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Home / Industry Achievement Awards / Past Recipients

Past Recipients

Outstanding Contribution Awards

2024 – Margot Bruce O’Connell
2023 – Dr. Ciaran O’Shea
2022 – Max Ruelokke
2019 – Lee Shinkle
2018 – Bill Fanning
2017 – James (Jim) Thistle
2016 – Robert Crosbie
2015 – Kevin Roche
2014 – Sam Allen
2013 – Wayne Chipman
2012 – Sidney Hynes
2011 – Stephen Henley
2010 – Jim Wright
2009 – Moya Cahill
2008 – Dave Keating
2007 – Michael Enachescu
2006 – Steve Millan
2005 – Bernard Collins
2004 – Fredrick J. Cahill

Rising Star Awards

2024 – Dwayne Heath
2023 – Barbara O’Rielly
2022 – Susan Collins
2018 – Stephen Edwards
2017 – Richard Mandeville
2016 – Richard Wright
2015 – Mike Wahl
2014 – Karen Winsor

25th Anniversary Awards

Wes Abel
John Crosbie
J.I. (Jack) Clark
Fraser Edison
Ruth Graham
Gregory Lever
Cabot Martin
Fred Murrin
Oil & gas industry employees (Accepted by Wayne Walters)
A. Brian Peckford
Harvey Smith
Rob Strong

Partnership Awards

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA)
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

Outstanding Contribution Awards

2024

John C. Crosbie Award for Outstanding Contribution:

Margot Bruce-O’Connell

Recipient Bio

Video

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2023

John C. Crosbie Award for Outstanding Contribution:

Dr. Ciaran O’Shea

Video

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2022

John C. Crosbie Award for Outstanding Contribution:

Max Ruelokke

Recipient Bio

Video

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2019

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Lee Shinkle

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2018

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Bill Fanning

Bill Fanning is a senior oil & gas manager with more than 30 years of international upstream experience and currently country manager for Kvaerner Canada.
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2017

Outstanding Contribution Award:

James (Jim) Thistle

Jim Thistle was a founder and tireless proponent of the Newfoundland and Labrador oil & gas industry.  As a lawyer with the Department of Justice, he served as a lead negotiator and assisted in the drafting of the Atlantic Accord.  Later, in private practice, Jim served as general counsel for the Hibernia project.

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2016

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Robert Crosbie

Rob Crosbie has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Crosbie Group Limited since 1991.  The company’s growth under Rob’s leadership has been largely underpinned by strategic investments in our province’s offshore oil & gas industry.

Recipient Bio
Video

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2015

Outstanding Contribution Award:
Kevin Roche

Kevin Roche, who retired from Noble Drilling in 2011 after 34 years in the oil & gas industry, is recognized for his instrumental role in building sustainable resource development processes for the East Coast oil & gas industry.

News Release
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2014

Outstanding Contribution Award:
Sam Allen

Sam Allen is recognized for his tremendous contribution to developing local, harsh-environment expertise in the province and for helping to position Newfoundland and Labrador as a world leader in remote, high-value engineering and drafting support for international subsea oil and gas projects.

News Release
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2013

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Wayne Chipman

Wayne Chipman, Noia’s 2013 award recipient, is a mechanical engineer, retired from Nalcor Energy after successfully helping to create the province’s oil & gas corporation; a final professional accomplishment rounding out 35 years of substantial and influential achievements.

News Release
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2012

Outstanding Contribution Award:
Sidney Hynes

Captain Sidney J. Hynes was named recipient of Noia’s 2012 Outstanding Contribution Award.  Captain Hynes was described as a true pioneer in the development and growth of the offshore industry in our province.

News Release
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2011

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Stephen Henley

Noia’s 2011 Outstanding Contribution Award was awarded to Stephen Henley, a business leader and volunteer who has, for over two decades, contributed to the growth of the local supply and service sector and to the emergence of Noia as an independent and influential association.

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2010

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Jim Wright

Noia’s 2010 Outstanding Contribution Award was awarded, posthumously, to Dr. James Wright, a teacher, researcher, entrepreneur, and volunteer who devoted 40 years of his life to the oil & gas industry in Newfoundland & Labrador.

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2009

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Moya Cahill

Noia’s 2009 Outstanding Contribution Award recipient, Moya Cahill, has played a significant role in the development of the province’s oil & gas industry and has been a key contributor to developing the core qualities for which this region is recognized globally. Throughout her career, she has shared a vision for what the local community could bring to industry and what the industry could bring to East Coast Canada. Her commitment, her drive, and her innovation has been a key cog in the wheel that has spurred our growth and success.

