LEADERSHIP
Fluid’s leaders foster a quality-focused culture and enable employees to develop technically-advanced products, deliver top-level services and operate with the highest levels of integrity
Executive Leadership Team
Clay Purdy / Chief Executive Officer & Board Chair
Clay brings more than 30 years’ industrial experience with an extensive tenure in the global energy sector. Clay was the senior country manager responsible for Saudi Arabian operations for an international company, underbalanced re-entry division. Clay also served many years for a Canadian completions company and was responsible for overseeing all field operations across western Canada. Clay’s extensive operational management, commercial and chemical experience is coupled with an extensive international network, having founded many companies throughout his career. Clay has a depth of experience and business acumen in the development and execution of strategic plans for international growth orientated organizations.
Chad Leier, P.Eng. / President & Chief Sustainability Officer
Chad brings more than 20 years of progressive industry experience to his role as President. Previously, Chad was instrumental in leading a major energy services company as the President of its Canadian Division. Chad has proven tremendously valuable in the successful navigation of the complex North American energy landscape over the years and is networked to all of the major operators in Canada and the USA. Chad holds a Bachelor of Science in Geological Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and has completed Executive Education Programs at the University of Calgary. Chad is a Professional Engineer (APEGA) and sits on a number of not-for-profit and charitable boards.
Kevin O’Donoghue / Chief Operating Officer
With a career spanning three decades, Kevin has acquired a wealth of experience in international business operations, manufacturing, and supply chain management. While holding multiple operations management roles within a multi-billion-dollar international logistics and drilling company, Kevin directed all logistics and developed, implemented and supported operations throughout Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United States. As a co-founder of Fluid Energy Group®, Kevin has been involved in all aspects of the company’s growth and success since its inception. He led development of the innovative Triton Products retail line and subsequent rollout into multiple levels of government as well as retail stores in North America. Kevin has been instrumental in securing Fluid’s GMP accreditation and his results-oriented leadership skills are an asset to all facets of the business, both nationally and globally.
Markus Weissenberger, Ph.D. / Chief Technology Officer
Markus has over 20 years of international research and development experience with renowned research facilities and diverse industrial fields. He holds a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Potsdam/Germany and executed his research work at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam/Germany. Markus has a profound working knowledge of the oil and gas industry encompassing fracturing, cementing, heavy oil recovery and chemistry. An active SPE member, Markus maintains a working knowledge of all applicable chemistry in Fluids industry. During his last position Markus was the lead of a stimulation R&D group of an international Oil & Gas service provider. Markus has extensive experience in international commercialization of new completion and production chemistry working closely with engineering, marketing and sales. Markus brings substantial experience and technical support for sales and marketing, product development and IP generation. Markus has co-authored many oil and gas chemical patents.
Brandon Holden / Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary
Brandon is the general counsel of Fluid and is responsible for overseeing all legal matters. Brandon is a business-practical lawyer with ten years of experience working in private practice at the law firm of Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP (BD&P), with a focus in domestic and international tax, as well as corporate law. While at BD&P, Brandon advised on over 500 transactions, with an aggregate transaction value exceeding $20 billion. Brandon has significant experience advising on share and asset acquisitions, amalgamations and mergers, debt and equity financings, reorganizations and restructurings, outbound and inbound investments and business expansions, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, employment compensation, resident and non-resident distributions, and transfer pricing, among other areas. Brandon is also the author of many reasoned legal and tax opinions, the author of multiple published articles, and has presented at a number conferences on complex tax topics.
Brandon holds a Law degree from Dalhousie University, a Bachelor of Commerce (with Distinction) degree from the University of Alberta, a Certificate for levels I through III of the In-Depth Tax Course (CPA), and a Certificate of Completion (with Honors) for the Canadian Securities Course. Prior to joining Fluid, Brandon acted as the Vice-Chair, Executive of the CBA - Tax Specialist (South).
