SPEAKERS

John Carrier is a Senior Lecturer of System Dynamics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. 

Carrier instructs senior managers on improving manufacturing and business processes and serves as an on-site coach in support of projects. His research focuses on strategic marketing and new business development in high technology, specialty chemicals, and service segments. Carrier has more than 15 years of experience in a variety of corporate, entrepreneurial, and consulting environments. Since 2006, he has worked with Arsenal Capital Partners as director of Six Sigma, where he is responsible for increasing portfolio company valuation by adapting and applying Six Sigma techniques to midsize companies. Carrier also handles due diligence, post-merger integrations, and financial analysis and improvement. Prior to joining Arsenal Capital Partners, he was employed by Grace Construction Products; Bain & Company, Inc.; and SuperCool LLC. 

Carrier holds a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, a PhD in chemical engineering from MIT, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

• Did some commentary work for ABC Sports in 2004.

• As a side business and hobby, rides and sells cutting horses.

• Family owns an oil company in hometown of Shreveport, La.

• Has started a golf course design business.

• Was awarded the Omar N. Bradley Spirit of Independence Award, which he accepted at the Independence Ball on New Year's Day 2004.

• Opened Christus Schumpert Sutton Children's Hospital in Shreveport, La., a five-story wing with 80 beds, in May 2006. He came up with the idea after his agent's 7-year-old daughter died of spinal meningitis. Hosts a charity golf tournament each spring to benefit the hospital. Event has raised $6 million.

• Shared the Golf Writers Association of America's 2006 Charlie Bartlett Award with Louisianans Kelly Gibson and David Toms for their combined $2 million-plus in aid to Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita victims.

• Lists Firestone CC as his favorite course.

• Favorite book is The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews.

• Best friend is Jack Burke, Jr.

• Finished inside the top 10 on the money list six times and collected multiple victories in five different seasons.

• A 14-time PGA TOUR winner over a career that went from 1982-2006.

• Inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in June 2009.

• Played on the United States Walker Cup team in both 1979 and 1981 and represented the United States in the World Amateur Team Championship in 1980.

• Twice earned All-America honors while at Centenary and was the 1979 and 1980 Trans-America Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

• His greatest season on TOUR came the year after being named Rookie of the Year (1982).

• Winner of the 1980 U.S. Amateur at CC of North Carolina and was the 1980 College Player of the Year.

Mr. Pilko is a seasoned executive with 42 years in the upstream oil and gas industry in oilfield services, operations, technology, management, and consulting. As the Strategic Relationships Director for Blade Energy Partners, Bob leads advanced projects with super major operators (BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Total), international operators (BHP, Lukoil, Repsol), North American operators (Devon, Husky, Suncor), and research organizations. Mr. Pilko has managed many projects including: drilling to the earth’s mantle; developing deepwater technologies for safety and well integrity; designing high pressure, high temperature wells; developing geothermal deep wells; and addressing natural gas storage issues. Bob served as the U.S. General Manager for Precision Drilling’s Northland affiliate, Production Services Coordinator for Paris-based Geoservices, Executive VP for Stric-Lan Companies Corporation, and held roles at Schlumberger.

Mr. Pilko is actively involved in industry organizations including the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN), American Petroleum Institute (API), American Association of Drilling Engineers (AADE), Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC). He has presented at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), SMU Geothermal Laboratory, EUCI, and the Energy Utility and Environment Conference.

He earned a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.B.A. from Texas Southern University, and a J.D. from South Texas College of Law.

Ajit Menon leads geothermal efforts at Baker Hughes. He has 25 years of experience in Baker Hughes, during which time he has held senior management positions in Operational, Sales, Marketing, Technical & Business management roles in multiple locations globally. In his current role, he supports the Geothermal Segment for Baker Hughes, encompassing both surface and subsurface solutions. Ajit has a bachelor’s degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and a master’s in Business Administration from the University of Bath, United Kingdom.

Clark Thompson is strategy and business development lead for Swivel.finance, an emerging decentralized finance startup. Previously he was Chief Information Officer at SignKeys, a global digital asset software and was a global solution architect at Consensys and R3. A recognized expert in the field of blockchain solutions for enterprise, he has advised governments, NGOs, central banks, financial firms and utilities. He has over twenty years experience designing, building, delivering and running large scale transaction processing systems. He served as co-lead for block chain strategy at Credit Suisse. Before Credit Suisse he was a senior manager in Deloitte’s financial services technology strategy and architecture practice, and previously held senior positions at Delaware Investments, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley in IT and operational roles. He is an expert in financial services front to back processing across multiple asset classes. In the energy space, Mr Thompson has worked on royalty management solutions, electrical grid management, advised the Ondiflo pipeline metering project and assisted in a number of proofs of concept.