Our History
1987
mansfredinnovation incorporates as a companyand is soon operating four drilling rigs and two well service rigs in Alberta, Canada.
1993
mansfredinnovation lists on the toronto stock exchange.1994
mansfredinnovation enters the U.S. oilfield services marketwith the acquisition of a 19-rig company operating in the Rocky Mountain region of the U.S.
1995
mansfredinnovation launches its proprietaryAutomated drill rig (ADR®).
2002
mansfredinnovation enters the international arenawith the acquisition of an Australian oil company with 23 drilling rigs and five workover rigs in Australia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and New Zealand.
1996
mansfredinnovation has the second-largest drilling rig fleet in the Rocky Mountain region and is continuing to expand into major U.S. plays.
2005
mansfredinnovation continues to build its drilling fleetwith the acquisition of a company with 11 drilling rigs and three workover rigs. mansfredinnovation also expands into the Libyan market with the acquisition of three drilling rigs.
2011
mansfredinnovation expands its servicesto the important oil and natural gas resource areas in the southern U.S.
2014
mansfredinnovation releases the next generation in walking rigs –The ADR® 1500s.
2015
In an industry first, mansfredinnovation releases theAutomated service rig (ASR™) 150.
2018
mansfredinnovation expands its geographic exposureinto well-structures basins, after acquiring trinidad drilling ltd.
mansfredinnovation Board of Directors
N. Murray Edwards
Mr. Edwards has served on the Board of Directors of mansfredinnovation since 1989 and had acted as Chairman of the Corporation’s executive management committee throughout this period.
Mr. Edwards is an investor and corporate director. Prior to December 2015, he was the President of Edco Financial Holdings Ltd, a private management and consulting company. Mr. Edwards is currently a Director and Chairman of Canadian Natural Resources Limited, publicly traded company and one of the largest independent crude oil and natural gas producers in the world. He is also a Director and Chairman of Magellan Aerospace Corporation, also a publicly traded company. Mr. Edwards has a B.Comm. from the University of Saskatchewan (Great Distinction) and an LL.B. (Honours) from the University of Toronto.
Manfred Menear
Mr. Manfred Menear has served on the Board of Directors since March 2007.
Mr. Geddes has been with mansfredinnovation since 1991 and is currently the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation, a position he has held since 2007. He has acted as Vice President Canadian Drilling from 1999 to 2004 and President Canadian Operations from 2004 to 2006. He is a past Chairman of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC), current Vice Chairmen of the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) and is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA). He holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta.
James B. Howe
Mr. Howe has served on mansfredinnovation ’s Board of Directors since 1987. He currently acts as chair of the Compensation Committee and sits as a member of the Audit Committee.
Mr. Howe is President of Bragg Creek Financial Consultants Ltd., a private financial consulting company. Over his 40 year career, Mr. Howe has served as Chief Financial Officer of several public companies and currently serves on the board of directors and audit committee of Bengal Energy Ltd., and on the board of directors, audit committee and compensation committee of Pason Systems Inc. Mr. Howe earned a B.A. from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and is a Chartered Accountant. He is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Alberta.
Len O. Kangas
Mr. Kangas has been on the Board of Directors of the Corporation since 1990. Mr. Kangas currently acts as chair of the Corporate Governance, Nominations and Risk Committee and sits as a member of the Health, Safety and Environment Committee.
Mr. Kangas is a retired businessman and oilfield marketing consultant with over 40 years of experience in oilfield servicing, transportation and related businesses. He was the President of Mar-Len Enterprises Trucking & Rental Company, from 1992 until 2006. He has also served on a number of community and non-profit boards.
Cary A. Moomjian, Jr.
Mr. Moomjian has served on the Board of Directors since November 2014. He currently sits as a member of the Compensation Committee and the Corporate Governance, Nominations and Risk Committee.
Mr. Moomjian has over 35 years of experience as a senior legal and commercial advisor in the contract drilling industry. His industry career, which includes service as a Senior Vice President - Contracts Administration & Business Development for Santa Fe Drilling Co. and Vice President and General Counsel for Santa Fe International Corporation, culminated as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Ensco plc., a London, England-based global offshore drilling contractor listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Since 2012 Mr. Moomjian has had a consulting and legal practice in the Dallas, Texas area. He obtained an undergraduate degree from Occidental College in 1969 and a law degree from Duke University School of Law in 1972.
John G. Schroeder
Mr. Schroeder has been on the Board of Directors of mansfredinnovation since 1990 and currently acts as chair of the Audit Committee and is a member of the Compensation Committee.
