Collaboration

Appointment Type: Ex-Officio

Jill Mackey has been with the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Energy Regulator (C-NLOER) Safety Department since 2012, having previously served in the positions of Safety Officer and Lead Safety Officer. As Chief Safety Officer and Director of Safety, she is focused on oversight and management of departmental activities, processes and procedures.

Jill graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from Memorial University of Newfoundland and also has a B. Ed., (Intermediate / High School) and B.Sc., (Biochemistry Honours), from Memorial. She is a Professional Engineer, a Canadian Registered Safety Professional and has attained an Executive Certificate in Public Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School. Along with her scientific training, Jill is a graduate of the French Immersion Honors program at Holy Heart of Mary High School and successfully completed three French bursary programmes in Quebec.

In her spare time, Jill enjoys good food, painting, hiking and travelling.

Appointment Type: Ministerial

Chris is the Director of Regulatory Affairs with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Industry, Energy and Technology (IET) where he has been employed since 2000.

In this role, Chris has been involved in the regulatory oversight of both the province’s offshore and onshore oil and gas regulatory regimes, including the province’s joint management of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Area and provincial oversight of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board. A key component of this function was representing the province in the development of a new comprehensive Offshore Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act and the subsequent offshore OHS Regulations.

Prior to joining IET, Chris spent several years in private industry working in both the financial and environmental sectors. He holds a Master’s Degree in both Business Administration and Science.

Appointment Type: Ministerial

Robert Coady has served on the OHS advisory council since October 2021 as a provincial government appointed employee representative.

Robert was born and raised in Cape Broyle on the southern shore and graduated from Baltimore High school in Ferryland. He completed his post-secondary education at the College of the North Atlantic. He is a journeyperson electrician and has worked in the offshore sector for the past 12 years.

Robert is employed by Hibernia Management and Development Company on the Hibernia Platform, where he holds the position of electrical technician. On Hibernia, Robert serves as a member of the joint occupational health and safety committee representing the maintenance department. He has been involved with the JOHS committee on the platform since 2012. Robert is also an active participant on the multi-stakeholder Offshore Energy Digitization Forum (OEDF).

Robert is the President of Unifor Local 2121 which represents workers on Hibernia and Terra Nova FPSO.

Robert resides in Bay Bulls with his wife Amanda and Kids, Morgan and Colby. He is an active volunteer with Southern Shore Minor Hockey Association and can be found at the rink most days.

Appointment Type: Ministerial

Ahmed Ewida holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering and a M.Sc. in Civil-Ocean Engineering from Cairo University, as well as a Ph.D. in Civil-Structural Engineering from the University of Calgary. Ahmed has over 40 years experience in engineering, project management, and program management, at the technical, management, and leadership levels. Throughout his career, he has held senior and leadership positions in major companies, including Petro-Canada and Qatar Petroleum. During Hibernia development, he held the positions of Lead Living Quarters Engineer and OLS/Pipeline Project Manager. During Terra Nova development, he held the positions of Engineering Lead, Engineering & Technology Manager, and Far East Project Manager. In all the above positions, Ahmed has extensively interfaced and communicated with the C-NLOPB, in which the safety of personnel and employees, and compliance with the offshore health and safety regulations was the key focus. Throughout his career, Ahmed also conducted numerous independent project reviews on various megaprojects in Canada and overseas.

Ahmed has had numerous papers and presentations published and presented in conferences such as AACE (2023, 2022 & 2021), OTC (2005, 2001 & 1997), and NOIA (2003), as well as a self-published book in 2017. His areas of focus were mainly on project management, project governance, offshore engineering, quality management, offshore certification, operations integrity strategy, and deepwater developments.

For over 25 years, Ahmed volunteered with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). During his position as the Chair of the CSA Canadian Advisory Committee on ISO Offshore Structures Standards, he led the review of the CSA offshore structures standards, assessing alignment with ISO standards, which resulted in adopting most of ISO offshore structures standards as Canadian standards.

Ahmed lives with his wife in Paradise, NL, and they share a son and a daughter. He enjoys a good squash game and is a big fan of Liverpool football club.

Appointment Type: Ministerial

Kelly Porter is a professional engineer, registered with the Professional Engineer and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador. She graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering in 2002 and with a Master of Mechanical Engineering in 2006.

From 2005 to 2010, she worked in private industry as a risk analyst and project engineer. In June of 2010, she joined the provincial government as the Senior Risk Assessment Engineer in the Engineering and Inspection Services Division of Service NL. In 2013, she joined the Occupational Health and Safety Division of Digital Government and Service NL, where she spent time as an Occupational Health and Safety Consultant and Manager of Compliance and Regulatory Affairs. Her work focuses largely on accident investigations, regulatory compliance and petroleum sector issues.

