THE ENSYTE TEAM

The goal of ENSYTE’s Client Support Team is to help our clients receive the most effective and efficient use from their ENSYTE software application.

In addition to senior project leaders, ENSYTE has assembled an excellent supporting staff for addressing client business practices, managing quality assurance, and coordinating user training. Our staff collectively has substantial multi-year experience in all aspects of the natural gas industry with backgrounds that range from risk economics to logistics to natural gas processing and more.

 Click the links below to expand or collapse details for each member of our team.

MICHAEL SMITH - President / Founder

Michael Smith has over 30 years of experience providing consulting services and software products to the international energy industry. Michael began his career as Manager of the energy and environmental practice for KPMG Peat Marwick for the Rocky Mountain region. His next career stop was in Houston, TX as Vice President of Intercomp Resource Development and Engineering, an international company offering reservoir simulation, log analysis, and pipeline fluid flow simulation software and consulting services. In this position he traveled extensively providing consulting and software product implementations for the firm’s clients managed from the Houston, Calgary and London offices. He played a key role in developing a “World Oil Supply and Demand Model” for a key Middle East producer, the first coal bed methane extraction project, and managed the firm’s technical data models for reservoir simulation.

Michael then formed ENSYTE Energy Software, initially incorporated as Michael Smith & Associates, to offer consulting and technical software development services to the oil and gas industry. His early project work included exploration statistical trend analysis for several Houston companies, a major reserve availability analysis and software development project for an interstate pipeline company and a multi-year consulting project with Statoil, Norway assisting with implementing the initial monitoring software for the Statfjord and Gulfaks fields. This early work led to the development of related major international consulting projects and custom software solutions for production operations, natural gas management systems, and continued work in exploration and reserve economics and risk analysis.

As ENSYTE grew into an international market presence, with major projects for international oil and gas companies, he developed PROPHET™ a premier exploration financial model, and PRISM™, an integrated production operations software application, and added a dedicated gas marketing and transportation system called GASTAR™ to the ENSYTE Suite of Products. Initially developed as separate data models, the GASTAR and PRISM data models were merged over the past several years to provide a single data model for managing oil, natural gas, and liquids from the wellhead to market. It is this data model and set of application programs that provide the infrastructure for ENSYTE’s current product suite. Currently, Michael has been committed to the full refurbishment of all ENSYTE products to new Microsoft technology and a new user interface in Windows Presentation Foundation. He is also the software architect and oversees the implementation and maintenance of ENSYTE Software at new client organizations and manages the continued development of the products to maintain ENSYTE’s position as offering one of the best product suites in the industry.

MARILYN SMITH - Vice President, Finance and Administration

Marilyn Smith brings over 12 years of experience to the ENSYTE team. As Vice President of Finance and Administration, Marilyn has implemented the financial and administrative structure for the company that has grown and expanded as new employees join the company and new clients acquire ENSYTE products. She manages many aspects of ENSYTE’s operations, including: cash flow operations, payroll and accounting systems, vendor and bank relationships, financial controls and reporting, year-end audit coordination, insurance administration, and company policy implementation. In addition, she oversees ENSYTE’s Human Resources function, as well as the company’s charitable giving program.

GRIDHAR (SREE) SRIRAMAGIRI - Director, Software Development 

Giridhar (Sree) Sriramagiri is founder of EnSoft Professionals, ENSYTE’s affiliate company for software consulting and programming. ENSYTE and EnSoft entered into a formal agreement in 2009 to combine their broad industry knowledge and expertise for the purpose of helping clients streamline their business processes with the most innovative technology. EnSoft was previously based out of Houston, TX and in early 2010 recently moved to Hyderabad, India.

Sree is a PMI-Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with over 15 years of IT experience and over 12 years of experience specifically related to the energy industry. Sree’s technical background covers product development, systems analysis and design, database migration, graphical interface development, and technology platforms IBM Mainframe, Java, and Microsoft. He has implemented large scale enterprise applications using both Java / J2EE and MS .NET technologies. He has also implemented conversion projects involving COBOL to Java and VB6 to .NET. Sree’s technical background includes the use of Java technologies (using RAD 6.0, Oracle 11g, Websphere 5.2, JDK 1.5, Report Mill, XML Spy, Webservices using Sonic MQ, Java - RPC, File Net and Clear Case), as well as the use of Microsoft technologies (using Visual Studio 2005 / 2008, XML Notebook, SQL Server 2005 / 2008, Visual Source Safe and Crystal Reports). He is experienced in graphical modeling using Open Source products such as Java Batik.

Sree’s primary focus is to support ENSYTE’s initiatives in designing, developing, and implementing large scale enterprise software applications for the Energy and Utilities Industry. He has an expert level understanding of overall pipeline business processes, with specific expertise in pipeline tariff compliance, FERC orders, SOX compliance, and NAESB standards. Sree has spent the bulk of his career managing large project implementations (with budgets of up to $5M) for large pipeline operators. Most recently, Sree has headed up the programming team to bring the GASTAR product onto its new technology platform. Sree works very closely with the ENSYTE project manager, as well as the development manager, to provide the backend database coding for the product. Michael and Sree are currently launching an outsourcing software development and conversion business based on lessons learned with redeveloping ENSYTE’s products utilizing programming expertise in India.

