UT PGE Recognizes 2021 Distinguished Alumni Honorees

The award is given annually to UT PGE alumni who are leaders in the oil and gas industry — educators, executives, innovators and entrepreneurs with unmatched industry expertise. Distinguished Alumni recipients are selected by a committee of UT PGE alumni, including past award honorees.

Meet the 2021 Distinguished Alumni Honorees:

Paul Bommer

B.S., Petroleum Engineering
M.S., Petroleum Engineering
Ph.D., Petroleum Engineering

Paul M. Bommer is a distinguished senior lecturer and holder of the Chevron Lectureship in Petroleum Engineering in the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. In 2014, he was awarded the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, which recognizes those who serve students in an exemplary manner and as an incentive for others who aspire to such service.

He has also received the Cockrell School of Engineering’s 2012 and 2011 Faculty Appreciation Award in Petroleum Engineering; the 2009–2010 ConocoPhillips Faculty Development Award; the 2008–2009 Student Engineering Council Award as “Favorite Professor” in Petroleum Engineering; and the 2006–2007 Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Teaching Award.

He is the co-author of several technical papers; one textbook, The Beam Lift Handbook; and one related patent, and his current research interests are in artificial lift. He served on the National Academy of Engineering committee investigating the Deepwater Horizon disaster and on one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flow rate technical teams attempting to estimate the flow out of the blowout.

Prior to returning to UT Austin to teach, he worked for 25 years with his brother, Peter, and his father, Cleon, in Bommer Engineering Co., a petroleum engineering operations and consulting firm. His consulting projects have included work with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to help define power generation sources for drilling rigs and completion equipment with the goal of understanding emissions; evaluation and appraisal of hundreds of oil-and-gas-producing properties throughout the United States; numerous field studies including several waterfloods involving detailed well bore studies, material balance estimates, and PVT, petrophysical and well log analysis; expert witness experience with appearances before state and federal district courts and the Railroad Commission of Texas; and the design and management of the drilling and completion of dozens of wells in various onshore Gulf Coast, Rocky Mountain and mid-continent regions. His father, mother and brother are all UT Austin alumni.

William “Bill” Edward Findley, Jr.

B.S., Petroleum Engineering, 1944

William “Bill” Edward Findley, Jr., was born on July 20, 1922, to Sylvia Woods Findley and William Edward Findley. He grew up in Dallas, Texas, and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1940. He graduated from North Texas Agricultural College in 1942. He then enrolled and studied petroleum engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.

He joined the Navy V-12 program at UT Austin and was called to active duty during World War II. He was sent to the University of California at Berkeley for Engineering, Science and Management War Training in Marine Power Plants. Upon graduation in August 1944, he was assigned to the USS Wyandot, AKA-92, as the Engineering Officer in the Pacific Theater. After the war, he was discharged as a LTJG and returned to UT Austin. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering in 1947 and soon after married his college sweetheart, Peggy Friedell. They had 3 children, Bill, Steve and Patty.

Bill went to work as a sales engineer with Black, Sivalls and Bryson (BS&B) in Oklahoma City and was transferred to Alice, Texas, in 1948. Working the South Texas gas fields, he saw the need for measuring gas at the well head for the design of field gas plants. He and Garman Kimmell, founder of Kimray, built a split stream lab truck in Oklahoma City that could heat or chill well head gas for optimum separation conditions. In 1949, he founded Findley Engineering Service Company (FESCO) with one split-stream lab truck. He dedicated his life to the men and women of FESCO, building a company known throughout the energy industry for its integrity and taking care of its employees. He remained at the helm of the company until his death in August 2018.

In 1950, he received his Registered Professional Engineering License from the State of Texas. In 2005, he received the Distinguished Graduate Award from the UT Austin College of Engineering. He was a member of nearly all energy professional organizations and numerous civic organizations, and was a devoted member of the Episcopal Church of the Advent. In 1977, he was named the Alice Citizen of the Year by the Alice Chamber of Commerce. His generosity and benevolence were expressed quietly through organizations benefiting UT Austin, children and the military.

Eugene “Gene” B. Shepherd, Jr.

