Our Team
Kevin Heck - Chief Executive Officer
Born and raised in Southern Alberta, Kevin is First Nations from Peepeekisis Cree Nation #81. Kevin started his oilfield career on a snubbing unit in 2000 in Brooks, AB for Snub Force Well Control. After six years of snubbing, Kevin transitioned into a position running tools as a downhole tool hand for Baker Hughes. After working for Baker Hughes for seven years, he became a private contractor and ultimately ended up forming his own tool company, RedBag Oil Tools. Kevin focused mainly on completions and workovers to help producers optimize their wells. A few years later, Kevin noticed that there was a growing need for well abandonments to be completed and switched his focus to this aspect of the oil and gas industry. In March of 2020, he founded Arrowhead Abandonments with his brother Clayton Heck. This career decision was complimented by their Indigenous background and the push for Indigenous inclusion in the ASRP program. As one of the founding members of Sipihko Energy, Kevin is excited about the opportunity to provide a chance for Indigenous nations to develop, produce and sell their own source of green energy. Kevin believes hydrogen is the way of the future and looks forward to bringing it to many nations across North America and internationally.
Clayton Heck - Chief Operating Officer
Born in Hanna, Alberta, Clayton was raised on a farm, East of Sunnynook, Alberta. Clayton started his career on a service rig in 1994 in Brooks for Tazmanian Well Servicing and became a rig manager in 1999. Clayton continued to work service rigs until he started his own Wellsite Supervision company in 2005 and worked for various firms for a couple of years and then broke out with his own independent consulting business. Some of his accomplishments are helping Baytex set up their first horizontal fracing operations, before transitioning over to ARC Resources in the Waskada field. He then became a wellsite supervisor with Cenovus on the Suffield Block. For the last year and a half at Cenovus, he was their field abandonment executioner for Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, including DDS and NR applications. When Cenovus slowed down, he enrolled at SAIT for Petroleum Engineering Technologist and graduated in 2018. He then got certified through ASET as a Certified Engineering Technician. After graduation, Clayton became a guest speaker for SAIT to second year students in the Petroleum Engineering Technologist program due to his decades of real life energy experience. He continued his energy career by working as a field operator for Cardinal Energy before being selected as the central Alberta field coordinator. Clayton's experience and education led him to being one the founding members of Sipihko. Clayton sees this is an opportunity as a realistic approach for not only cleaning up the environment, but to repurpose environmental liabilities to produce hydrogen at a commercial scale. clayton.heck@sipihkoenergy.com
Sameen Bhullar - Chief Business Officer
Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, Sameen did his Bachelor's of Science in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and his Master's of Engineering in Environmental Engineering through the University of North Dakota. Sipihko Co-Founder, Sameen has proven experience with business development and project management in various energy sectors. Sameen is committed to help advance First Nations reconciliation within the energy sector and help achieve Canada’s deadline-driven net-zero carbon emissions goal by 2050 by leveraging Canada’s vast amounts of natural resources. Sameen foresees hydrogen as the fuel of the future. Sameen is determined to put Canada on the frontline of the renewable energy market by having Sipihko mentor Indigenous communities across North America on how they can provide their own hydrogen safely, sustainably, and in a cost-effective manner.
Trevor Jepsen - Chief Technology Officer
Trevor was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. He graduated with a degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is one of the founding members of Sipihko Energy. Trevor has extensive research experience regarding energy production and determining the financial viability of both hydrocarbon and renewable energy projects. To reduce global emissions and revolutionize the new energy economy, Trevor is passionate about commercializing clean hydrogen as he believes it to be the most viable resource to replace fossil fuels. Prior to working for Sipihko, he was a project engineer for an Alaska Indigenous corporation where he was responsible for technical analysis and project management of multi-million dollar infrastructure projects. Along with the rest of the Sipihko team, Trevor is focused on implementing large scale hydrogen production projects while partnering with Indigenous corporations and communities in Canada.
David Walsh - Director of Operations
Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Dave brings over 20 years of extensive operational experience in drilling, completion, abandonment, and reclamation within the energy industry. Sipihko Co-Founder, Dave has worked his way up the corporate ladder, starting as a floor-hand on a service rig in East Central Alberta. Dave's experience gained throughout his energy career, will be used so Sipihko Energy will be recognized as one of the first companies to commercialize hydrogen at a large scale and to further accelerate the Sipihko as a national and global disruptor in the hydrogen energy transition. In 2010, Dave branched out and began his consulting career in Central Alberta. Since that time Dave continues to grow his experience and has managed many multi-million dollar operations for O&G Producers in Canada, United States and Sultanate of Oman. Most recently Dave has spent the last 4 years in the USA advising, training and developing teams of multi-disciplined energy consultants in Williston Basin, North Dakota and Permian Basin, Texas.
Aseem Gill - Program Director
Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, Aseem is a Chemical Engineer from the University of Toronto with a Certificate in Business. Sipihko Co-Founder, Aseem Gill has worked as a team leader and project manager in numerous team projects in both academia and industry settings. Through his industry roles, Aseem has delivered multiple pitches to government and First Nations representatives on renewable and sustainable energy projects. In his research roles, Aseem has gained experience conducting renewable energy research. In his time at the University of British Columbia, he assisted in the optimization of electrolyzers and fuel cell technologies. Furthermore, Aseem's experience in programming and artificial intelligence has helped him grow a passion for integrating artificial intelligence into any project he is involved in. Being a young individual, Aseem is eager to create a more sustainable world and he believes working with Indigenous groups is vital to the success of this goal.
Kurt Wood - Project Engineer
Born and raised in Mississauga, Ontario, Kurt brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from a diverse background in engineering and the sciences. Kurt is a holder of degrees in environmental and chemical engineering, in addition to industry certifications in Project Management and Lean Six Sigma. A passion for the discovery of new knowledge and a desire to innovate motivates him to seek out new challenges and opportunities. Kurt has held positions as an engineer, project manager, and technical specialist in a variety of industries, including mining, construction, environmental consulting, and chemical manufacture. Kurt has been involved with the clean and renewable energy sector since 2020, having worked on the design of several renewable energy microgrids and energy storage systems intended to operate in the most remote areas of Canada. These systems also contained provisions for a fully integrated AI to ensure optimization between production, storage, and utilization of renewable energy autonomously. Kurt’s most recent project involved the successful construction of a major utility scale wind farm in central Alberta, adding capacity for over 150 MW of clean energy production to the grid. As a cofounder of Sipihko Energy, Kurt hopes to develop systems, processes, and supply chains to expediate the utilization of hydrogen as the compound of choice for long term energy storage and low carbon fuel.
Thomas Pearson - Project Manager
Born in Quebec, and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, Thomas is a well-rounded Industrial Electrician with years of knowledge in other trades including welding, fabrication, diesel and gasoline engine mechanics, construction. With proven experience in mining including placer drilling, oil and gas field electrical construction, instrumentation, and well abandonments. Sipihko Co-Founder, Thomas has lots of experience in project management including budgeting project costs and repairs for major companies like Canada Post and Strada Gold Corp. Thomas has dealt with million-dollar invoices and part orders for The Federal Government of Canada and many mines across Yukon and BC including Alexco Resources, Victoria Gold Corp, Capstone Mining Corp and more. Moreover, Thomas is motivated in helping Sipihko by providing insight by monitoring hydrogen production projects across Alberta to help Indigenous communities and industry companies reach their emission reduction targets.