DIANA FRANCE joined HFW as partner in 2001 to lead the firm’s international energy projects practice. Prior to that, Diana spent seven years in-house, including as Legal Adviser for Central Europe & Former Soviet Union for British Gas Exploration & Production Ltd. In that role, she advised on the Kashagan Consortium and Production Sharing Agreements, as well as projects in Poland, the Ukraine and elsewhere in the region.
Diana has over 25 years’ experience of advising on a broad range of oil and gas matters, including host government agreements in most of the major oil producing countries of the world, as well as joint operating, unitisation, farm-in/out, drilling and oilfield services agreements and corporate acquisitions.
Diana has been leading a team of HFW lawyers advising Kuwait Oil Company on its international legal affairs for over ten years. She is also currently advising on a joint venture to establish a drilling business.
Diana has an MA in Law from Cambridge University (Girton College) and is named as a Leading Lawyer in the 2018 Guide to the World’s Leading Energy & Natural Resource Lawyers (and earlier editions). She is noted as being recommended for her upstream oil and gas work by the Legal 500 and was included in The Lawyer list of Hot 100 lawyers for 2015.
Diana is a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales.
Rob Maguire is International Consultant and Trainer. He has over 30 years purchasing and supplier management experience in both operational and management consulting roles working for Reckitt & Colman (now Reckitt Benckiser), Black & Decker, Austin Rover Group, Pricewaterhouse and Ernst & Young. His consulting experience extends to Europe, the Middle East and the United States of America. He is a highly engaging speaker with extensive experience of chairing and presenting at conferences.
Rob is co-author and editor of “Good Purchasing Practice Guide” prepared on behalf of the Universities Funding Council for England and co-author of “Procurement Benchmarking for Higher Education”.
Pat Roberts is a consultant in the global LNG industry working across the LNG supply chain, actively advising and assisting with establishing and managing clients’ LNG businesses. Projects range from gas monetisation through to regasification terminals and marketing in the downstream.
Experience ranges from working with established industry players as well as new market entrants and financial institutions.
Additionally, Pat has 6 years of experience in Natural Gas divisions of Shell, where she gained specialist expertise in structuring and completing large complex commercial deals in LNG involving foreign governments and joint venture partners. She designed and implemented a portfolio of short and long-term LNG supply and demand contracts for the Atlantic Basin region (Middle East to East Coast of the Americas) and delivered robust commercial solutions for commercialising new gas streams for producers.
Previously, Pat worked for 18 years in Shell International’s Oil Trading and Shipping Division with secondments to Shell operating companies in Australia and Italy. Pat has a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Nottingham University.
David Tomkinson is a Director of andpartnership, has over 25 years’ experience of helping blue chip companies with their Leadership and Change, and Strategic Management. Current clients include Virgin Trains, Boots the Chemists, Johnson & Johnson, and Pentland Group (Speedo & Berghaus). He has helped organisations develop their senior leaders and improve their performance. David has held senior roles in training, development, HR and organisation development. He is passionate about helping individuals to be at their best more of the time and enabling leaders to engage others effectively. He has an MA in Management and Organisational Learning and is a Fellow of the CIPD. He has a Master’s degree in Management and Organisational Learning, is qualified in psychometric trait, Firo-B & Myers Briggs type assessment. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Leslie is an independent petrochemical and petrochemical supply chain expert, focused on the Middle East. He was born in Kuwait, where he lived for 16 years, and has over five decades of involvement with the region. He has degrees in Chemical Engineering (BSc Hons), business (MBA) and finance (Chartered Financial Analyst L1).
His 25 years of petrochemical experience include senior commercial positions with BP Chemicals, ICI Polyurethanes and Lyondell, where he led the Europe Middle East Africa Automotive business unit. He was a Board member of Synthomer and Linde.
Leslie works on a short-term, project-specific basis for a range of business advisors, producers and supply chain service providers. These include The CWC School for Energy, the GPCA, Petro Rabigh, ADNOC, Qatar Petroleum and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu. He provides market feasibility, strategic business development, partner identification and screening, and competitor and market intelligence.
Martin Hutchison is an independent consultant supplying strategic support to the global energy industry. He has over 40 years of international oil and gas industry leadership experience in technical, commercial and senior executive roles, encompassing Upstream and LNG across Europe, North and South America, Middle East and West Africa.
He began his career with Phillips Petroleum Company in London as a geophysicist, moving into international management positions in Commercial, ICT, Business Development and Corporate Risk Management. As President and General Manager for company operations in Venezuela he was also elected as chairman of the International Oil Committee, a body representing upstream investors, and served on the boards of the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce and Ameriven, a multibillion dollar integrated heavy oil project. He subsequently represented Phillips’
interests as President and General Manager in Core Venture 1, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia before taking up the position as the Managing Director and executive board member for Brass LNG Ltd, Nigeria.
Martin is a lecturer in several CWC School for Energy professional training courses as well as a regular chairman and Co-Chairman of CWC conferences.
Willy H Olsen is the former Senior Advisor to the President & CEO of Statoil. He joined Statoil in 1980 after 15 years in journalism. During his time at Statoil, Willy Olsen held a number of senior positions, including Managing Director of Statoil UK and head of Statoil’s activities in the former Soviet Union.
Willy is now the Senior Advisor to INTSOK, a foundation owned by the Norwegian government and Norwegian oil industry. INTSOK is coordinating the efforts of expanding the internationalisation of the Norwegian petroleum cluster. He is an Associate Fellow of Chatham House in London and member of the Governing Board of Revenue Watch Institute in New York and has in recent years worked with Governments and National Oil Companies in several oil producing countries.
Willy Olsen is also the course leader for the School’s National Oil Companies – Challenges & Opportunities and Maximising the Benefits of Local Content courses.
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