Altus’s Well Experts team
The Altus’s team is specialized in advanced tubular (casing and tubing) design engineering and software solutions. Besides its own extensive experience and knowledge on the subject Altus has access to a network of external collaborators among the science, engineering and software solution pool.
Since the company started in 2001, we have proven ourselves as the best at what we do. We fill a market niche that specializes in tough wells and we have developed strong relationships with our clients, built on integrity, trust and performance.
Altus’s team
Albert McSpadden
President and Board Director
Besides his duties as President of Altus, Albert is in charge of coordinating the Altus team effort to develop and launch new software and expand elite consulting services in the transformed global digital environment. He connects internal Altus R&D with engineering challenges of complex well design in the oil & gas and geothermal industries. He plays a key role at Altus to expand its capability with specialised computing tools, including finite element analysis, to enhance and complement Altus's established well design expertise. He serves on industry technical forums and committees, currently on the SPE ATCE Technical Programme Committee. He joined Altus in 2005 to expand his knowledge of tubular design and quickly became an expert user of WellCat for complex well design projects. With Masters degrees in both mathematics and computer science from Texas Tech University, he previously worked at Coiled Tubing Engineering Services (now NOV CTES) to develop and implement simulation models for engineering job design of coiled tubing, wireline, and drill pipe in well intervention operations.
Bill Taylor
COO, CFO & CISO
With a BS in Petroleum Engineering and an MBA in Business from The University of Texas, he joined Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in 1987. He worked six years on oil and gas software as a developer, analyst, and manager before joining Enertech in 1993. As Enertech's Product Development Manager, he was responsible for directing the software development process. In 1996, he became Enertech's Operations Manager responsible for all engineering consulting services worldwide. Bill is one of the co-founders of Altus and is the CFO, COO, and CISO. Bill manages the day-to-day operations, consulting projects, the engineering staff, and the corporate finances. Bill is also the Chief Information Security Officer.
John A. Howard
Vice President-Sales and Board Director
With a BS in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Oklahoma, he joined Tenneco in 1983 and worked five years as a drilling engineer in the Gulf of Mexico before joining Enertech in 1988. After two years involved with joint industry projects on stuck pipe and drill string fatigue, he moved into software/consulting sales, software training, and project management. He quickly became Enertech's top sales representative, focusing on clients with critical needs. At Altus, he is responsible for worldwide sales of engineering consulting, training, and auditing.
Simon Glover
Vice President-Asia Pacific Oceania and Board Director
With BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Aberdeen University and M.Eng in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, he worked 5 years in drilling engineering operations before joining BP Research. In 1992 he joined Enertech and established its overseas operation in Aberdeen. He was responsible for developing Enertech's business outside the United States, contributing significantly to HPHT and other critical well issues in the North Sea and beyond. At Altus he has resumed this role, with responsibility for its consulting business in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Issa Kalil
Vice President, Engineering
With a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Auburn University, he joined Exxon Production Research Company in 1980 where he worked on solids control equipment, downhole drilling equipment, connection qualification programs and procedures, casing and tubing design manual and well completion training for more than 14 years. After three years in Exxon's international drilling operations as a Drilling Engineer, he joined Enertech in 1997 as a Consulting Engineer. In 1999, he became the Product Manager with accountability for product direction of Enertech software products (CasingSeat™, StressCheck™ and WellCat™) marketed by Landmark. At Altus, he is responsible for the development of its technical team to provide advance engineering services.
Ruggero Trevisan
Vice President-Europe and Board Director
Ruggero holds a MEng in Structural/Geotechnical Engineering from Padua University and a MSc by Research in Engineering/Dynamics from Aberdeen University. He worked in Italy as a Geotechnical Engineer before moving to the UK, where, upon completing his Master's degree, he worked for Mott MacDonald Group as a structural/geotechnical engineer, focusing on geotechnical-foundation related projects. He joined Halliburton/Landmark in 2007 where he worked as drilling-engineering consultant and gained considerable experience with software applications for drilling and completion through assignments to Shell (RTOC) and BP. In 2009 Ruggero joined Altus Well Experts and has since expanded his knowledge on tubular design for challenging environments such as HPHT, critical wells and, lately, well design for Geothermal and CCS applications. At Altus he serves as well tubular design and analysis specialist and provides training and mentoring on various projects worldwide. He held special lectures on tubular design at Robert Gordon University (Aberdeen), contributed to numerous publications around the area of well tubular design, and is actively engaged in the SPE/IADC as a committee member.