B.S., Petroleum Engineering, 1981
MBA, 1986

Eugene B. “Gene” Shepherd, Jr., is a founder and the chief executive officer of ATX Energy Partners, LLC. Prior to ATX, Gene was a founder and the CEO of Brigham Resources, LLC, from 2013 until the sale of substantially all of its southern Delaware Basin assets to Diamondback Energy in February 2017.

Gene had 20 years of financial and operational experience in the energy industry before serving as chief financial officer of Brigham Exploration Company from 2002 until its sale to Norway-based Statoil ASA in December 2011. Earlier in his career, he served as integrated energy managing director for the investment banking division of ABN AMRO Bank, where he executed merger and acquisition advisory services and capital markets transactions for energy companies. He had roles with a similar focus at Prudential Securities Incorporated, Stephens Inc., and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets. Prior to working in the financial services industry, he spent more than four years as a petroleum engineer for Amoco Production Company and the Railroad Commission of Texas.

At The University of Texas at Austin, Gene is a member of the executive council of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law & Business and the Engineering Advisory Board of the Cockrell School of Engineering, where in 2017 he was awarded the school’s Distinguished Engineering Graduate Award. He has also served on various nonprofit boards, including KIPP Austin Public Schools, the Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America and Trinity Center.

Gene earned his bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering in 1981 and his MBA in 1986, both from UT Austin. Gene and his wife, Robin, who is also a UT Austin graduate, have three sons, the youngest of whom is a junior on the Forty Acres.

Nick Steinsberger

B.S., Petroleum Engineering, 1987

Nick Steinsberger began his career with Mitchell Energy in 1988 after graduating from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering. Nick was promoted to completion manager for the Barnett Shale in 1995 and was responsible for the first slick-water stimulation in the Barnett in 1997, which is referred to as the first modern shale frac.

Nick continued as the completion manager for the Barnett Shale after Mitchell Energy’s sale to Devon in 2002 and was responsible for completing the first 30 horizontal wells in any shale formation. When Devon closed its Fort Worth office in July 2003, Nick became vice president of engineering for Republic Energy in Dallas. Under Nick’s supervision, Republic drilled and completed approximately 50 horizontal wells in less than two years before selling its assets to Burlington Resources.

After the sale, Nick began Steinsberger Gas Consulting and has been involved in more than 1,000 horizontal shale wells, including work in the Woodford, Fayetteville, Marcellus, Utica, Eagle Ford and Wolfcamp shales and several shales in Canada.

Nick developed an extension of the STACK play in Oklahoma while running ValPoint Operating, selling those assets to Devon in 2015.
Nick currently sits on several boards of E&P Companies and is working with Recon Africa on their Namibia Petroleum License to drill and test their block for conventional and unconventional targets. Nick has authored many technical papers on completion techniques in shales, and his involvement in the Shale Revolution has been written about in several books, including The Frackers.

Mariya Townswick

B.S., Petroleum Engineering, 2008

After graduating from the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree in May 2008, Mariya Townswick began working at DeGolyer and MacNaughton (D&M), an international consulting company where she had interned as an undergraduate. During her years at D&M, Mariya worked her way up from an associate engineer to a senior engineer and a vice president. She coordinated multiple oil and gas evaluations for companies ranging in size from small, privately held to national in scope, most of which were located in the former Soviet Union.

During her tenure at D&M, Mariya did everything from estimating reserves for oil and gas fields to planimetering maps, aiding in economic evaluation and writing technical reports. She also served as an instructor and created content for international reserves guidelines seminars. During this period of her career, Mariya was lucky to have worked for many clients from Russian-speaking countries, which allowed her to speak her native language and serve as a technical translator when needed.

After spending almost 11 years at D&M, Mariya followed her first boss to Kosmos Energy, where she became a dual-purpose engineer, responsible for both company reserve reporting and modeling one of the company’s producing fields, something that she had never done in her prior job. She enjoyed the change of perspective, learning a new skill, having the ability to influence the value of the company that she was a part of, and being a part of the team responsible for future field development.

Throughout her career, Mariya has spent many hours volunteering for different industry nonprofit organizations. She has served on two different scholarship committees, mentored college students, and come to campus to interview candidates for internships and full-time jobs. Mariya was also honored to have been a part of the Hildebrand Department’s External Advisory Committee, which was an experience that she enjoyed tremendously.