Steve Franklin / Executive Vice President, Finance and Corporate Services
Steve is a business graduate and Charted Professional Accountant who has over 15 years of experience in strategy, business transformation, finance, accounting, mergers and acquisitions, and human resources. He started his career in environmental services with Newalta Corporation where he was responsible for financial analysis, tax, and business development and was heavily focused in the company’s US business stream. In 2011, he moved into a Controller role with upstream oil and gas company, NEP Canada. At NEP, he was responsible for all day-to-day accounting functions, operational and capital accounting, financial statements, MD&A, budgeting, forecasting, audit, and tax preparation. He was also the human resource manager and IT liaison. He helped position that company for sale; selling in the hundreds of millions. Steve brings a wealth of accounting management experience to aid Fluid as it continues to expand its global operations, now spanning five continents.
Global Leadership Team
Steve Mann / Vice President, Sales
Steve is Vice President of Sales at Fluid and leads the sales team in promoting and educating current and prospective customers around the world about Fluid’s advanced technologies. Steve has a deep understanding of the challenges faced by multiple industries and is well positioned to find optimum solutions in Fluid's portfolio of low-hazard, technically-advanced patented technologies. Steve graduated from SAIT with a Petroleum Engineering Technology Diploma and started his career with a pressure pumping company operating in northern Alberta, Canada. He quickly advanced into the company’s engineering department and was responsible for overseeing fracturing job design and execution for a number of top-tier customers. Following a series of customer in-house assignments, he advanced into a sales role. Now, with more than a decade of sales experience, Steve has been instrumental in Fluid’s growth into a leading international supplier of patented modified acids and auxiliary chemical products.
Ron Hoffmann / Vice President, Business Development
Ron Hoffmann brings more than 30 years of diverse experience to Fluid Energy Group/SixRing, having served in leadership positions in Canada’s diplomatic service, and federal and provincial governments. As a Canadian diplomat Ron has served in six countries spanning four continents, with extensive experience in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. His roles including Senior Trade Commissioner, Director General of Strategic Policy, Director of Defence and Security Policy, and Senior Advisor to two Canadian foreign ministers. Ron has served as Ambassador in Afghanistan at the height of Canada’s engagement and as Ambassador in Thailand with cross accreditation to Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. His other postings were in China, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and South Africa. Since 2014 Ron has served Alberta as Senior Representative to Asia based in Hong Kong, and then as Interim CEO and then COO of Invest Alberta tasked with standing up the corporation in its initial year and supporting several major new investments into the province. While based in Hong Kong, Ron was elected Vice Chairman of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce from 2015-2019. He is a frequent commentator and lecturer on foreign policy, international affairs and government.
Stig Nordaa / Vice President, European Operations
Stig studied Bioscience and Business Administration at NORD University and has held leading management positions in the North Sea chemical oil service industry since 1990. Stavanger, Norway has served as his base for activities in the North Sea-Europe region and for the international commercialization of his own scale dissolution chemicals company, DPI Chemicals, which was acquired in 2013. Stig grew up in Ghana and Saudi Arabia and returned to Norway at age 18 where he studied bioscience/aquaculture and business administration. Stig has held the position of managing director, technical director and country manager for various international chemical companies before joining Fluid Energy Group as Vice President, European Operations. Stig brings a breadth of chemical and application knowledge to Fluid that is instrumental to its success in the offshore North Sea and European market.
Blake Pozzi / Vice President, US Industrial Division
Blake brings 10 years of professional experience in chemical distribution and manufacturing to the Fluid team. He last worked at Brenntag Pacific as the Corporate Contract Manufacturing Manager, and led over 30% of the growth of the entire region for 3 years. Before this, Blake oversaw two facility builds and Brenntag Pacific’s capital projects as Corporate Engineering Manager. Blake has utilized his extensive networks and knowledge in chemical manufacturing and global supply chain to expand business and maximize profitability. Blake holds a Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University.