Rick Behenna
Principal Engineer
Rick has a BS in Petroleum Engineering from Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology, 1990, along with Petroleum Engineering graduate study from University of Oklahoma. He worked for Halliburton Energy Services 1990 - 2002 in stimulation design, formation damage assessment, and coiled tubing applications. In 2002, he moved to CTES L.P. as product manager for development of high level well intervention and data acquisition software, and to assist with coiled tubing applications and product support/training. Rick joined Altus in February 2008 and will specialize in advanced analysis and consulting services for tubing and well completion design.
Richard Cooper
Senior Engineer
After receiving a BEng degree with Honours in mechanical and offshore engineering from The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, he joined Landmark in 2001. He became proficient with software applications for design of drilling and production operations and for design of well tubulars in hostile environments. He is a power user of WellCat. At Landmark for four years, he did consulting, training, and mentoring on numerous projects worldwide. From 2005 to mid-2007, he worked at the Shell real-time operations centre. In November 2007, he joined Altus and will team with our other engineers to provide well expert services.
Ian Coker
Business Systems Specialist and Board Director
Ian has a BS in Sociology from Texas A&M University. He worked as an intern for Weatherford Intl. in managed pressure drilling and downhole tool testing. After graduating, he worked eight years as a Microcomputer Specialist for Texas A&M University, where he was responsible for desktop support, server architecture, procurement, and multimedia systems. Ian joined Altus in 2011 to provide IT services and expertise in business critical systems. At Altus, he is responsible for IT infrastructure, project oversight and ensures Altus engineers have the tools and systems they need to provide expert analysis.
Altus’s Board of Advisors
Afif earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Oklahoma State University (OSU) in the field of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and heat transfer. He started his professional career at OSU in 1988 as a lecturer of graduate & undergraduate courses in fluid mechanics and applied numerical methods. In 1991, Afif joined Enertech where he worked with Dr. Robert Mitchell on advancing the WellCat software in such key well design areas like multi-string casing/tubing design, PVT behavior of well fluids, multi-phase fluid flow, trapped annular pressure buildup, and wellhead movement. In 1996, Afif joined Shell Oil Co. and spent his early Shell days with the Applied Wells Technology organization at the Houston Research Center, devoted to development, deployment & commercialization of ground-breaking technologies for Shell’s deepwater business. In this role, he led associated R&D activity in fluid mechanics, thermal & transport behavior of well fluids, and impact of lifecycle temperature/pressure loads on well integrity. Subsequently, Afif was promoted into various business, technical and operational leadership positions across the global Wells organization in the US, Europe and Middle East, stewarding Shell’s interests in areas like technical software & computational science, Technical & Operational Excellence (a.k.a. Drill the Limit), NOC partnerships, and digital transformation. In 2021, following his retirement from Shell, Afif founded the company Nexus Geothermal Inc. specialized in high-end CFD & thermo-fluids consultancy services, with primary interest in de-carbonization and renewables. Afif is well-published, co-author of several Shell patents and has served on numerous customer advisory boards throughout his Shell tenure.
Dr. Afif Halal
Dr Frans J. Klever
Tubular specialist
Frans Klever holds MSc and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics from Twente University in The Netherlands. Working at Shell International Exploration & Production, he developed more than 30 years of oil industry experience in areas such as research, computing, pipeline analysis, tubular strength, compaction robust well design, risk-based well design, technical consultancy, API and ISO standardization activities. In his last role at Shell, he was Principal Technical Expert in Well Design Engineering. After retirement from Shell in 2016 he started his company BetaTech Consulting NL, which kept him active in the well engineering and engineering mechanics fields.
