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GGA Board of Directors |
Executive Committee
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GGA President
Ron Suess
President, RES Co.
1275 4th St., Ste 105
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Phone 707.541.0976
Fax 707.546.9139 |
Ron has been involved with The Geysers for more than 40 years. He began his career at The Geysers shortly after PG&E Unit 1 was completed. Ron began his career at The Geysers as a Marine Biologist assigned to do fish studies in Big Sulphur Creek. Nevertheless, his initial task at The Geysers required him to perform the very first mass balances on PG&E Units 1 and 2.
Ron is a staunch advocate for geothermal energy in general and especially the geothermal industry at The Geysers. He has advocated on behalf of The Geysers in Washington D.C. and Sacramento.
Ron continues to provide multi-faceted services to The Geysers and other clients with his consultant company, RES Co. Ron is a co-owner of the Bottle Rock Power Corporation that intends to operate its Bottle Rock Power Plant located at The Geysers. Ron has a broad-based technical education as well as a master's degree in theology and a juris doctor degree in law. He looks forward to engaging in ongoing service for the benefit of the geothermal industry at The Geysers.
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GGA Vice President & Finance Officer
Ralph Aviles,
Calpine Corporation
10350 Socrates Mine Rd.
Middletown, CA 95461 |
Ralph previously worked on and off-shore California in the oil industry for both Unocal Corp. and Chevron U.S.A. He worked for Unocal in the production engineering department in Santa Rosa supporting Geysers field operations and held various assignments. In 1996 he relocated his office to the Geysers working as a supervisor for the production engineering, new construction and non-destructive testing department. In 1999 after the Calpine acquisition of Unocal's interests in the steam field, Ralph joined Calpine's Geysers operations as a power marketing analyst and is currently employed as a financial analyst at the Geysers. Ralph has been the GGA's finance officer since April of 1995. |
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GGA Secretary
Ben Barker,
benbarker@earthlink.net
(707) 838-0238
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Ben came to The Geysers in 1978 from Union Oil's Research Department and spent fifteen of the next twenty one years here. Trained and registered as
a petroleum engineer, Ben was involved in research on water injection,
drilling operations, property taxation and strategic planning. During a
five year assignment with Philippine Geothermal, he was the manager of
computer services as well as reservoir engineering. When Calpine bought
Unocal's holdings in 1999, Ben set up his own reservoir engineering
consultancy. Although most of his practice now takes him far from The
Geysers, he continues to take a keen interest in its progress.
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GGA
Scholarship Chairman
Louis
Capuano III
ThermaSource
3883 Airway Drive
Suite 340
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
707 523-2960
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Louis
Capuano III was born in Santa Rosa California in 1981. He
has been around The Geysers and geothermal drilling rigs his
whole life, thanks to his father Louis Capuano Jr.
Louis III
graduated from Cardinal Newman H.S. in 2000 then moved to Louisiana
where he attended Louisiana State University. After
graduating with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering, Louis was offered
several opportunities with major oilfield service companies.
Though those
opportunities were enticing, he wanted to work alongside his
father as a Drilling Engineer at ThermaSource. He
currently oversees drilling operations, designs well programs
and performs project management at the growing geothermal drilling
firm.
He
looks forward to a long career in the ever growing market of
Geothermal Energy.
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GGA
SHEL Chairman
Nick Voegtly, CSP Nick
Voegtly Safety & Loss
Control
Middletown, CA
(707) 349-7233 |
Nick Voegtly
has been consulting since 1999 with geothermal, construction,
commercial and government clients helping to build safer
and more complaint workplaces. He previously worked for
Unocal at The Geysers for 20 years and also was a member
of the Corporate Emergency Response Strike Team. Prior
to Unocal he worked for USGS performing geothermal reconnaissance
studies in the Western U.S. Mr. Voegtly has a BS in geology
from the University of Oregon. He has strongly supported
the geothermal industry throughout his career.
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GGA
Newsletter Editor and Membership Chairperson
Marilyn Sanborn
Windsong Designs
27445 Lookout Mountain Lane
Oak Run, CA 96069
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Marilyn's introduction to geothermal energy
came in 1979, when she hired on at (then) Union Oil Company.
She assisted with drafting in the engineering drafting
department. In 1985 she accepted an offer from Harry Bain
to become editor of the brand new GGA newsletter, The Geysers
Steamline, which helped her launch her home graphics business,
Windsong Designs. Marilyn worked at Unocal until 1987.
Then again for a over the years as a temp worker as needed.
