Ivan Sandrea was founder and former CEO of Sierra Oil and Gas, one the most successful E&P stories worldwide in recent years, and the company that led and participated in the award-winning Zama discovery.  Prior to that, Ivan held a number or entrepreneurial, leadership and corporate roles including Co-head of the global oil and gas emerging markets practice for EY in London, President of Energy Intelligence (the oldest oil and gas information service in the world) in London, Vice President of Corporate and Upstream Strategy and Business Development at Statoil (now Equinor) in Norway, head of oil supply at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, investment banker at Merrill Lynch and exploration geologist at BP.   During his career Ivan also held various roles at different starts ups in Latin America (Petra Energia in Brazil, Pan Andean Resources in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia).

Ivan is an active member of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), the Oxford Energy Policy Club, trustee of the Energy Policy Research Foundation (EPRINC) at Washington D.C. and a regular guest at the Global Business Policy Council of ATKearney.  Ivan’s academic activities include co-founder and guest lecturer at the Executive Energy MBA program at Wirtschaftsuniversität (WU) in Vienna, lecturer at the Executive Energy Program at ITAM, Mexico’s leading university, authorship of over 20 research papers, and co-authorship of Mexico’s most recent book on the “History of Exploration, its Amazing Carbonates and Untapped Oil Potential”.  Ivan holds a BSc in Geology from Baylor University, an MSc and MBA from Edinburgh University and attended the Berkeley Executive Leadership Program at Stanford University.

Juan Felipe Neira holds a law degree from Externado University. He has an LLM in Petroleum Law and Policy and an MsC in International Oil and Gas Management, both from the Center for Energy, Petroleum, and Mineral Law and Policy at the University of Dundee. He also holds a Ph.D from the same university, for which he focused his research on energy policy and the energy transition. His professional experience has centered on advising international organizations, national regulatory agencies, and private entities on the analysis and design and compliance of public policies in energy matters. He has several academic publications in Latin American and European journals on matters of law, regulation of conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons, and energy policy. He currently works as the Manager of Legal and Contractual Affairs for the National Hydrocarbons Agency of Colombia. He has also been a professor and researcher in the Department of Energy Mining Law at Externado University. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Stirling (Scotland), the Catholic Pontifical Universidad (Peru), and the University of the West Indies (Trinidad and Tobago).

Alexandra Hernández Saravia has extensive experience (more than 25 years) in structuring proposals and leading consensus on improvements in economic, regulatory, and socio-environmental conditions for investments in oil, gas, liquid fuels, and cement in Colombia. She is an Economist, and has a Master’s degree in Environmental Economics and Natural Resources. She studies in negotiation, strategic planning, and marketing.

Alexandra is a member of the board of directors of the Regional Center for Energy Studies (Centro Regional de Estudios Energéticos), the group of oil experts of the Ministry of Finance for the Medium-term Fiscal Framework, a co-founder of the Women in Oil and Gas group and a mentor of entrepreneurs and board of directors program of Bogota and Cali Chambers of Commerce.

Marianna Boza is a transnational attorney authorized to practice in Venezuela and Colombia. She is a Director at Brigard Urrutia and is Head of Mining and O&G. In her capacity, Marianna advises clients around the world on the operations and corporate transactions of upstream, midstream, or downstream energy companies.  She has substantial experience advising companies in the oil & gas and petrochemical sectors. She has been involved in major upstream, midstream, and downstream projects in Latin America, advising in the negotiation and drafting of the relevant contracts. Marianna has advised clients in the negotiation, creation, and financing of joint ventures for the development of hydrocarbons and petrochemical activities and the processing of gas in Venezuela and Colombia.

Marianna was the senior legal counsel at Shell Venezuela, actively participating in the downstream business to produce oil by-products. Additionally, she was an in-house attorney in secondment for the legal department of Repsol and ChevronTexaco in Venezuela, where she provided business-focused advice and gained on-site experience.

Marianna actively participates in several binational chambers of commerce and associations of industry and trade; she is currently the vice president of the Board of Directors of the Colombian-Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the director of the Extractive Committee of the Colombian-Canadian Chamber of Commerce.  Marianna is also a member of the Latin America Regional Executive Committee Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN).