior to her current role, she served as Senior Manager, HR for Precision Drilling where she was responsible for leading all human resource related activities for Precision Drilling’s US & Canadian workforce. She gained her foundational HR experience with various HR related roles at Schlumberger in the US. Manasi holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from University of Houston.
Sara DeJay WillisMembership DirectorProperty & Casualty Consultant, USI Southwest, Inc.Sara DeJay Willis is a Property & Casualty risk management professional who specializes in servicing and supporting clients throughout the energy industry. As a Property & Casualty Consultant at USI, a large insurance brokerage firm, Ms. Willis is a team leader responsible for all origination, relationship development, and client support/service. Ms. Willis graduated summa cum laude from The University of Texas at Austin in 2012 and started her career in state politics working in Governor Perry’s office. Immediately following, she served as the Legislative Director and Director of Communications for State Representative Larry Gonzales in the Texas House. Since moving back to Houston in 2015 and starting her career in the insurance brokerage industry at Aon, Ms. Willis has been an active member of the Women’s Energy Network first serving as the Co-Communications Chair from 2016 – 2018, and most recently as the Co-Chair of the Executive Events Committee from 2018 – 2019. In her spare time, Ms. Willis enjoys spending time with her loved ones, close friends and animals John Henry, Lillie, Frank Sinatra, and Socrates. Her utmost passion is promoting women in the workplace to reach their career ambitions and lend those a helping hand along the way.
Katie HouseCommunity Initiatives DirectorConsultant, Darcy PartnersKatie House is an Engineer, Connector, Entrepreneur, Motivational Speaker, & HUGE advocate for Women in STEM! She is currently Co-Director of Community Initiatives with WEN Houston. Professionally, Katie is currently the Innovation Projects Lead at Darcy Partners, a technology scouting and consulting firm in Downtown Houston, as well as a certified yoga teacher.
Emma RussellCommunity Initiatives DirectorManager, Member Success, Warm CommerceEmma Russell is currently working for Warm Commerce, a Houston startup, as their Manager for Member Success. In this role Emma can use her experience within the Energy industry, operations and supply chain to oversee all the members on the platform as well as company operations and platform development to support this. Prior to joining Warm Commerce, Emma worked for BHP over 11 years executing a variety of roles within their Commercial and Supply Chain functions. From managing purchasing teams to category management groups across both onshore and offshore operations, Emma’s most recent role was on the leadership team as Head of Business Partnership for Supply with accountability to provide alignment and wiring between Supply and the Petroleum Conventional business. Emma has a passion for supporting gender equality and empowering women to push forward their careers therefore plays an active role in the Women’s Energy Network – Houston Chapter and is currently serving as Director of Community Initiatives. With a keen interest in supporting the community as well as innovation and technology, Emma is a Fractional Executive, coaching and advocating for Houston Startups, and Investor Member at The Cannon. Emma has an undergraduate Bachelor of Commerce degree, majoring in Marketing and Public Relations, from Curtin University in Perth, Australia as well as a Master of Commerce degree, majoring in Marketing, from the University of Western Australia. Emma and her husband Collin just recently became parents to Ava and in their personal time enjoy playing golf, travelling, spending quality time with friends, family and their two cats.
Lindsey BentonMarketing DirectorCommunications Advisor, ChevronLindsey Benton is currently the Communications Advisor for Chevron’s exploration and production operations throughout North America. Lindsey has more than 15 years of marketing communications and corporate communications experience in the technology and energy sectors. She began her career in advertising at J. Walter Thompson (JWT) where she led multi-million-dollar national advertising campaigns and large-scale events promoting retail fuels and lubricants products for a major oil and gas company. From 2011-2018, Lindsey held a variety of corporate communications, external affairs and marketing roles at GE Oil & Gas working alongside c-suite executives to protect and enhance the company's reputation, shape the culture, and launch new products to the marketplace. Prior to joining Chevron, she served as a Senior Manager of executive and employee communications to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). She holds an MBA from Syracuse University and a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from The New School University in New York. Lindsey is an active volunteer in the Houston community. She has been a Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo volunteer for 9 years and is currently an Assistant Captain on the Events and Functions committee. Previously, she served as the Women’s Energy Network Houston Mentoring Chair and STEM Charity Luncheon Chair and received the Chair of the Year award twice for her outstanding leadership. In addition, Lindsey was a former Volunteer Captain on the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee in 2017.
