President’s Column: Energizing Tomorrow: YOUR SPE Board of Directors

_ I am frequently asked how I got on the SPE Board of Directors or how somebody else can do so. Many people have mentioned to me that they feel that the Board is a “black box” or “insiders’ club.” I can understand how that can be the perception, but let me see if I can open that box a bit and provide some additional information about the workings of the Board and what came out of our most recent meeting at ATCE in Houston in late October. Transparency is a good thing! The Basics of the Board First, let’s start with the basics. The SPE Board of Directors is the policymaking and governing body for SPE International. These are volunteer positions. No one on the Board is paid for their time except the SPE CEO/EVP, who is the link between the Board and SPE staff. The volunteer status distinguishes Board members from the SPE staff, who are full-time employees of the Society and, of course, are compensated for their time. The Board is made up of 21 members divided into three groups: the Officers, the Regional Directors (RDs), and the Technical Directors (TDs). The Officers consist of four positions: the current, incoming and outgoing SPE Presidents, and the SPE CEO/EVP. The Regional Directors include 11 members representing our geographical regions around the world. There are also six Technical Directors who represent SPE’s eight technical disciplines. Each Board member serves a 3-year term (except for the SPE CEO/EVP). The members of the 2026 Board are listed here. Given the 3-year terms, approximately one-third of the Board rotates off each year. The Board’s composition has evolved over time to reflect changes in SPE membership, both by region and by technical disciplines. For instance, Technical Director positions were added in 2000 to address the increasing need for a focus on worldwide technological exchanges, not just regional ones. At that time, there were just two TDs representing Drilling and Reservoir. Prior to that, all director positions on the Board were strictly Regional Directors. Additionally, as technological priorities shifted, so did the assignments and number of TDs. For example, I started on the Board as the Production & Operations (P&O) TD when there were also Drilling & Completions and Projects, Facilities, and Construction (PFC) TDs. I ended as the first Completions TD, with Drilling becoming standalone, PFC combined with P&O under one TD, and the addition of what would ultimately become the Data Science and Engineering Analytics (DSEA) TD. In no way was this meant to slight P&O; it was strictly due to membership numbers and the need to rebalance the expansion and contraction of current technical topics at that time.