The Award of Outstanding Achievement is awarded each year to a worthy recipient, in recognition of innovation and/or performance within the gas processing and gas liquids industry. Selection of the outstanding recipient is typically done in time for presentation at the Annual General Meeting each year.

2015 Outstanding Award Winner – Josh Carter

Josh acted as a GPAC Director, President and Past President for over ten years. He never wavered in his attitude, commitment or leadership, through some tumultuous times for the association and the industry.

Some notable projects he was involved with during his Calgary career include:

Expanded Cutbank and Musreau Plants, K3 Turnaround, Altagas Sylvan Lake, Bonnie Glen, Louis Bull, Malmo, Bittern Lake, Morningside, Kitto and Mikwan plants and Keyera Brazeau River, Nordegg and West Pembina plants.

At Aux Sable he was Sr. Business Development for Canada and generated the first independent liquids incentive deal.  On to Zedi, he was Director of Production and Data, managing Zedi’s largest business unit, covering Scada monitoring, software, asset management, measurement compliance & charts in Canada and the US.

Finally, at CNRL he led production in the Wembley team, and managed almost 15,000boe/d, including multiple units, with production through multiple batteries and processing plants.

Josh volunteered extensively with industry associations like the Petroleum Joint Venture Association – 7 years and on the Gas Processing Association Canada for 10 years, 3 of which were as President.

He currently lives in Houston, Texas with his wife Linda and daughter Lauren, working with Virtual Materials Group.

2013 Outstanding Award Winner – Al Niven

A member of the Board of Directors since GPAC’s inception in 2005, Al was also a Board member of the Canadian Gas Processors Suppliers Association (CGPSA), a GPAC predecessor. In accepting the Presidency of GPAC, he said, “It was a great honour and privilege.” His goal for GPAC was to continue the momentum to be a relevant and leading-edge organization.

Mr. Niven’s first career was as a respiratory technologist, but he later spent three decades in sales and marketing in the oil and gas industry, most recently with Benchmark Instrumentation.

2012 Outstanding Award Winner – John Martin

Congratulations to the 2012 recipient of GPAC’s Outstanding Achievement Award, John Martin.

John worked as an engineer at the Rimbey gas plant (operated by British American Gulf Canada) in the 60’s. When he was transferred to the Calgary office he worked in the gas unit until he moved to Husky Oil.

2011 Outstanding Award Winner – Russ Kear

Congratulations to the 2011 recipient of GPAC’s Outstanding Achievement Award, Russ Kear of Chevron Canada.

In the course of his substantial career, Russ has demonstrated exceptional leadership in the areas of vision, best practices, leadership excellence and attitude. Russ was a strong supporter of CGPA in the past, and continues to have his heart in the current organization.

During his three decades of experience in the gas processing industry, Russ has positively affected the careers of dozens of engineers and managed one of the best Facility Engineering Groups in Western Canada.

Russ is described as a “modest, humble man who never sought attention… his authority and rank has been developed on his natural leadership skills and technical competencies, best validated by speaking to the number of current industry leaders that he mentored. He strives to live the principles of engineering – integrity, professionalism, morality. Do the right thing at the right time. He is admired and respected by all who have worked for and with him.”

John was President of CGPA in 1975 and is now retired, organizing hiking activities for other retirees who were also CGPA and CGPSA members at one time.