MANAGEMENT TEAM
Carbon GeoCapture is comprised of a strong global management team with decades of experience in conventional and unconventional energy production. The team also includes seasoned counselors in government affairs, finance, and marketing to help shape a favorable market and regulatory environment to sequester carbon dioxide at scale.
We are passionate about using our combined experience and skills to help mitigate climate change as quickly as possible. Our corporate locations are in Laramie, Wyoming, Boulder, Colorado, and New York, New York. Learn more about each of our team members below, and read their insights on our Perspectives page.
Management
John Pope | 
John M. Pope, Ph.D., currently serves as President & Chief Executive Officer of Carbon GeoCapture, a company he founded in 2016. A serial entrepreneur with a strong desire to make a difference, in 1998, he founded Blue Sky Group as an umbrella for his various ventures, including: Blue Sky Batteries, a company focused on developing nanostructured battery materials; NDC Power, a company that developed a direct ethanol fuel cell; Centennial Woods, a company focused on reclaiming and repurposing Wyoming’s snowfence wood while preserving snowfence inventory; and WellDog, a technical services company that uses innovation to drive sustainability in the carbon, oil, gas, and mining industries to improve economic quality of life without reducing environmental quality of life.
Wade A. Bard |
Wade A. Bard has extensive development and operations experience in the energy industry. Bard’s background lies in reservoir engineering and numerical simulation, and he has a strong understanding of geology and its impact on reservoir development and economics across a variety of geographic areas. His expertise encompasses a strong depth and breadth in both technical strategies and business strategies. Bard works to create financially viable solutions and strategies to both address complex problems and ensure positive business outcomes, and is a trusted advisor to peers, business executives, and boards.
Mike Haddenham |
Mike Haddenham has a demonstrated history of working in the oil and energy industries. He is an experienced consultant with over 40 years of experience in oil and gas operations in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming. Mike has also served as a project and operations manager of coal bed methane wells in the Powder River Basin, with a focus on safety and environmentally sound practices.
Bob Van Heuvelen |
Bob Van Heuvelen is a Principal at the Vogel Group. Bob joined the Vogel Group after serving as CEO of VH Strategies which he founded in 2007, following a distinguished 32-year career in the federal government. He has achieved positive client outcomes on a wide array of issues, including obtaining federal funding, tax incentives and tax relief, regulatory victories, and targeted legislation to meet clients’ policy objectives. Bob has been consistently recognized as a “Top Lobbyist” by The Hill, and represents clients in the energy and environment, trade, healthcare, and financial services sectors.
Sam Yntema |
Sam Yntema is a Director at the Vogel Group, taking an active role in representing Vogel Group’s clients on Capitol Hill and in the administration. His work at the nexus of business and federal policy focuses on climate solutions, trade, energy, financial services, tax, and appropriations issues. Sam has a keen understanding of both big picture politics and how the nuances of intersecting forces and interests can drive policy decisions. Sam is actively involved in advising across the aisle regarding amendment of the Section 45Q tax credit code and related climate change policy.
Dylan Esquivel |
Dylan Esquivel is a distinguished reservoir engineer and operational manager with extensive operational experience across a range of sectors and geographies. He has led projects in carbon sequestration, conventional oil and gas, coalbed methane, and geothermal energy. Currently, Dylan serves as Reservoir Engineer at the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA).
Tony Calandro |
Tony Calandro has more than 25 years of experience conducting strategic communications initiatives on behalf of Fortune 500 companies’ efforts to address and mitigate climate change. In this capacity, he has developed campaigns to shape public opinion on climate change, including managing corporate communication and engagement efforts at United Nations Climate Change Conferences, as well as cultivating corporate partnerships with climate NGOs to identify innovative approaches to bring renewable energy to the Southeast and Midwest regions of the United States and “green” the U.S. electrical grid. Tony has also partnered with the Vatican’s Council on Inclusive Capitalism on communication efforts to highlight the need for a fair and equitable transition to a global economy much less reliant on fossil fuels.