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2008

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Dave Keating

Mr. Keating is one of Newfoundland & Labrador’s petroleum pioneers. His offshore drilling career, spanning more than 30 years, has taken him from his home province to the North Sea, particularly Norway. He gained important knowledge and skills that he then brought back when he came to work in the Newfoundland & Labrador offshore industry. He undertook the role of Canada area manager with Transocean in the early nineties, and he also occupied that position from 2000 until his retirement in 2008.

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2007

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Michael Enachescu

Dr. Michael Enachescu has been a key player in petroleum exploration and development in offshore Newfoundland and Labrador for more than two decades. As a leading member of Husky’s exploration team from 1984 to 2003, he was involved in a number of discoveries (including White Rose and Terra Nova). His detailed geological map of the Grand Banks is the standard reference for both industry and government, and the starting point for any company considering acquiring lands or drilling offshore in the area.

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2006

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Steve Millan

A geologist by profession, Steve Millan’s involvement in the Newfoundland industry began in 1969. His involvement includes service in the private, public and academic sectors.

For over 35 years, Mr. Millan played an integral role in the oil & gas industry in Newfoundland and Labrador. He took a lead role in the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore resource management team and was a key participant in the development of the technical, legislative, policy, and strategic tools required for the efficient and beneficial development of the offshore.

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2005

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Bernard Collins

Bernard Collins is an international trade expert who consults with industry leaders across Canada and around the world to develop trade and logistics solutions for East Coast Canada oil & gas operations. As a result of his skill and his company’s reputation for excellence, Mr. Collins is internationally recognized as an expert in his field with a specialization in the offshore industry.

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2004

Outstanding Contribution Award:

Fredrick J. Cahill

Fred Cahill began his career as an Electrical Design Engineer with BFL Consultants Limited. In 1983, he left BFL to become an estimator/ project manager with his father’s company, G.J. Cahill & Company Limited. In 1987 he progressed to Vice-President and became President in 1989. Mr. Cahill also brought together five local companies to form the Newfoundland Service Alliance – all of which play an important role in the offshore oil & gas industry.

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Rising Star Awards

2024

Rising Star Award:

Dwayne Heath

Video

Recipient bio

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2023

Rising Star Award:

Barbara O’Rielly

Video

Recipient bio

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2022

Rising Star Award:

Susan Collins

Video

Recipient Bio

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2018

Rising Star Award:

Stephen Edwards

For the past seven years, Stephen Edwards has been directly involved in the Hebron project, progressively taking on increasing levels of responsibility.  His work has significantly and directly impacted design and operational decisions and contributed to the project’s continued success.

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2017

Rising Star Award:

Richard Mandeville

Richard Mandeville, P.Eng., has worked on offshore oil projects locally and around the world.  He has worked with Technip Canada since 2005, currently on secondment to TechnipFMC’s Aberdeen office as asset manager for five construction and S-Lay vessels.
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2016

Rising Star Award:

Richard Wright

Richard Wright, Manager of Exploration, Nalcor Energy (Oil & Gas) is being recognized for his leadership, determination and commitment which has resulted in Nalcor Energy initiating and executing several revolutionary activities in Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore.

Recipient Bio
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2015

Rising Star Award:
Mike Wahl

Mike Wahl, founder and Manager Director of Definitions Health & Wellness, is being recognized for his contributions to enhancing the focus on health and wellness across the local industry.

News Release
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2014

Rising Star Award:
Karen Winsor

Karen Winsor, in the short span of her career, has already achieved recognition as “one to watch”.  As COO with Atlantic XL, she has ultimate authority for the company’s operations throughout Canada and sits on the management team of XL Group Ltd. (Aberdeen, U.K.).

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25th Anniversary Awards

Wes Abel

Wes Abel began his career with Mobil Oil in 1955 as a maintenance roustabout and battery operator and later became an engineer, gaining experience with the company in Calgary, Sable Island, the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea where he served as platform manager and project manager for the Statfjord A and B projects. In 1983, Mr. Abel returned to Eastern Canada from Norway as Mobil’s East Coast Engineering Manager and was instrumental in completing negotiations and project sanction for the Hibernia project. In 1993, he returned to Calgary as Mobil’s Senior Advisor for Frontier Development until his retirement in 1996.

