President, Shell Oil Company
Executive Vice President, Shell Upstream Unconventionals

As President of Shell Oil Company, Gretchen Watkins oversees the strategic integration of all Shell businesses in the United states and leads the US Country Coordination Team. Since being named to this post in January 2019, she has become the company’s leading voice in the engagement of public and private leaders across a wide range of energy-related policy and societal challenges.

In addition to these responsibilities, Gretchen serves as Executive Vice President of Shell’s Upstream Unconventionals business, overseeing the exploration, development, and production of Shell’s unconventional oil and gas portfolio, which includes assets in the US, Canada, and Latin America.

Before joining Shell in July 2018, Gretchen served as the Chief Executive Officer of Maersk Oil. Appointed CEO in October 2016 following two years as Chief Operating Officer, Gretchen’s tenure at Maersk coincided with a low-price environment for oil, but under her leadership the company delivered above-target operational and financial results. Upon sale of the business to Total in August 2017, she delivered deal closure and a safe and successful transition to the new enterprise.

Gretchen began her career nearly 30 years ago as a Facilities Engineer for Amoco in the Gulf of Mexico. She then worked as a Trading Manager for Amoco and BP before commencing an international career that has included a variety of senior executive roles at BP, Marathon Oil, and Maersk Oil in North America, Europe, and Asia. She has led joint ventures and negotiated contracts with countries and companies across the upstream, midstream, and downstream businesses.

Gretchen served as a non-executive director for Atkins, a global engineering consultancy and FTSE 200 company from 2014 until its merger with SNC Lavalin in 2017. Gretchen graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and has had executive education at Cambridge and Stanford Universities.

Chief Investment Officer, Pickering Energy Partners

Dan Pickering is the Chief Investment Officer of Pickering Energy Partners (PEP). PEP manages client assets via energy strategies focused primarily on public markets and private equity.

Prior to PEP, Mr. Pickering served as the President of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. and Chief Investment Officer of TPH Investment Management. TPH Asset Management managed both public and private equity strategies for institutional and individual clients. Dan has spent 24 years as an energy portfolio manager, researcher and analyst, first at Fidelity Investments (where he managed ~$1 billion of energy sector funds), then as Head of Research at Simmons & Company and as the founding partner of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. He currently serves as the portfolio manager of the PEP Energy Equity Opportunities Fund and on the Investment Committee of PEP’s Energy Co-Investment and research-based strategies.

Dan grew up in Missouri, has a BS in Petroleum Engineering from the Missouri School of Science and Technology and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Dan sits on the Board of Trustees for Texas Children’s Hospital, the Texas Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Advisory Board of Midway Companies and the Houston CFA Society. Dan is also the Houston Board Chair of the Posse Foundation, a national non-profit organization focused on providing skills training and full college scholarships to young leaders in Houston’s public schools.

He likes to travel, avoid exercise, watch too much TV, play golf and complain about the Houston Texans.

CEO/Founder - Kace Capital Advisors, LLc Senior Market Strategist/Consultant – SlateStone Wealth, LLC CNBC Contributing Editor/Market Analyst
Drawing on nearly 40 years of financial industry experience - Kenny founded Kace Capital Advisors in the summer of 2019 and joined SlateStone Wealth in October 2019 as Consultant and Senior Market Strategist. With over thirty years of executive management experience and over twenty years of leadership in industry advocacy, he is a well-known personality in the financial services business and can be found commenting on market action and conditions in his role as contributing editor for cable news giant - CNBC. In his role as CEO at Kace Capital - Kenny seeks to take advantage of his experience in the financial services industry helping to bring new and exciting investment opportunities in fintech, real estate, and energy to the marketplace.

In this role at Slatestone, he will have a range of responsibilities from market and economic analysis to investor education. He will analyze and interpret the ever changing economic and market landscape and how those impacts may affect future investment and planning strategies. His output will include written commentary, audio recordings, client meetings alongside SlateStone’s wealth advisors and industry conferences.

Prior to aligning with SlateStone, Kenny served as Managing Director/Member NYSE at William O’Neil &Co serving the interests of global institutional clients, including hedge funds, mutual funds, pension plans and larger family offices. Earlier in his career, he built the U.S. equities business at the largest inter- dealer broker, ICAP, and was among the first traders to go direct to institutional money managers, executing on the opportunities market evolution created, and bringing greater transparency and accessibility to the customer.

Before that, Kenny ran the Salomon Brothers New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) division during the nineties bull market and was a part of the team that launched the first electronic order delivery system in the industry. Kenny began his career on the floor of the NYSE in 1985. He served as a member of the exchange for nearly forty years and as a NYSE Governor for more than a decade, representing the interests of institutional asset managers in the global equities markets.

Kenny is a passionate speaker with an infectious interest in the markets. He educates investors, market professionals, and business students about the evolution of the modern markets. As a voice on the markets, he first started working with the news media after 9/11, at the request of the NYSE, and became a regular contributor during the financial crisis, developing a reputation for being an advocate for Main Street and the investing public. He writes a popular market newsletter, which starts with insights into the trading day’s action and ends with a recipe to serve the mood of the markets. Kenny serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Investment Professionals (NOIP), and the Headstrong Project, a nonprofit providing free, world-class treatment to veterans coping with the psychological wounds of war. He has a BSBA in Finance from the Boston University School of Management. Kenny met his wife on the trading floor in 1985, when she was the first female Latino to become a member of the NYSE; they have two daughters.