Art Toews |
Art Toews has over 45 years of experience in oil and gas operations and high-performance instrumentation. He is highly experienced in coal bed methane (CBM) engineering, field operations, and operational management. Art has worked in most major basins in the United States and in international settings including Australia, China, Mozambique, and Indonesia.
Jason Begger |
Jason Begger is an experienced executive with a demonstrated history of working in the government affairs, public policy, business development, and power procurement sectors. His current and previous clients include the U.S. Gold Corp, CK Gold Project, Broad Reach Power, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, and The Dow Chemical Company. Jason has also served as managing director of an integrated test center, which is the largest CCUS facility in North America and as Executive Director of the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority. He is a former Energy Advisor to Wyoming Governor Mike Gordon.
Advisory Board
Chris Walker |
Chris Walker has pioneered business partnerships and market initiatives to address climate change for over two decades. Previously, Walker served as Director, North America at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in New York City, where he managed WBCSD’s relationship with 47 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in North America. Prior to WBCSD, Walker was as a member of Ernst & Young’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services, as well as Executive Officer of Carbon Trust, LLC, and Executive Director for North America for The Climate Group, where he conceptualized and implemented “Climate Week” as an annual event in New York City.
Chris Varrone |
Chris Varrone has been a consultant and banker to more than 50 cleantech companies over the past 10 years. He is the former Chief Strategist/Technology R&D at Vestas Wind Systems and a former management consultant with McKinsey & Co. Chris was a Fulbright Scholar in Norway and holds an M.A. in Economics (First Class) from Cambridge University.
Marcia Simpson |
Marcia has 44 years of experience in the upstream petroleum industry, including reservoir engineering, operations, asset acquisitions and sales, planning, budgeting, and performance management processes. Early in her career, Marcia gained experience in CO2 enhanced recovery projects, which gives her important insights to carbon sequestration processes and challenges. Most recently, Marcia served as Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations of Chief Oil and Gas, LLC, which became one of the largest privately-owned gas producers in the United States and underwent a $2.6 billion sale to Chesapeake Energy Corporation.
Jason Shogren | 
Jason Shogren currently serves as the Stroock Chair of Natural Resource Conservation and Management in the Department of Economics at his alma mater, the University of Wyoming. He studies the behavioral foundations of economic and environmental policy, including the economics of climate change, biodiversity, and non-market institutions to provide private and public goods and services. In 2001, Shogren was a lead author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was honored with the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He has previously served as a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and professor to King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Mark Northam |
Mark Northam is a Mobil and ExxonMobil veteran, with twenty years of carbon capture and sequestration projects. He is the founding director of University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources. He also oversaw carbon management operations at Saudi Aramco.
Patric N. Galvin |
Patric Galvin’s career in the environmental and energy sectors spans over 40 years and 15 companies worldwide. Currently, Galvin serves as Founder of i3 Capital Partners, LLC, whose mission lies in helping companies grow and build top and bottom lines. Galvin’s business experience has tackled everything from small projects, developing billion-dollar opportunities, launching startup-teams, managing large companies, and providing ongoing advice and direction to numerous companies at the Board level. Galvin’s energy-related projects include coal bed methane development; oil and gas development; fracking sand discovery, development, and sourcing; flowback and process water cleanup; and freshwater acquisition and transportation.
George Sorenson |
George Sorenson founded FE Clean Energy Group Inc. in 2001 and serves as the Chairman. FE Clean Energy Group, put together some of the first funds in the clean energy market that brought together strategic and financial investors to maximize investment success. George was an early investor in clean energy, and has a wide range of experience in originating, structuring, negotiating, and executing direct equity investments in electric, gas, water, and telecommunications utilities in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Prior to FE Clean, George co-founded FondElec Group in 1992, and served as Chairman of this private equity firm specializing in Latin American utility investments.