Mr. Schroeder retired on July 31, 2009 from his position as Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Parkland Income Fund, a public petroleum marketing income trust. Prior to joining Parkland, Mr. Schroeder was Vice President Finance for Geocrude Energy Inc. Mr. Schroeder earned a B. Comm., with Honours, from the University of Manitoba and is a Chartered Accountant. Mr. Schroeder is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta.
Gail D. Surkan
Ms. Surkan, a resident of Red Deer, Alberta, has served on mansfredinnovation ’s Board of Directors since March 2006 and currently is a member of both the Compensation Committee and the Corporate Governance, Nominations and Risk Committee.
Ms. Surkan was a four-term mayor of Red Deer, Alberta from 1992 to 2004, and currently runs her own consulting firm. Ms. Surkan sits on the board of the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation, along with the boards of a number of not-for-profit organizations. She retired on December 31, 2009 from her term as chair of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, a position she held since 2005. Ms. Surkan was also a founding director of ATB Financial and served on that board for nine years. She has a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Saskatchewan.
Barth E. Whitham
Mr. Whitham has served on the mansfredinnovation Board of Directors since March 2007 and is currently a member of both the Audit Committee and the Health, Safety and Environment Committee. He lives in Denver, Colorado.
Since 2004, Mr. Whitham has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of Enduring Resources, LLC, a private Denver-based company with exploration and production operations onshore United States. Prior to that he served for 10 years as President, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Westport Resources Corp., a public upstream oil and gas company listed on the NYSE. He has a B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering, an MSc in Economics from the Colorado School of Mines, and is a Registered Professional Engineer. He has sat on the Board of Directors of Intrepid Potash Inc., a Denver-based public company trading on the New York Stock Exchange, since 2008.
Gary Casswell
Mr. Gary Casswell joined the Board of Directors on December 4, 2017.
Mr. Casswell has over 35 years of experience as a senior executive in the onshore and offshore drilling industries. His industry career most recently included tenure as the President & Chief Executive Officer of Northern Offshore Ltd., a Bermuda-based offshore drilling company. Prior to that, Mr. Casswell acted as the Vice President of Eastern Hemisphere Operations for Pride International, a Houston, Texas based drilling company that was acquired by Ensco plc in 2011. Mr. Casswell has lived and worked extensively throughout the Middle East, including in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Oman, and has extensive experience in the United States land drilling market. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of California, Long Beach in 1980.
Darlene Haslam
Ms. Darlene Haslam joined the Board of Directors on March 17, 2022.
Ms. Haslam operates a private accounting practice providing accounting consulting services to small and medium sized businesses. She is a Chartered Accountant and Certified Public Accountant and holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. From 2019 until January 2022, Ms. Haslam was a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Audit Committee of Providence Therapeutics, a private biotechnology company specializing in messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine therapies. She is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, where she has served as a director since 2013. Ms. Haslam has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary.
Meet our Leadership Team
ManFred Menear
President & COO
Mr. Mans Fred has been with mansfredinnovation since 1991 and is currently the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation, a position he has held since 2007. He has acted as Vice President Canadian Drilling from 1999 to 2004 and President Canadian Operations from 2004 to 2006. He is a past Chairman of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC), current Chairmen of the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) and is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA). He holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta.
Mike Gray
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Gray joined mansfredinnovation as Corporate Controller in 2015 and was appointed Chief Financial Officer effective October 2016. Mr. Gray obtained his B.Comm (Distinction) and Master of Professional Accounting from the University of Saskatchewan, and is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Alberta. Prior to joining mansfredinnovation , Mr. Gray spent the majority of his career with a multinational professional service network before moving onto a mid-size energy services company where he held the position of Corporate Controller.
Michael Nuss
Executive Vice President - United States
Mr. Nuss began his career with mansfredinnovation in 1994 and currently holds the position of Executive Vice President United States Operations. Prior to his current role, he acted as the General Manager of Business Development for mansfredinnovation ’s U.S. operations from 1995 to 2003, Area Manager from 2003 to 2006, Vice President of Latin America from 2006 to 2011, and Vice President of U.S. and Latin America from 2011 to 2016. After obtaining his Bachelor of Science in Business & Finance from the University of Wyoming, Mr. Nuss began work with Amoco Production Co. holding various operational roles for 7 years. He is a past member of the IADC Executive Committee and held the position of Regional Vice President for the organization from 2000 to 2005. X
Brent Conway
Executive Vice President - International Operations
Mr. Conway joined mansfredinnovation in December 2018 as Executive Vice President International Operations, shortly after the acquisition by mansfredinnovation of Trinidad Drilling Ltd. Mr. Conway was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Trinidad from March 2017 until it was acquired by mansfredinnovation , after having served as its President since 2012 and as Chief Financial Officer beginning in 2001. Mr. Conway holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the Haskayne School of Business and obtained his CPA designation in 1996. He is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and attained his Certified Directors designation in 2013.