Along with being editor,
Marilyn served on the GGA membership chairman and was a
member of the board. She published The Geysers "Steamline"
for 16 years, handing it over to Kathy Enedy in the summer
of 2001. Now,
she will again continue on as virtual editor of the "Steamline",
thanks to the Internet, and resume responsibilites of Membership
Chair. She and her husband, Eric are making their home
in Oak Run, 27 miles east of Redding.
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Wayne
Stith
Middletown,
CA 95461
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Wayne
recently retired as the Environmental Health and
Safety Specialist for NCPA. He was with NCPA since 1987
and was a member of the GGA Safety Committee since
1994. Wayne received a degree in Invertebrate Biology
with a minor in Chemistry from Sonoma State University
in 1983. After graduation he worked in the wine industry
as a chemist before becoming the assistant inorganic
supervisor for Multi-Tech Labs.
Wayne began his career at NCPA as a Lab Tech. He went back to school at this
time to study Industrial Hygiene, Industrial Safety and Environmental Laws.
His duties with environmental health and safety began to take up more of
his time until NCPA decided to create a full time position for an EHS specialist.
Wayne's job is to administer NCPA's Safety Program for it's various sites
and the Environmental requirements for the geothermal sites. He was recently
the Chairman of the GGA Shel Committee, a member of the GGA Executive Committee,
as well as Chairman of various NCPA committees. He is also a Grief Coordinator
for Lake County Hospice.
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Steve
Burden,
Calpine Corporation
10350 Socrates Mine Rd.
Middletown, CA 95461 |
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Paul
Brophy
EGS, Inc.
725 Farmers Lane, Suite 8
Santa Rosa, CA
95405 |
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L.
Boyd Green
MISWACO
(M-I Drilling Fluids LLC)
P.O. Box 1369
Cobb, CA
95426 |
Boyd
Green grew up in Nebraska where he was introduced to
the energy business by uncles. He attended Iowa University
studying Geology for three years before he went into
the US Air Force for four years. After he left the Air
Force, he finished his schooling at Colorado State Teacher's
College in Greeley, Co. He worked his way through school
by working on oil rigs. After graduation, he worked in
off shore oil drilling in Taiwan. After 4 years overseas,
he returned to the US and attended the Dresser Industries
Mud School studying Leadership training and Drilling
Engineering.
He
then went to work for Macgabar and in 1980 he became
the manager of Dresser Industries Macgobar operation
in The Geysers from 1980 to 1992 Boyd is past president
of the GGA from 1990-91 and a current (2004) member
of the Board of Directors, as well as a current member
of the Geothermal Resources Council. He is presently
Geothermal Project Manager for MISWACO (MISwaco
is the new name for M-I Drilling Fluids). He
is happily married to his High School sweetheart,
Ruth Anne Green. They have seven grandchildren.
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Doug
Jung
Two-Phase Engineering
and Research
3209 Franz Valley Rd.
Santa Rosa, CA
95404 |
Doug
Jung, PE, is Principal Engineer with Two-Phase Engineering & Research,
Inc. Doug started working at The Geysers in 1977 with Thermogenics
as Operations Engineer for the old Unit 15 area. He now provides
R&D, facility design and production optimization consulting services
to the industry.Among his contributions includes LEAMS (low emissions
atmospheric metering separator) for drilling and well-testing,
all part of an industry effort to proactive demonstrate safer and
environmentally friendlier ways to develop geothermal energy through
the use of evolving technology. |
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Garratt
Sharp
Chemist / Consultant
125 Camille Ave.
Alamo, California
95407
925.838.5623 |
Garratt
Sharp is a chemist who was project manager
at Trident Environmental and Engineering,
Inc. While employed at PG&E, he was responsible
for much of the research and development,
which lead to the early hydrogen sulfide
abatement processes. After leaving PG&E
he has worked on geothermal projects in
New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, Indonesia,
California, Utah and Nevada. He is a graduate
of Sonoma State University. |
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Ted
Wilmsen
Consultant
4931 Montecito Ave.
Santa Rosa, CA
95404 |
Ted
Wilmsen grew up in Arcadia, CA, a small
city about 20 miles east of Los Angeles.
Following High School and 3 years in the
Army, Ted returned to school and graduated
from Pasadena City College in 1966 with
a degree in Instrumentation Technology.
The day after graduation he began working
with the Corrosion Research Group for Union
Oil Company at their Research Center in
Orange County.
In 1972 Ted left Union Oil, moved to Santa Rosa, and began his career at The
Geysers Geothermal Project. He started working for Magma Power Company and continued
with them as they went through five different ownership phases over the next
27 years. During that period he was involved in all phases of the geothermal
steam development process at The Geysers. In 1999 Ted retired after Calpine Corporation
consolidation. Ted has been on the Board since the beginning of the GGA and has
served as Treasurer and President. |
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