Najim AlNajjar / Managing Director, Fluid International DMCC
Najim began his career in the United Kingdom manufacturing sector then progressed to the O&G industry, he relocated back to the Middle East in 2004 with BJ services, where he spent time working in the United States and across the GCC. His starting point was in the lab performing testing for cementing and stimulation services. He then worked his way up the ranks as an engineer, technical manager, operations manager, and product-line manager primarily in upstream services focusing on the Pressure Pumping division. Najim was responsible for designing and executing some of the largest matrix acid stimulations in Kuwait, along with introducing and championing proprietary technology across the Middle East and North Africa region. Najim has held multiple senior advisor and management roles with a diverse background in both operations and technical positions with major service companies. Najim joined the team at Fluid in 2019 and has been an influential part of our growth outside of North America and the European Union.
Kye Yocham / US Technical Sales Manager
Kye Yocham is our US Technical Sales Manager who works with companies to introduce novel, environmentally conscious chemistries to their program in an effort to increase safety and operational efficiencies. He believes that offering safer chemistries that can also provide cost savings to customers is extremely beneficial for the public and private sectors. Over the years, Kye has supported Fluid's efforts to increase sales and awareness of Fluid's technology in the United States by educating the market about the benefits of safer chemistries that can also reduce operational costs. He has presented on several topics for the Society of Petroleum Engineers and is named on several patents for his work regarding friction reducers and borate crosslinked systems. Kye holds a B.S. in Chemistry with a Minor in Mathematics from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
Jay Cziraky / Senior Advisor - Europe, Asia and Africa
Jay Cziraky is a Dubai-based Canadian serial entrepreneur and investor in emerging and frontier markets. After attending the Faculty of Business at Brock University, Canada, Jay re-located to Budapest in 1997 to start his entrepreneurial career with Move One. In his partner capacity (1997-2015) Jay was instrumental in Move One becoming a leading Projects Logistics company in more than 30 countries in Eastern Europe, The Balkans, Central Asia, Middle East and Africa, with key industry focus on military, government, humanitarian aid and natural resources. In 2011, Jay founded North Degrees, a developing markets investment and operating company, which launched its first projects in Iraq in 2012. Jay currently acts as Chairman of North Degrees and is focused on regional expansion in Europe Asia and Africa, within the addition of Energy, Natural Resources, and Technology business segments. In 2013, Jay became an Investor and Advisory Board Member of Infrontier, a Private Equity start up with focus on post conflict zones. Jay further participates in various other commercial board and partnership roles in the MENA Region, including Managing Partner in the Astro Group of Companies. Over the course of 20+ years, Jay has opened more than 50 companies, across 30+ countries on 4 continents. In addition to his corporate roles, Jay is an active member of the global community including as a member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network, previously on the MENA Global Agenda Council. Jay is also an active member of YPO Dubai Chapter. As a global citizen, Jay has visited all 7 continents and has lived in more than 10 post conflict and developing countries.
Paul Henderson / Advisor, Strategy & Development - Europe, Asia and Africa
Paul is an accomplished director-level chemicals professional with more than 40 years' experience in the global chemicals industry. He has a proven record of achieving significant performance improvement in a range of businesses from bulk commodity chemical trading to specialized consumer products and from multinationals (ICI, DuPont, Burmah-Castrol, BP, Univar) to private equity-backed businesses. Paul has lived in worked in multiple locations globally and has an in-depth understanding of the global chemicals business. Latterly, Paul has acted as an independent consultant to individual clients, specializing in strategy development and specialist advice for M&A in the chemicals industry. Paul is fluent in French, German and Spanish and proficient in Italian in addition to his mother tongue, English. Paul is a British citizen also holding Swiss nationality. Paul has a degree in modern languages from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
Karl Dawson, PhD / General Manager
Karl has over 13 years of experience in materials development, analytical chemistry, and quality initiatives. Karl holds a Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry from the University of Calgary, and during his academic pursuits he gained experience in multiple disciplines including, but not limited to, pharmaceuticals, nanoscale pigments, and metal-organic hybrid materials. Karl began his career in the analytical and R&D group of an International Oil & Gas services provider focusing on novel cementing and ancillary technologies, and then transitioned to an internationally-recognized third-party testing laboratory where, in addition to handling client accounts and testing protocols, he oversaw the ISO 17025 QA/QC program, while overseeing a team of scientists and technicians. Throughout his career, Karl has also been the co-author of several peer-reviewed journal publications, as well as being a co-author of 10 patents. Karl’s breadth of experience will ensure Fluid® continues to build on its world class portfolio of patents, expand its innovative product offerings and technical support capabilities, and help ensure the high level of quality expected in Fluid’s product portfolio.
