Immediately prior to his 2004 appointment, Michael was with Irving Oil where he held senior positions at the Irving Refinery, Corporate headquarters, and the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project in Saint John, New Brunswick.

From 1997 to 2000, Michael was part of the project team for the $1billion Irving Oil Refinery expansion, the first major refinery expansion project in North America since 1980. Between 2001 and 2004, he led the Project Team for the first LNG receiving terminal in Canadian history to receive full regulatory approval to proceed. Concurrent with these activities, while at Irving Oil, Michael had responsibility in Canada and the United States for Government Relations, Health, Environment, Safety and Loss Management.

Michael has worked in private and public sector positions throughout Canada and gained invaluable experience in his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador working on the Hibernia Project and the Goose Bay Low Level Flight Training Project.

Craig joined the Centre for Marine CNG Inc. in 2006 as Operations Manager with overall responsibilities for Projects and Facilities Management. Craig began his career with Schlumberger in Western Canada, followed by 3 years in their West Africa offshore operations. Upon returning to Newfoundland & Labrador, he was involved with Subsea consulting before joining NewTech Instruments in 2000. He was appointed Engineering Manager of the Manufacturing Division after NewTech was purchased by Rutter Technologies in 2003. Craig graduated from Memorial University where he is currently working on his MBA.

Craig joined the Center’s Team in January 2007 as Laboratory Supervisor with responsibilities of overseeing the day to day operations of the laboratory.

He began his career with Intertek Caleb Brett as a petroleum inspector and lab technician at the Newfoundland Transshipment Terminal. He transferred to Nova Scotia where he performed inspection and testing duties out of several petroleum facilities and then moved to New Brunswick to work in the Irving Oil refinery laboratory. Craig is a graduate of the Bachelor of Technology program at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador as well as the Marine Environmental Technology program at the Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Jonathan joined the Centre's Team in February 2008 as a Chemist with responsibilities of conducting advanced and routine reservoir fluids analyses as well as calibration and maintenance of the laboratory equipment.

He began his career with Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador as a research assistant at the Ocean Sciences Center. He then moved on to North Atlantic Refining Limited as a laboratory technician for two years. This led to a position as refinery Product Quality Officer in 2006 and then Laboratory Supervisor in 2007 where he was responsible for all laboratory operations at the refinery before coming to the Centre. Jonathan is a graduate of the Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) program as well as the Master of Science (Instrumental Analysis) program at Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador.

Heidi joined the Centre for Marine CNG Inc. in June 2007 as Business Coordinator. She is responsible for accounts payable / accounts receivable, webpage development and public relations. Heidi is also involved with the overall coordination of the annual International Marine CNG Forum.

In 2007, Heidi received the Business Management/Human Resources Management (honours) Diploma from Keyin College in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador.

Tracey joined the Centre for Marine CNG Inc. in April 2008 as Office Coordinator. She is responsible for performing administrative/reception duties, assisting with the implementation of the ISO9001:2000 program and the Health & Safety agenda, assisting with the coordination of the annual International Marine CNG Forum, and general office management.

Tracey completed a two-year Office Administration program in 2001 with the College of the North Atlantic. Since then, she has been working in the administrative field at various organizations. Tracey’s most recent work experience was with Heritage Gas in Halifax, Nova Scotia as Administrative Assistant for the Engineering, Construction and Operations departments and providing administrative support to the Joint Occupational Health & Safety Committee.

Dr. Abdi’s expertise, acquired in industry and academia, lies in mid and downstream oil and gas production and processing.

He has over 21 years of industrial and academic experience primarily related to process design and development, project management and feasibility studies, as well as engineering consultancy in natural gas production, processing and conversion projects.

He is a senior process engineering consultant with the Centre for Marine CNG Inc. and chairs the research advisory committee of the Centre. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UBC, Vancouver, Canada, B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees both in Chemical Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic, Iran.

His current professional activities include: natural gas production, processing and
large-scale transportation, process intensification and compact process equipment design, process engineering and simulation. Dr. Abdi is an Associate Professor with the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial University.

Erika Beronich, Ph.D. student and natural gas researcher has been linked to the Centre for Marine CNG Inc. since 2006. Erika received the degree of Chemical Engineer from the National Technological University in Cordoba, Argentina, in 2003, where she worked as a research assistant for the Physical-chemistry Group of New Materials, part of the Centre for Research and Development of the same University.

As a Master’s Student in the Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Erika was awarded the Postgraduate Scholarship in Environmental Science (Geological Association of Canada), and as a Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies for academic excellence. In 2006, she completed a successful Master’s thesis in NGL recovery on offshore platforms and started a Ph.D. program in oil and gas at Memorial University.

Esam joined the research Team of the Centre for Marine CNG Inc. in the Fall of 2005 as Mechanical and Research Engineer. His responsibilities include implementing the research concerns with hydrate formation and deposition, numerical simulation using Computational Fluid Dynamic technique, ColdJet phenomena, and real gas flow.

After completing his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Mosul, Iraq, Esam began his career as a design Engineer in Steel and Iron Establishment in Iraq, followed by a lecturer and laboratory supervisor in faculty of engineering in several universities in Iraq and Libya. Esam has a M.Sc. in mechanical engineering/air-conditioning and refrigeration system design, also from University of Mosul, Iraq. Currently, he is a PhD student in Faculty of Engineering, Memorial University.

Over the past year the Centre has hosted work term students who contributed significantly to our progress. The students came from the Engineering department and Business department at Memorial University. While at the Centre they have worked on installation and commissioning of our PVT analytical laboratory, Forum planning and institutionalizing an organizational plan for the annual event.