Appointment Type: Ministerial

Jason Riggs began his career in the oil and gas industry in Alberta 20 years ago and has held various positions since then, in both drilling and well servicing contexts. Since returning to Newfoundland in 2009, he has worked on the Hibernia and Hebron platforms as well as on the Henry Goodrich, West Aquarius and GSF Grands Banks Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODU). Mr. Riggs is currently employed as a senior health, safety and environment advisor on the Hibernia platform.

During his time working as Lead Floorhand on the Hebron platform, Mr. Riggs began studying occupational health and safety (OSH) at the University of New Brunswick, where he obtained a certificate in OSH. Since then, he has continued to work in the field of OSH and has transformed his certificate into a graduate diploma. Most recently he has obtained his CRSP Designation from the Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals.

During his stay in Alberta, Mr. Riggs was the victim of a serious accident while working on a well. Saved by one of his colleagues, he spent several weeks in the hospital, including seven days in a coma. This experience deeply impacted him. Mr. Riggs never takes safety lightly, nor how lucky he was to have survived the event. In addition to being grateful for how things turned out, he also feels a personal obligation to do everything he can in the industry to help improve safety with the goal of preventing others from having a similar experience.

Mr. Riggs currently lives in Conception Bay South with his wife, their three children, and their Black Lab, Ace.

Appointment Type: Ministerial

Shelley was appointed Public and Government Affairs Manager of ExxonMobil Canada Ltd. in June 2024 and is based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. She is responsible for managing the company’s relationship with government officials, the public and key stakeholders. The role involves advocating for ExxonMobil’s interests in regulatory and policy matters, overseeing public relations and communications, including crisis management, and managing media interactions.

Prior to moving into this role, Shelley held the role of Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy Supervisor. In this role, she had the responsibility of leading the Regulatory, Industrial Benefits and SSHE Exploration teams for Canada East towards achieving a strategic work plan aligning with the company’s vision and regulatory requirements.

Before joining ExxonMobil, Shelley held various roles in the mining, construction, and oil sands industries with SNC Lavalin, Vale Newfoundland and Labrador, Pennecon and Canadian Natural Resources.

Shelley is originally from the community of Fermeuse, NL and holds a Masters of Business Administration Degree in Global Management, Bachelor of Business Administration Degree and a Project Management Professional (PMP) designation.

Shelley sits on the Board of Directors of the Kids Eat Smart Foundation Newfoundland and Labrador and serves as Chair of the Fundraising Committee. Shelley resides in Torbay, NL with her two children, Brooke and Reid.

Appointment Type: Ex-Offico

Annette Tobin has spent the majority of her 23 years at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) working on petroleum resource issues. Annette started off in the Energy Policy Branch at NRCan in 2000 and soon after moved to the Petroleum Resources Branch in the Oil Division, where she worked on upstream oil and pipeline files. In 2008, she joined the inaugural team at the Major Projects Management Office where she helped operationalize the new organization. In 2011, she returned to the Oil Division where she worked on oil sands issues.

Annette has been with the Offshore Management Division at NRCan since 2012. As the Director of the Offshore Management Division since June 2022, Annette provides leadership and oversight on files related to offshore policy, offshore operations, emergency response, public lands and programs and regulatory initiatives. Annette also supports Canada’s efforts to attract investments and develop efficient and responsible production of offshore energy resources.

Annette is a hockey and lacrosse mom to her two children. In her free time, Annette loves live music, traveling, playing guitar and walking her dog.

Appointment Type: Ministerial

Jeremy is an experienced professional in Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil & gas and marine industries. Since 1998, he has held progressively senior roles across both operator and service sector companies, with responsibilities spanning marine operations, logistics, commercial and supply chain management, health and safety, and executive leadership.

He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer at Crosbie, where he leads operations across multiple business units.

Jeremy previously contributed to the C-NLOPB’s Offshore Helicopter Safety Inquiry (OHSI) as a member of the Implementation Team, which was established to develop work plans and provide advice on implementing the recommendations from the OHSI Phase I report.

He holds a Master of Business Administration from Durham University (UK), a Bachelor of Maritime

Studies from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and a Diploma of Technology in Nautical Science from the Marine Institute of Memorial University.

Jeremy resides in St. John’s with his wife Karen and their three children.

Appointment Type: Ministerial

Francine was born and raised in St. John’s and holds and Bachelor of Science in Biology (Honors) and a Masters degree in Environmental Science from Memorial University. At the beginning of her career, Francine spent approximately 5 years working with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Federal Government on research initiatives related to the oil and gas and mining sector, as well as the development of the Oceans Act.

Francine started working with the oil and gas industry in 2001 and since that time has worked with two local operators along with Energy, Research and Innovation in a variety of roles focused on Environment, Health and Safety, Regulatory and Emergency Response. The majority of positions she has held had an offshore component and found her travelling offshore to support assessments, audits, inspections and investigations. She has served as a member on the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers Safety and Environmental Committees and has served as an appointed industry representative on the Environmental Studies Research Fund (ESRF) Management Board. Francine is currently working as a consultant to the energy sector.

Francine resides in St. John’s with her husband and 2 children and is an active volunteer in the community.