Volunteer Recognition

Alex Ross: Alex is an oil & gas and mining IT professional with a geoscience technical background and more than thirty years experience working in the UK, USA and Australia for Shell, Schlumberger, Santos, Beach Energy, SA Department of Energy and Mines and SRA IT - optimising the development, management and delivery of data and information systems.

He is also a recipient of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA) Meritorious Service Award and has had many notable achievements throughout his career.

Alex was one of the first candidates to earn the Certified Petroleum Data Analyst (CPDA™) credential and soon after stepped up to volunteer as the Chair of the Energy Data Management Certification Committee (EDMCC). Alex’s commitment to the CPDA and work of the committee has helped expand the credential across many new global regions. He has gone above and beyond, presenting CPDA Information Sessions to corporate groups, and representing PPDM at various events, the latest being the RIMPA conference in Adelaide. We are so very grateful for the leadership, dedication and countless hours Alex has devoted as a PPDM volunteer.

Greg Foley: Greg spent 50 years in the workforce (25 years in Australia and 25 years in the US) before retiring in July 2024. Most recently, he worked at The FerVID Group, which he joined in April 2017 and was responsible for Business Strategy and Development. Previously, he introduced Brisbane-based startup RedEye to the US market.

With 32 years of market development experience applying technology to solve business problems, including 25 years in Oil & Gas, he is very focused on customer satisfaction. Prior to moving to the United States in 1999 and joining Petris Technology, where he spent 11 ½ years, followed by 4 years at Stonebridge, he was responsible for establishing HAHT Software in South East Asia.

Mr. Foley has also worked in Australia for Fujitsu, Digital Equipment Corporation, and ComputerLand. He previously taught for 12 years at St. Aloysius' College in Sydney.

Outside of work, Greg has served on the Board of the Australian American Chamber of Commerce for 21 ½ years, serving 6 as President. He has also served 2 years on the Board of the Woodland Heights Civic Association. Early in 2023, he joined the Houston Leadership Team for PPDM and contributed towards facilitating the 2023 and 2024 Conventions in Houston. He has been passionate about the importance of data quality in supporting decision-making in all aspects of business, whether technical or corporate. He will continue to serve the PPDM beyond retirement.

Tartan Collier: February 2024 Volunteer Recognition recipient is Tartan Collier. Tartan joined the Reference Values Work Group in early 2021. “Tartan has been a great volunteer and resource for our Reference Values team. He has dedicated a substantial amount of his time and has gone above and beyond, and we sincerely appreciate all his hard work.” said Linda Bragg, Senior Project Manager, IEDS. “With Tartan's assistance we have been able to publish a variety of reference lists in specific areas such as Wells, Drilling and Reservoir.”

Tartan is currently the Wells Data Principal at ExxonMobil in Houston, Texas. Over the past 34 years, his diverse career has included roles in operations engineering, user support of engineering technical applications, planning, projects, business architecture, and business & data strategy. Tartan holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.