Nov
15
LNG, Reconciliation and the Road to COP28
Toronto ON, 67 Yonge Street, Suite 300
Roundtable Luncheon with Susannah Pierce, Crystal Smith & Martin Castro
Sponsored by:
C.D. Howe Institute events and webinars are open to members and their guests.
Please follow this link or contact events@cdhowe.org to register.
Martin Castro, President, TenarisMartin Castro is Tenaris President in Canada where, as the top executive in Canada, he oversees all commercial, manufacturing and services operations leading a team of approximately 1,000.
In Canada, Tenaris operates a seamless and ERW OCTG and LP manufacturing facility, an accessories threading facility, and 4 Rig Direct® service centres. Recently, Tenaris in Canada inaugurated a series of transformative investments of $150M to centralize its Canadian pipe manufacturing operations in one location with its manufacturing hub in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The ongoing agenda includes further investments and continued product and service enhancements for its valued energy industry customers.
Martin has spent his entire career in the Techint Group of companies, beginning first in its Oil & Gas company, Tecpetrol and later transferring to Tenaris.
He first joined the global marketing team of Tenaris in 2007 based in Argentina and later in 2008 moved to the planning team in the United States covering various capacities including as marketing coordinator, marketing manager and planning manager.
Since 2013, Castro managed a variety of commercial and operational roles including the management of Tenaris’s operations in Southeast Asia and Oceania, senior sales director managing the USA Gulf Coast region and commercial vice president in the USA leading four regional offices – Houston, Denver, Oklahoma City and Pittsburgh. During this period, he oversaw the long-term agreements with major and independpent oil and gas companies, implementing the company’s game-changing direct-to-customer strategy known as Rig Direct®.
Born in Argentina, Castro is a graduate of the Columbia Business School in New York executive MBA program and has a degree in industrial engineering and a master’s degree in finance.
Susannah Pierce, President and Country Chair, Shell-Canada
Susannah has spent the last 20 years of her career at the intersection of environmental, social, governance interests in
Canada and abroad. Her expertise lies in bringing business, governments, communities, indigenous groups and other non-governmental actors together to support the development of energy resources from initial stages of project design through permitting and consultation to investment decision, construction, operations and decommissioning.
In her current role as Shell Canada Limited President and Country Chair she is responsible for integrating and coordinating business investment and operational performance across Shell’s lines of business in Canada including upstream, downstream, integrated gas and new energies, and is accountable for Shell’s overall reputation and stakeholder relations in the country.
Prior to this role, Susannah was Director of Corporate Affairs, LNG Canada, a joint venture of Shell, Petronas, Mitsubishi, PetroChina and Kogas. In this capacity, she was responsible for the project’s federal and provincial regulatory approvals, Indigenous relations and negotiations, government relations, media relations, community consultation and communications. When the joint venture participants took a Final Investment Decision to build the facility in 2018, it was heralded as the single largest private sector investment in Canadian history. Susannah joined the LNG Canada project as a Shell secondee after serving as Vice President, Value Chain Integration, Shell Canada. In this capacity, she was responsible for identifying new business opportunities across Shell’s multiple businesses in Canada.
Prior to this position, Susannah was Vice President, Communications, Upstream International based in The Hague,
where she oversaw a diverse communications and government relations team consisting of approximately 200 professionals in Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, Russia/CIS and Europe. Susannah was previously Head, Government Relations for Shell Canada, where she established the government relations practice to support Shell Canada’s upstream, downstream, and manufacturing businesses. Prior to joining Shell in 2009, Susannah was Director, Government Affairs for TC Energy based in Washington, DC and New York City, where she was responsible for driving government policy at federal and state levels in support of TransCanada’s existing power and pipeline interests, as well as new business development activities.
Prior to TC Energy, Susannah worked in the tech sector at MicroStrategy and Accenture as a sales representative and a business analyst for data intelligence and enterprise resource management systems.
Susannah has served on various for profit and non-profit boards. She is currently on the board of non-profits the Vancouver General Hospital Foundation and the Wilder Institute & Calgary Zoo. She recently joined the Advisory Board of Catalyst Canada and currently serves as Chair of the Business Council of BC, Co-Chair of Business Council of Canada Working Group on Climate Change and Energy Transition, co-Chair of the Business Council of Alberta’s Define the Decade and co-Chair of the Canada Chamber of Commerce Western Executive Council. She also serves on the Asia Business Leaders Advisory Council, the Canadian Global Affairs Institute Advisory Council.
Susannah holds a MA from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a BA from The George
Washington University.
Crystal Smith, Chief Councillor, Haisla Nation
Crystal Smith has served the Haisla people for 12 years through her work with Haisla Nation Council, starting as Executive Assistant to the Chief and Council from 2009 to 2013, then being elected Chief Councillor in 2017.
She holds a Diploma in Business Administration from Coast Mountain College and a Business Skills Certificate from Thompson Rivers University.
In November 2019, she was named Chair of the First Nations LNG Alliance, a group committed to encouraging First Nations development of the LNG industry to provide employment and other sustainable benefits for BC’s aboriginal people.
She advocates for Haisla Nation-owned joint venture partnerships which allow for participation in major projects in Haisla territory. Using those opportunities provides a doorway for members to find rewarding work and educational opportunities to enhance their skills and improve social conditions in Haisla communities.
Ultimately, she wants the work done today by her and all of the Council to benefit today’s 1700 Haisla people but future generations as well.
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