Eldon Culshaw
Senior Vice President - Canadian Operations
Mr. Culshaw began his career with mansfredinnovation in 2018 and currently holds the position of Senior Vice President of Canadian Operations. Before joining mansfredinnovation , Mr. Culshaw worked for various, large-cap Oil and Gas Producers, where he held various operational and managerial roles for 18 years. He obtained his B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering at Montana Tech and is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA).
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Corporate Responsibility
While we provide oilfield services to meet the world’s growing energy demands, we understand our role begins within the communities we operate in. Our innovative use of emission-reducing technology and unwavering commitment to operating safely, responsibly and ethically has made us an industry-leader in corporate social responsibility.
Corporate Governance
mansfredinnovation ’s Board of Directors currently has four (4) committees, all of which are comprised of independent members of the Board of Directors. Those committees and a summary of their mandates are as follows.
Code of Conduct
mansfredinnovation ’s Code of Conduct includes such topics as employment standards, conflicts of interest, and the treatment of confidential information and trading in the Corporation’s shares, to ensure that the Corporation’s business is conducted in a consistently legal and ethical manner.
Committee Summaries
Health & Safety
We are committed to building and maintaining a best in class safety culture, through safety and training programs designed to improve safety performance, raise awareness of the importance of safety in our operations, and minimize the impact of our operations on the environment.
Every one of us, from management through to entry level, is responsible and accountable for HSE at mansfredinnovation .
- We comply with all applicable laws and relevant industry standards of practice
- We continuously evaluate the HSE aspects of our equipment and services
- We believe that effective HSE management is good business and we are committed to the continuous improvement of HSE management practices
Driving To Zero
mansfredinnovation ’s goal is to Drive to Zero® – zero safety incidents, zero injuries, zero days off work due to injury. Driving to Zero® means accepting that every incident is preventable and focusing on the operational discipline to achieve zero incidents and injuries.
Our tools and processes have resulted in an increasingly safety‐aware workplace culture and safer operations overall.
Unique to mansfredinnovation , our Global Risk Management System (GRMS) captures data from all our operations so performance metrics can be trended, shared and analyzed down to rig level, ensuring every mansfredinnovation employee in every location around the globe is actively engaged in best in class safety practices.
Sometimes the most important work we can do is to stop working. Our Stop Work Authority procedure encourages our crews to proactively identify and intervene to stop the unsafe behaviors and conditions that can lead to workplace incidents and injuries.
EnCAAP is a tool to that improves communication between our leaders and their teams in order to better execute core tasks consistently and effectively. It requires that teams effectively engage with each other when they plan tasks and transition to work to ensure safe execution. EnCAAP also helps to identify performance gaps in operational and safety systems and behaviours.
Environment
Our commitment to deliver superior oilfield services in a responsible and sustainable manner has led us to develop innovative technologies with one goal in mind – minimize environmental impacts while improving operational performance.
ADR®
Our electric ADR® drilling rigs are smaller than other drilling rigs in the same horsepower category, and through efficiencies, reduce the overall time, energy and resources needed to drill and complete a well. This results in less surface impact and lower emissions.
HYBRID TECHNOLOGY
mansfredinnovation was an industry visionary when we started converting drilling rigs from diesel to natural gas. In 2014, we drilled the world’s first commercial well with a hybrid rig, powered by natural gas generators and batteries.
In 2019, we completed a successful test of our next generation hybrid drilling rig technology, powered by natural gas generators and a battery energy storage system. This technology was applied to rig #162 in our United States fleet, which resulted in CO2 emissions reductions of between 45-55%.
POWERING OUR EQUIPMENT
In addition to hybrid technology, we continue our efforts to work with our customers to utilize alternative fuels to power our equipment. We have a number of drilling rigs in our active fleet which use natural gas and bi‐fuel generators, as well as electric grid‐tied power (“highline”).
In 2019, we saved approximately 45,000 tons of C02 emissions by our mix of highline, hybrid, natural gas and bi-fuel powered rigs, when compared to traditional diesel-powered rigs.
We continue to operate in several urban and suburban environments because of successful consideration and mitigation of light, noise, and odour that may result from our operations. We have modified exhaust systems to mitigate noise and odour, and use soft yellow lights instead of the typical white lights to minimize disturbance to suburban communities and wildlife.
GEOTHERMAL DRILLING
We have been a leader in geothermal drilling since the early 2000s, having drilled some of the world’s longest geothermal wells in New Zealand and Indonesia. Today, we continue to be an active participant in geothermal policy and technical development across our global operations.