After a record-breaking 2013 conference with 104,800 attendees, the Offshore Technology Conference Board of Directors has elected a new chairman and vice chairman for 2014-2015. Edward (Ed) G. Stokes takes on the role of OTC chairman and Dr. Joe R. Fowler will assume the vice chairman role.
Stokes has been a part of the OTC since 1995 and on the Board of Directors since 2008, representing the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. He has served as vice chairman since 2012 and as program committee chairman in 2002.
In his career, Stokes has amassed a broad range of supervisory and managerial experience in his long career in the upstream and marine segments of the oil and gas industry. He currently serves as Project Coordination Manager – Offshore at ConocoPhillips. In his current role, he is responsible for the day-to-day management of the offshore portion of the marine segment of the Brass LNG project, a joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Total, and Eni International.
Prior to this, Stokes was the manager of business development at ConocoPhillips Shipping. He also provided marine project development support to worldwide business units.
He has an associate degree in engineering science from Eastern Oklahoma State College, a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Oklahoma State University and an MBA from Houston Baptist University. He holds a Professional Engineer (PE) registration in Texas and is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Stokes has 15 technical publications, presented papers in five countries, and holds patents related to oilfield production and LNG ship design. He is a native of Okemah, Okla.
Fowler is president and co-founder of Stress Engineering Services, Inc., (SES) a 375-person engineering consulting firm based in Houston with additional offices in Cincinnati, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Calgary. SES is a world leader in floating systems design, fitness-for-service evaluations, consumer-product mechanical design, measurement and control systems, and third-party testing of full-scale systems and equipment.
Fowler received his bachelor’s with honors, master’s, and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Texas. He is a Fellow of ASME, and in 2000 he received the Outstanding Alumni Honor Award from the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University.