Jess NoesserMarketing DirectorMcDermott InternationalJess Noesser is a Global Marketing Specialist with McDermott International Inc., where she’s responsible for elevating brand and service line visibility through both traditional and digital media. Jess is a forward-thinking professional with more than five years of marketing experience and a passion for helping brands tell their stories across a variety of channels. Jess is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and a minor in Communications. She is an active volunteer for the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, as well as Women’s Energy Network, where she serves as the Director of Marketing. In her spare time, Jess enjoys cooking, fitness, spending time with family and friends, and traveling.
Sandy MaDirector of Membership ProgrammingIB Associate, CitigroupSandy Ma is currently pursuing her MBA at Rice University’s Jone’s School of Business where she serves as the External Relations Chair for the Rice Energy Finance Summit. Prior to Rice, she worked for 5 years as an operations engineer for Sunocco Logistics, which later became a part of Energy Transfer. Sandy earned her Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas in Austin. Sandy has been active in the Women’s Energy Network since initially joining the mentoring program as a mentee. Since then, she has served as an Advisory Council Liason in 2017 and is excited to continue WEN’s amazing track-record of producing fun, educational, and supportive programming for its members.
Alicia TaylorDirector of Membership ProgrammingVice President, Sr. Client Specialist, BNY MellonAlicia Taylor has over 16 years of operational and financial experience. Currently, she is Vice President, Senior Client Service Specialist at BNY Mellon. In this role she administers trustee, custodian, collateral administrator services and provides relationship management to portfolio managers, investors and financial institutions. Alicia began her career in Corporate Trust as a Trust Administrator in Global Structured Finance, where she served as a subject matter expert for a variety of processes and products such as reconciliation, accounting services, and cash distributions. Later, she became Relationship Specialist in Corporate & Insurance Business Development, where she established and maintained relationships with fortune 100 companies in the energy, entertainment, technology, and insurance industries. Alicia supported the onboarding of project finance, and debt issuance deals and documents, validation of mandates, know your customer (KYC) and organized several corporate events for client engagement and retention. Alicia is native Houstonian and enjoys being an active member in the community. She joined Women’s Energy Network, Houston Chapter, in 2014 and currently serving as the Co-Director of Membership Programming. Previously, she has served as 2015 Retention Membership Chair, 2016 New Membership Chair, and 2017-2018 Partnerships Chair. Alicia also sits on J.B. Rhodes Prostate Cancer Foundation Board. In her spare time, enjoys cooking, traveling with friends and spending time with her two sons.
Ann HuynhDirector of Educational ProgrammingDirector, Stout Risius Ross, LLCAnn Huynh is a Director at Stout (Stout Risius Ross, LLC), where she focuses on growth and distressed corporate advisory services. She has more than 15 years of experience in corporate restructuring and bankruptcy advisory, energy investment banking, energy/infrastructure finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance/treasury, and financial planning and analysis. Prior to this role, as a Director at Opportune LLP, she led financial and strategic advisory of multiple debtor and creditor side engagements in the energy sector through corporate restructurings. While at ENGIE (fka GDF Suez), and Kindle Energy (a Blackstone portfolio company), Ann provided project financing, transaction structuring, and cash flow/ treasury management for a portfolio of power generation assets (gas, coal, hydro, renewables, biomass). She also served as Director of Strategic Planning and Analysis for a large public retail services company for a number of years. Prior to that, Ann worked in transaction advisory and turnaround management at Ernst & Young, and Alvarez & Marsal. She started her career in energy investment banking and structured finance at Fieldstone Private Capital Group and Macquarie Bank in New York City where f she advised on M&A and capital raise transactions in the power and infrastructure industries. Ann is a graduate of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania with double Bachelor degrees in Finance and International Relations and earned her MBA from Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. She enjoys travelling, tennis and painting. She speaks several languages and is an advisory board member of “Under Our Wings”, a bilingual children’s literacy outreach program. As a member of WEN’s Board of Directors, Ann is Co-Director of Educational Programming. Ann is passionate about advancing women in finance and energy, by promoting continuous learning, leadership development and leveraging of our networks.