Darryl Desveaux, P.Eng / Operations Manager
Darryl Desveaux, P.Eng is an Operations Manager who works with SciencePak Inc. to oversee the regulated blending, packaging and warehousing processes while fostering a quality culture. Darryl believes that safety, accuracy and efficiency are the three pillars of manufacturing excellence. Darryl holds a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manitoba. He is a professional engineer registered with APEGA and holds a Class IV Power Engineering license through ABSA.
Darryl has over 16 years of experience within the highly regulated industries of Beverage Alcohol and Chemical Manufacturing and has held a wide range of technical and leadership roles such as team leader, maintenance planner, senior process engineer, production manager and director of operations. Throughout his career he has been a safety champion receiving extensive safety training (from spill response to confined space rescue and scba), creating and managing emergency response plans and managing safety programs. He began his career in the composites manufacturing industry working in technical roles designing various tooling, processes and products for injection molding and extrusion business units.
Jessica Hersey BSc / Assistant Lab Manager GMP QC
Jessica has over 13 years of experience in analytical chemistry, working in environmental and oil and gas laboratories. Jessica holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Calgary. Jessica began her career in the environmental sector focusing on soil chemistry and later transitioning into inorganics. She helped execute the quality program to maintain ISO 17025 certification. This experience gave her an opportunity to shift to the oil and gas sector. Jessica worked her way up the ladder from lab technician, to lab supervisor, to analytical lab manager, overseeing other Chemists and Chemical Technologists who help service sites across Canada. She was responsible for timely determination and accuracy of laboratory results. Throughout her oil and gas career, Jessica has been involved in training and mentoring account managers and scientists, implementation, and execution of the Safety Champion Program, which was a driving factor in obtaining her certificate in Occupational Health and Safety from the University of New Brunswick.
Jessica's experience and drive will ensure a high level of quality and a high level of safety is maintained at all times.
Kyle Wynnyk, PhD / Assistant Lab Manager R&D
Kyle holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Calgary where he studied physical chemistry, specifically adsorption processes. In attaining his Ph.D. Kyle gained experience in wide-variety of subjects and skills, examples include: closed-form iterative chemical calculations and commissioning instrumentation (development/calibration/modification/programming). Throughout his career, Kyle has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed journal articles, presented at numerous international/national conferences, and has been a co-author of several patents.
Matthew DeWit, PhD / Research Scientist
Matthew DeWit is a research chemist with seven years of industry experience who works with SixRing to develop new technology in order to both generate new intellectual property and commercialize new products and materials.
Matthew believes that this work is very important in ensuring long term growth and stability for the company, as the commercialization will bring new, diverse and sustainable markets to the company, and developing and protecting new intellectual property protects company interests and helps prevent or reduce direct competition to our processes and products.
During his academic pursuits Matthew gained experience in the fields of organic, polymer, and organometallic chemistry, during which time he co-authored several peer-reviewed publications. Matthew began his career in the oil and gas industry, where he focused on the development of new drilling fluid products and systems, helping to commercialize several new products and develop standardized testing procedures for new product evaluations. Since joining SixRing he has helped substantiate three previously filed patents and generate five additional ones.
Matthew holds a Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Western Ontario.
Andrew Corbett, BSc / Research Chemist
Andrew is relatively new to the chemical research industry, graduating in 2019. At Queen's University Andrew achieved his molecular biology minor, as well as his chemistry honors degree, granted for his research into biological value-added chemicals derived from algae. Andrew has also maneuvered around the scientific community laboratories, from purifying proteins and replicating DNA to conducting bacterial toxin research for AHS' Provincial Lab. Starting in quality control and regulations for Fluid Energy Group, Andrew quickly shifted to focus in research and development, including equipment analysis of new techniques and products; a skill which he now brings to Fluid's SixRing division.