FFA - Key Persons


Bettina Bachmann

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Member of the Technical Advisory Board of EV Private Equity
  • Non Executive Director View Bio
Bettina joined the energy business in 1983 and has worked in a variety of technical and leadership positions across the Exploration & Production value chain. She has lived and worked in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Bettina is also a member of the Technical Advisory Board of EV Private Equity and until May 2020 served as a Non-Executive Director on the board of MagSeis Fairfield.

James Lowell

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Director of Innovation View Bio
James joined Geoteric in September 2007, specialising in R&D and Intellectual Property as well as supporting the Geoteric software development team and has over 15 years' experience in research. He holds a PhD in machine learning and medical image processing from the University of Durham.

Jan Grimnes

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Chairman View Bio
Jan joined the Board in January 2012, and became Chairman in 2014. He is also Chairman of Redback AS, a Norwegian private equity investor, focusing on visionary technology companies with international growth potential. Jan has extensive experience in the geosciences software industry. In 1996, he founded Technoguide AS which developed and commercialised Petrel, the world's leading E&P software. In 2002, Technoguide's business was acquired by Schlumberger Information Solutions, where, subsequently, Jan held a senior management position as Portfolio Manager, Petrel* & Next Generation Products.

John Carney

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Deputy Chairman View Bio
John joined the Board in 1999, serving as Chairman between 2002 and 2014, then becoming Deputy Chairman. He has over thirty five years' experience of achieving long term value creation through building technology-based enterprises in growth industries, including ICT, Life Sciences, Energy and specialist manufacturing. He has specific expertise in strategic business planning and arranging growth finance. He has also provided strategic advice to venture capital investors in Europe and the USA. Formerly, John was an Investment Advisor to Lazard Development Capital and then a Director of Corporate Finance with Hoare Govett. John graduated with a BSc from Sheffield University and holds an MLitt degree from the University of Cambridge.

Mark Brownless

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Chief Technology Officer ( CTO ) View Bio
Mark joined Geoteric in June 2018 from Schlumberger (SIS) where he was working on the Digital Platform DELFI and managing their senior Geoscience Advisor team. Prior to this, he was Head of Development Geoscience for BG-Group where he was responsible for Development Geoscience workflows, standards, technology, and development geoscience staff globally. This covered appraisal and development workflows for all BG-Group fields globally; carbonates to clastic; oil, gas and condensates; relatively small fields to extremely big fields. Mark holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia and a BSc in Geology with Geochemistry from the University of Manchester

Nicky Tessen

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Commercialisation Manager View Bio
Nicky is a reservoir geologist with 20+ years of industry experience. Specialities include Exploration evaluation of plays and prospects, Reservoir Modelling, Petrel workflows, Project Management, Marketing and Business Development. Before joining Geoteric in March 2018, Nicky was the Petrel Platform Manager with Schlumberger and has been involved with Petrel development, in one way or another, since 1998. She holds a B.Sc in Geology from Portsmouth University, an M.Sc in Organic Geochemistry from Newcastle University and a Doctorate from the University of Aberdeen, in Organic geochemistry, Sedimentology and Geology.

Nicola Blanshard - CEO

Job Titles:
  • CEO
  • Member of the Management Team
  • CEO View Bio
Nicola became CEO in 2018, prior to which she was the Group's CFO for seven years. Before joining Geoteric she gained 16 years' experience in a range of diverse industries, managing finance, commercial and operational teams, as well as being directly involved in acquisitions, business integrations, restructuring and change management. Nicola qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst and Young in 1994.

Owen Lee

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • SVP Global Sales & Marketing View Bio
A passionate key account and business development manager with over 5 years of experience, Owen became SVP Global Sales September 2019 and SVP Global Sales & Marketing July 2021. Owen joined Geoteric in 2012. He has worked across a variety of technical support and account manager positions to combine his knowledge and practical understanding with his strong interpersonal skills. Today, he manages the group sales strategy which delivers Geoteric software and services globally. He holds an MSc in Structural Geology with Geophysics and a BSc in Geological Sciences from the University of Leeds.

Rajat Maheshwari

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Non Executive Director View Bio
Rajat joined the Board in March 2021 and is an Investment Manager in EV Private Equity (EV), an independent private equity investor in new technologies for the global energy industry. Prior to joining EV in 2015, Rajat worked at Schlumberger for over five years in global offshore seismic survey operations as a field geophysicist. Advancing his technical knowledge, he gained hands on operational experience, which supports his role today when analysing technologies and business models of potential investments. Rajat holds an MBA from HEC Paris and Integrated M.Sc. in Exploration Geophysics from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.

Sharon Hardy

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Management Team
  • Head of Human Resources View Bio
Sharon joined Geoteric in October 2010 and supports the business by providing an HR service which focusses on the attraction and retention of the highest calibre talent globally. She has over 30 years of HR and operational management experience across a wide range of companies, from Fortune 500 corporations to start up SMEs. She holds an MA in English Literature & Language from the University of St Andrews and is a Fellow of the Institute of Personnel & Development.