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John Crosbie

In over 28 years of political life at the municipal, provincial and federal levels, John Carnell Crosbie has had a broad and significant impact on the people and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Mr. Crosbie was instrumental in helping put in place many of the building blocks for the local oil & gas industry. As a Member of Parliament and the province’s senior representative in the federal cabinet during the 1980s, he helped gain government support for shared management of our natural resources, an agreement that would become known as the Atlantic Accord, and later helped facilitate the federal assistance and guarantees that helped move Newfoundland and Labrador’s Hibernia project from concept to reality.

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J.I. (Jack) Clark

Dr. Jack Clark has been involved in major civil engineering and pipeline projects onshore and offshore since 1957. As President of C-CORE from 1984-1997, he helped grow the corporation’s prominence and stature as a world-class research organization in Cold Ocean Resources Engineering. During the downturn in offshore activities in the 1980s he diversified C-CORE operations to include research on pipelines, in mining and space, concentrating on task environment works that built on C-CORE’s core strengths. As President of J.I. Clark and Associates, Dr. Clark continues to provide his expertise to C-CORE and the industry as an engineering consultant.

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Fraser Edison

Fraser Edison has played key roles in both the Hibernia and Terra Nova projects. Mr. Edison and his partners purchased Concrete Products in 1982 and later went on to form ConPro Group. In 1983, he and his partners formed a joint venture with Doris Engineering of Paris, France under the name Newfoundland Offshore Development Corporation Limited (NODECO), which was subsequently awarded the contract to construct the Gravity Base Concrete Structure for Hibernia. Doris ConPro is also well known internationally for its involvement as a member of the Terra Nova Alliance, which provided construction, management, and support to the joint venture of international oil companies which developed Newfoundland and Labrador’s second offshore oil project.

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Ruth Graham

Born in English Harbour West, Fortune Bay, and raised in Marystown on the Burin Peninsula, Ruth Graham worked with the College of Fisheries, NORDCO, Husky Bow Valley, and GVA Canada, a Swedish Company, before joining the Newfoundland Ocean Industries Association in 1989 as Executive Director. In ten years with Noia, Ms. Graham grew to know and assist petroleum companies throughout the Atlantic region. She became a key player in Noia’s efforts to educate and enhance the local oil & gas industry, coordinating numerous trade missions, educational conferences and seminars, and business development sessions. She also participated in numerous national and international trade shows and missions.

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Gregory Lever

Greg Lever’s involvement with the oil & gas industry in Eastern Canada stretches back to the 1970s. Mr. Lever was involved in early exploration on the East Coast with both Shell Canada and Petro-Canada and was a member of the team that drilled the Terra Nova K-08 discovery well. As a drilling engineer with the Texaco-Shell program, he was part of the team when the Discoverer Seven Seas drilling vessel set water depth and Canadian well depth records while drilling the Texaco-Shell Blue H-28 well. In 1979, Mr. Lever set up and managed Petro-Canada’s first Offshore Drilling Operations office in St. John’s and went on to manage the company’s offshore exploration and drilling off Newfoundland and Labrador, later becoming General Manager for the province, leading the Terra Nova project through the regulatory approval process and project sanction.

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Cabot Martin

Originally from Port aux Basques, Mr. Martin served as Legal Advisor to the Minister of Mines and Energy from 1972 to 1979 and as Senior Policy Advisor to the Premier from 1979 to 1985. He was widely applauded as one of the key negotiators of the 1985 Atlantic Accord, which set out joint federal-provincial jurisdiction of offshore oil & gas resources. Mr. Martin was later a key advisor and government lawyer during negotiations on the Hibernia project. In 1991, Mr. Martin co-founded Vinland Petroleum Inc., the first Newfoundland and Labrador based oil & gas exploration company which participated in the drilling of three onshore exploration wells. In 1998, Mr. Martin founded Deer Lake Oil and Gas Inc.

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Fred Murrin

As a senior civil servant in the department of Industry, Trade and Rural Development, Fred Murrin helped play a key role in setting the foundations for growth in the oil & gas sector. Mr. Murrin joined the provincial government in 1980 following a career with the Federal Business Development Bank, and for more than 20 years provided a stable focus to the industry departments of successive provincial governments. Mr. Murrin was actively involved in negotiations for projects including Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose, with responsibility for industrial and employment benefits. He was also central to the establishment of the Bull Arm Site Corporation and participated in numerous overseas trade missions.

