Connections & Conversations

Janet F. Clark was the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Marathon Oil Corporation until her retirement in 2013. She worked previously as the chief financial officer and senior vice president of Nuevo Energy Co. and chief financial officer and executive vice president of corporate development and administration at Santa Fe Snyder Corp. She chairs the Audit Committee on the board of directors of EOG Resources and serves as the lead director and chair of the Audit Committee of the board of Texas Instruments.

Clark is a member of the Executive Committee of the Houston Symphony’s Board of Trustees and served as its president from 2017 to 2020. She has also served as chair of the Advisory Council for YES Prep Public Schools and on the boards of Teach for America-Houston and the NPR Foundation. At Rice University, she serves on the Council of Overseers for the Jones Graduate School of Business and the Governing Council of the Shepherd School of Music. She recently joined the Board of Resources for the Future and the Houston Seminar.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University and an MBA in finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Nooshin Behroyan has 17 years of oil, gas and utilities industry experience that includes integrity management, construction management and inspection, engineer, procurement and construction for pipeline and electric grid infrastructures. Her expertise includes creating sustainable value-creation strategies and foundation during a crisis to effectively navigate through turbulent times as well as evaluating and improving processes and building programs from scratch to enhance safety, reduce costs and expedite projects while leveraging environmentally innovative approaches.

Her company, PAXON — which she founded in 2016 — was named 9th fastest growing company in America on the Inc. 5000 list and No.1 female-led company on the same list two years in a row. As a first-generation immigrant and a single mother, Behroyan brings extensive cross-cultural experience that promotes gender diversity and workforce equality by addressing barriers and driving change for positive impact for women engineers and veterans. Behroyan serves as the board president for National Association of Women Business Owners San Francisco Bay Area as well as chairwoman of the advisory board of IKAR Energy Group and the advisory boards for American Gas Association. 

She holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from UC Davis and is a graduate of UCLA’s MDE Program. She is also a professionally trained piano player and has played for the UC Berkeley Jazz Ensemble.

Whitney Wickes is COO and Co-founder of private equity-backed Rocking WW Minerals — a Rockies-focused mineral and royalty acquisition company based out of Wyoming. Idolizing the original generation of landmen that knew how to “do it all,” Wickes has pursued an interdisciplinary understanding that has enabled her to build companies from start up as well as revitalize struggling operations. In 2016, Wickes was named VP of land at Emerald Oil, Inc. — a Bakken operator whose market cap reached nearly $1B at its peak. Following Emerald Oil, Wickes was hired to help close the $200M acquisition of Linn Energy’s assets in southwest Wyoming and form XRO Energy LLC. Wickes subsequently became the VP of land at XRO, where she oversaw the land and regulatory teams managing an asset base of 175,000 net acres and 1,400 wells. At 29, Wickes was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list of young people changing the energy space. Wickes graduated from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado with a degree in finance and earned 3 certificates from the University of Denver within the field of petroleum land management.

Michol L. Ecklund is senior vice president and general counsel of Callon Petroleum Company —— a publicly traded independent oil and natural gas company. She oversees the legal, human resources, land administration and ESG activities of the company. Ecklund previously served as deputy general counsel for commercial and operations services at Marathon Oil after starting her career at Baker Botts LLP. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, economics and managerial studies from Rice University in 1997 and a law degree from Harvard University in 2000. She currently serves on the board of trustees of Rice University and previously served as president of the Association of Rice Alumni. She is also a member of the board of directors for The Woman’s Hospital of Texas and the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston.