Leadership Team

Mary has nearly 30 years of experience supporting the global oil and gas industry. She enjoys working with organizations worldwide to deliver meaningful training solutions and brings experience in training operations, business development, and building strong client and student relationships. Since joining SCA in 2009, Mary has helped clients and industry professionals build the technical skills needed to succeed in an ever-changing energy landscape.

Kirstin is a geologist with 20+ years of industry experience, working a variety of basins across North America from early appraisal to late field development. Kirstin has always been passionate about learning and has been developing and implementing upskilling programs throughout her career.  The last few years, she’s had an opportunity to become more focused on learning and capability development, helping companies develop their staff and build subsurface skills across the industry.

C. Susan Howes is President of SCA where she enables organizations to strengthen
decision quality and subsurface capability. She brings extensive leadership experience
from Anadarko and Chevron across reservoir engineering, business development,
human resources, organizational capability, and reservoir management. An active
leader in SPE and a recognized industry volunteer, including serving as 2027 SPE
President, Susan also serves on several academic advisory boards. She holds a BS in
petroleum engineering, cum laude, from The University of Texas at Austin.

Hal Miller is the Chairman of Subsurface Consultants & Associates, LLC’s Board of Directors after serving as President for 10 years. During that time, he was responsible for managing SCA’s global operations and guiding the company’s strategic direction. Prior to joining SCA in 2004 as Vice President of Operations, Hal spent a total of 26 years working at Conoco and ConocoPhillips. He held a variety of positions including operations, exploration, and human resource management at the business unit level, and corporate level skills management for the geoscience and reservoir engineering disciplines. Hal received his undergraduate degree in 1974 from Williams College in Massachusetts and his M.S. in Geology in 1977 from the University of Colorado, where he serves on the Department of Geosciences Advisory Board.

Matt joined SCA in 2012 and is currently Director of Finance, overseeing the firm’s accounting, financial operations, payroll, and regulatory documentation.  He also contributes to SCA’s marketing efforts through the creation of branded materials.  Matt earned a BBA in Finance from Baylor University and is a member of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity and Beta Gamma Sigma honor society.

Matthew Nowak has been working in the oil and gas industry since 2000. He works directly with senior-level professionals at major international oil companies, as well as independent producers. He joined SCA in 2006 as a Business Development Manager and currently serves as one of the Directors of Business Development. In this role he is responsible for overseeing sales and recruiting efforts and promoting SCA’s internal Projects & Studies teams. Matthew received his Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from Texas A&M University.

Tim Riepe joined SCA in 2008 where he currently serves as Business Development Director. In this capacity he manages the recruiting and sales efforts around SCA’s core competencies. He maintains professional relationships with a large network of geological and engineering Independent Consultants, and promotes SCA’s Consulting services, internal Projects & Studies team, Direct Hire services and training courses SCA offers. Tim earned his Business degree from Texas Lutheran University.

Vanessa Mills is an oil and gas sourcing and recruiting specialist with over 20 years of experience supporting the energy industry. Her expertise spans recruiting across geoscience, petroleum engineering, land, legal and other professional support functions. Vanessa is known for building strong candidate relationships and identifying top talent for specialized and hard-to-fill positions.

Tricia is an HR Manager with a strong background in organization, coordination and process development.  After an extended career pause, she returned to the workforce joining SCA with a fresh perspective and a passion for supporting both people and business operations.  She is excited to work alongside the SCA team and contribute to the company’s commitment to strengthening capabilities and delivering value across the energy industry.

Brandon Wright is Business Development Manager at SCA, bringing more than a decade of experience spanning business development, recruiting, and client relationship management. With a background studying Geological and Earth Sciences at Trinity University, Brandon combines an understanding of the geosciences with extensive experience connecting clients with technical talent and solutions across the energy industry.