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Oil & gas industry employees
(accepted by Wayne Walters)

The oil & gas industry in this province would be nothing today without the many people who worked so hard in countless roles and a variety of locations to make it happen. From the early pioneers who discovered and delineated our offshore reserves, to the workers who fabricated and assembled the assets that now reside offshore, to the people who today are supporting production operations, onshore and offshore, we owe them all a debt of gratitude. Wayne Walters, an industry veteran working with the Terra Nova project, accepted this award on behalf of all industry workers. Wayne entered the oil & gas industry in 1978 as a geologist with Gulf Canada in Calgary, Alberta. Since that time, Wayne has held positions such as operations geologist and drilling supervisor for Mobil Oil Canada and drilling and well service supervisor for projects and companies such as PanCanadian, Hibernia, and Petro-Canada. Wayne exemplifies the pioneering spirit, tenacity and capability of Eastern Canada’s offshore workforce.

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A. Brian Peckford

As Minister of Mines and Energy and later Premier, A. Brian Peckford helped provide the foundations for offshore oil & gas development in Newfoundland and Labrador including: advancing Newfoundland and Labrador’s case for jurisdiction; leading talks in the development of the Province’s own regulations; leading negotiations that led to the Atlantic Accord; and leading negotiations that led to the Hibernia Statement of Principles. Since retiring from provincial politics, Mr. Peckford has provided consulting services to governments and businesses nationally and internationally and has been involved, through several public companies, in resource projects in North and South America. Mr. Peckford also served as Chairman of The Pacific Offshore Energy Group, a British Columbia non-profit group promoting the responsible development of Pacific offshore oil & gas resources.

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Harvey Smith

Originally from Sackville, New Brunswick, Harvey Smith began his career with Mobil Oil in 1962, the same year Mobil and its partners applied for the Hibernia offshore acreage. He was involved with the appraisal drilling of the Hibernia field from 1982 to 1984 and was also involved in early exploration efforts off Nova Scotia, including at Sable Island. He became President of the Hibernia Management and Development Company in October 1996, guiding the project through key milestones including mating and tow-out, and finally to first oil in November 1997, a landmark event which made Newfoundland and Labrador an oil producing province. Mr. Smith retired from Mobil Oil in April 2000.

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Rob Strong

Rob Strong became involved in the offshore oil industry in 1980 with D.A.C. Group, a joint venture of Davie Shipbuilding, Aker Engineering, and Crosbie Offshore Services Limited, established to engineer and construct a semi-submersible for Eastern Canadian waters. Mr. Strong later joined Crosbie Offshore and Pennecon Limited. At Pennecon, he was instrumental in helping establish several significant joint ventures including Canship-Ugland, which operates the East Coast tanker fleet. He went on to form CONPRO Services with the partners of CONPRO Group. Mr. Strong has served as President of Noia and as a member of Noia’s Board of Directors. As President of the St. John’s Oilfield Technology Society, he was instrumental in the fundraising, design, and building of the Ocean Ranger Memorial at the Confederation Building.

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Partnership Awards

Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA)

Since ACOA’s inception in June 1987, ACOA and Noia have acted in partnership to cultivate opportunities for regional development in the oil & gas industry. ACOA provided operating funds for Noia in earlier days, and has been a lead contributor in many research projects established together with other federal and provincial partners. ACOA has been instrumental in the administration and allocation of the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Development Fund, with its provincial government partner. This support is recognized in funding for the Bull Arm site, Cow Head facility, Memorial University, Institute for Marine Dynamics, C-CORE, Offshore Safety and Survival Centre, College of the North Atlantic, Offshore Career Development Fund, and more. Programs like SKIFF, EBSDP, WBI, YEDI, ISDI, and others are tangible demonstrations of ACOA support to the industry. A key contact with the federal government in policy and position areas relating to the offshore, ACOA has worked tirelessly to ensure that programs are developed for the future well being of the business community in Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

Since Noia’s inception in 1977, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has worked cooperatively with Noia in fostering oil & gas development in this province. The government led the Province’s stakeholders through negotiations for the Atlantic Accord, as well as the Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose developments. The provincial government led the charge for offshore jurisdiction for many years and was successful in the resolution of the boundary dispute with Nova Scotia. They were effective in marketing the province at key trade shows, promoting our resources, supply and services sector and assisting in the development of strategic partnerships and technology transfer. The province was an equal partner in the application of the Offshore Development Fund, as they provided the foundation for a strong infrastructure in our province. The government has also played key roles in important Noia research projects (such as the natural gas studies). The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has always distinguished itself as a partner of Noia, adopting policies and positions that recognize the importance of oil & gas to our province’s economy and society.

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