Dr Robert F. Mitchell
Tubular specialist
Robert F. Mitchell is the president of Well Complete, LLC. He has published over 100 papers on wellbore and well completion problems, including wellbore thermal/flow simulation, drillstring mechanics, tubing buckling analysis, arctic well completions, tubular stress analysis, and geomechanics. Principal technical accomplishments include the first deep permafrost thaw subsidence casing design, the comprehensive analysis of the post-buckling equilibrium of tubulars, and the accurate prediction of dynamic surge pressures. He won the SPE Drilling and Completions Award for 2005. He authored the casing and tubing design chapter for the textbook Petroleum Well Construction, was the drilling editor for the SPE Petroleum Engineers Handbook, one of the editors of the textbook Advanced Drilling and Well Technology, and lead editor for the textbook Fundamentals of Drilling Engineering. He has served as technical editor for Applied Mechanics Reviews, The Journal of Energy Resources Technology, SPE Computer Applications, the SPE Journal, and has been executive editor for SPE Drilling and Completions. He was a Halliburton Technology Fellow in the Drilling and Evaluation Division of Halliburton from 1996 to 2014, vice president of Enertech Engineering and Research Company from 1980 to 1996 and worked at Exxon Production Research Co from 1973 to 1980. He holds BA, MME, and Ph.D. degrees from Rice University, and is a registered professional engineer in Texas.
Altus’s external collaborators
Olli Coker
Principal Engineer
Olli holds a BSChE,MCL from the University of Arkansas, and a Masters of Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University. He has over 45 years experience in Drilling, Completions and Workover programs with a focus on tubular design. He also has recognised expertise in Advanced Casing design and has been a member of ISO 13679 committee (Premium Connection Testing), API Casing Wear work group (chairing the subcommittee on wear algorithms), SPE Technical Section for Wellbore Positioning, former chairman API Committee 10 (Cementing) Eastern Hemisphere work group, former UK representative to the International Standards Organization (ISO) TC67 SC3 Cementing committee. He is a founder of MPD technology and currently a member IADC/API MPD/UBO committee. Author and co-author of several SPE papers. Olli was the global WellCat focal point for ConcoPhillips in addition to Wellbore Positioning and MPD before retiring in 2009 to join Altus. Since then, his work has centered around HPHT wells, with a notable role in the shaping the UK Model Code of Safe Practice for HPHT wells. He has also been involved in Geothermal designs since 2009, instructed MPD schools, worked with FEA, authored papers on casing damage from subsidence and casing collapse from external forces, and worked as investigator for wellbore failures.
Don Waldo
Senior Software Developer
Don is an experienced senior software engineer and consultant with over a decade of expertise in software development. His diverse background spans e-commerce, agriculture, forestry, and oil & gas industries. Starting as a GIS Coordinator at the Oregon Department of Forestry, Don automated map making using Python scripts. He then worked at a Houston-based startup specializing in torque & drag modeling and coiled tubing fatigue. Passionate about web technologies, he co-founded a .Net meetup in Duluth, MN to engage with the local development community.
At Altus, Don brings his skills as a software engineer and consultant to advise on architecture and develop code for both the front-end and back-end. He combines his expertise with a keen understanding of the development process to ensure the delivery of high-quality and efficient software solutions.
In 2020, a group of friends and colleagues with vast experience in full product development lifecycle decided to start their own company focused on providing deftly done digital products and services. Hence the name of the company - Deftly. Starting as an outsourcing company, Deftly quickly gained a reputation as a reliable partner that collaborates with established brands with legacy systems in need of transitioning to more modern solutions, as well as startups aiming to realize their full potential in the market. One of their clients is Altus, a company specializing in advanced tubular (casing and tubing) design engineering and software solutions. For them, Deftly is providing infrastructure and DevOps services, as well as software development services.
Over time, Deftly has grown significantly and now brings together over 15 talented individuals who together combine their rich expertise and proficiency to meet the needs of their clients. Deftly recently shifted its focus to developing a platform that handles managed services and databases, with code deployments and infrastructure, that promises to become an essential tool for all developers when it comes to managing software deployed on the cloud.