Damien Thenin holds an MSc in Engineering and Earth Sciences from the Nancy School of Geology, France, where he specialised in Petroleum Geology. He has more than 20 years of international and domestic experience in the oil & gas and mining industries working as a geoscientist and successfully developing businesses.Damien commenced his career as geomodeling consultant in the Middle East and in 2005 was nominated for Best Consultant by Saudi Aramco. He then moved to Canada and successfully grew various software and consultancy businesses while continuously expanding his geoscience skills.He has consulted for many major, national and independent oil companies, working on a variety of conventional plays and unconventional resource plays in North America, South America, Middle East, Asia and Africa.In 2016 Damien combined his exploration and business development skills to cofound PetroPhoenix Resources, an oil company producing from and exploring for conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs in Kansas.Combining new and automated subsurface interpretation workflows using a big data approach in a mature basin, Damien leaded PetroPhoenix in identifying and securing multiple new prospects previously missed by exploration companies. This enabled PetroPhoenix to make its first commercial oil discoveries in 2021. PetroPhoenix is now applying its successful exploration method to various prospective areas in Kansas.