Sabrina KristobakDirector of Educational ProgrammingAir Liquide - Houston SponsorSabrina Kristobak is currently the Business Analyst for Hydrogen & Onsites at Air Liquide. She is responsible for financial reporting, driving strategic decisions for the business units she supports, and being the link between the financial and operations teams. Sabrina holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University with a minor in Spanish. She joined Air Liquide in 2014 as an ALLEX Program participant and has held various positions, including Eastern zone engineer for Industrial Merchants, strategic analyst for Large Industries, digital workplace change manager for Air Liquide University and project engineer for Advanced Business & Technology. In 2016, Sabrina joined the National Supply & Pipeline Operations team as the Operations & Compliance Engineer where she managed government compliance for Air Liquide’s Operations Control Center as well as managed product supply for the product lines of steam, water, and energy. She has been a member of the Women’s Energy Network for several years and has held the positions of Chief of Staff and Public Relations Chair. She is thrilled to serve on WEN’s Board of Directors for the Houston Chapter as the Co-Director of Educational Programming.
Susi Knight, CRPS, CFPA, C(k)PSponsorship DirectorSenior Consultant, Vice President, Bank of America Merrill LynchSusi Knight takes a vision and makes it reality through sound strategy development. She is an inspirational leader who tells stories that inspire action, yet is grounded in providing financial and investment guidance to clients. Susi is deeply involved in the community and passionate about helping other women pursue their goals. She serves on several nonprofit boards, including Women’s Resource of Greater Houston which helps women and girls take Control of their Finances and their destinies and the Anti-Defamation League Houston. She has been involved with WEN since 2012 in many roles including volunteer chair, luncheon host, Chair of Executive Events, she has been a WEN mentor and is an Advisory Board Member. In 2019 she was asked to step in asSponsorship Co-Director for a year due to a vacancy on the board. In 2019, Susi found the 2020 Women on Board Chapter in Houston, the highly successful inaugural event was attended by 300 senior professional women and men. As a founding partner of Truscott, Knight & Associates. Susi oversees the management of client relationships. She is spearheads strategic initiatives enabling innovation for the wealth management practice including the expansion of the team. TKA & Associates holistic approach meets clients financial and investment needs and provide access to banking, credit and lending at Bank of America, N.A. Susi holds an MBA and BBA from LeTourneau University. Susi is a Certified 401(k) Professional and a Chartered Retirement Plans Specialist. Susi holds a Series 7 FINRA Registration and is licensed to do general insurance business in Texas. Susi was born in UK, was raised in Argentina and South Africa, and has extensive travel experience. She lived in Northeast and now considers Houston, Texas, her home where she lives with Biscuit, her toy poodle. You can reach Susi at 713 658-1635 or susan.knight@ml.com
Alma ShieldsSponsorship DirectorShareholder, Liskow & LewisAlma Shields is a shareholder and business and energy litigator at the law firm of Liskow & Lewis’ Houston office. For her clients in the oil and gas industry, she handles a variety of complex matters, including general contractual disputes, indemnification, royalty disputes, trespass, and personal injury matters. Her experience is concentrated on appeals, as well as trials and alternative dispute resolution. Alma is the Sponsorship Chair for the Women’s Energy Network – Houston Chapter, a recently selected member of the Institute for Energy Law’s 2nd Leadership Class and the President-elect of the Friends of CanCare (a charity providing caregivers and emotional support for cancer patients). She and her husband, Daniel, just recently welcomed their son, Harris, and in their spare time, enjoy cooking and traveling.
Elizabeth PhillipsImmediate Past PresidentTreasurer, WaterBridge OperatingElizabeth M. Phillips is an energy finance and operations professional with over 12 years of treasury and business management experience across multiple sectors of the US energy industry. Currently, Ms. Phillips serves as Treasurer of WaterBridge Resources, LLC, headquartered in Houston, Texas and is a key member of the management team. WaterBridge provides best-in-class long term water management solutions for the E&P industry through an integrated operations network for produced water, transportation, disposal, supply and recycling. WaterBridge operates in the fast growing Delaware/Permian Basin of west Texas and the Arkoma Basin of southern Oklahoma. Prior to WaterBridge, Ms. Phillips was the Assistant Treasurer at PennTex Midstream Partners, a natural gas gathering and processing company, with assets in Louisiana, which was acquired by Energy Transfer Partners in June 2017. While at PennTex, Ms. Phillips played a leading role in the pre – and post – IPO process including treasury strategies, corporate cash and liquidity management, credit facility financing and debt management. She also supported M&A activity and investor relations. Before joining PennTex, she was with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Energy Investment Bank focusing on corporate finance and treasury management. Previously, Ms. Phillips owned and operated several businesses as well as founding a non-profit foundation raising funds for children’s charities in Southern California. Ms. Phillips’s educational background is in finance and business. She and her husband, Bob Phillips, have 8 children,10 grandchildren and 4 dogs, she is an avid tennis player, golfer and has a heart for encouraging women to reach their full potential.