KRISTI SCHNEE - GASTAR Product Manager

Kristi Schnee has over 15 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. She has a proven history in achieving sales and marketing results, a solid financial background, and an in-depth knowledge of trade support and risk analysis. Kristi began her career as a business development /accounting representative and later moved into a position as Senior Financial Analyst at El Paso Corporation. She then spent a good portion of her career working as a Broker for several London-based companies, where she effectively developed new business sources / client bases, from the ground up and managed the daily brokering of fuel oil products. Kristi currently oversees product management for the development and implementation of ENSYTE’s GASTAR solution, as well as project management for a current large-scale gas management and logistics project.

For the current implementation, Kristi manages all client interaction and contract compliance, project management reporting, expense control, milestone billing, client inquiries and concerns, as well as supervision of all corporate interactions on the project. Kristi is responsible for the achievement of ENSYTE’s strategy with the client, supervising of project staff to achieve the deliverable objectives, generating work orders and schedules for each task, and supervising compliance with the contract terms and deliverables. Additionally, she consulted on a new functionality for GASTAR, the GASTAR EBB, which involved implementation, testing, and end user training for external customers.

TANIA DEMERIS - Director, Marketing 

Tania Demeris has over 8 years of experience managing effective marketing and business development strategies. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 2002 with a Bachelor’s Degree emphasizing International Business. Tania started her career as an intern at ENSYTE Energy Software International and later joined Energy Maintenance Services (EMS), a North American company providing a full range of operations and maintenance services to major pipeline operators, E&P companies, Local Distribution Companies (LDCs), and several other sectors of the industry. As Manager of Marketing for EMS, Tania helped build the company’s marketing infrastructure during its first few years of operation. That infrastructure included an active trade show schedule, coordination of other relevant client and prospect events, internal marketing and communications, ongoing collateral & website development, regular thought leadership articles, and various initiatives regarding direct business development for the company. Tania rejoined ENSYTE in 2010.

DAN DAY - Senior Information Systems Developer

Dan Day has managed information systems and product development for ENSYTE for over 20 years. Dan received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and joined ENSYTE (then called Michael Smith & Associates) shortly after as a Senior Software Analyst. Dan helped design and implement the first four commercial products for the company and provided technical support. He then became Manager of Research, Development, and Special Projects which involved directing junior programmers, acting as technical consultant, and developing new techniques and tools to advance the company in the marketplace. Dan became the chief developer for ENSYTE’s production economics forecasting tool, PROPHET and oversaw the advancement of product to new user interfaces using C++ language. The product became one of the leading forecasting tools for exploration and production companies. He also provided development for a real-time monitoring and production allocation software system for Total Nigeria, as well as a GIS and reporting tool for a local E&P company.

Dan currently manages the development of ENSYTE’s suite of oil, gas, and gas liquids allocation algorithms and graphical display programs and is the focal point for working with the programming team to bring ENSYTE’s products into the new technology platform. Dan has expert level understanding of Oracle, SQL Server, Visual Studio 2010 to include .NET and C Sharp, OSIsoft’s PI system for real-time monitoring, and Windows Presentation Foundation.

TOM ANDERSON - Senior Database Administrator

Tom Anderson is ENSYTE’s Database Administrator (DBA) for the ORACLE and SQL Server databases and is the focal point for supporting database implementations and design work. Tom joined ENSYTE to bring his expertise in 3rd GL languages and has evolved from this programming position to the role of DBA. He has been with ENSYTE since its inception and has made major contributions to the company’s product development and deployment objectives. While he works primarily in the background of project support, his work in maintaining data integrity and supporting client data security and backup procedures is instrumental in project success.

Tom received his Associate’s Degree in Data Processing from Rochester Institute of Technology. Prior to working for ENSYTE, he worked for Houston Natural Gas as Programmer in the Gas Measurement and Payroll departments. He joined Michael Smith & Associates (now ENSYTE) as Developing Programmer with team work on developing data entry forms for several applications, then began working with database development, design, and implementation. He has experience with Focus, IDBMS, Oracle, and SQL Server databases, as well as experience with troubleshooting and handling complex programming in SQL language. He has extensive background work with all ENSYTE applications and developed the Federal and State Regulatory Reports Module for GASTAR.

ARIEL SMITH - GASTAR Project Coordinator

Ariel Smith earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from the University of Arkansas and has provided both technical and business support to ENSYTE clients. In 2010, Ariel provided all technical development for the redesign of ENSYTE’s company website. She also managed a team of developers to release ENSYTE’s economic forecasting tool, PROPHET, to the market in the same year. She currently provides support to the GASTAR product team to include: customer support, product testing, user manual design and construction, and user trainings. She also manages ENSYTE’s Helpdesk for the GASTAR product through the company’s Spiceworks program. Ariel has recently moved into a Project Coordination role, taking on more aspects of client scoping, project kick off, and product implementation support.

CHANG LEE - Staff Petroleum Engineer

Chang received his Master’s in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston and joined ENSYTE shortly after graduating. He provides support for two ENSYTE products: PROPHET and GASTAR. For the PROPHET product, Chang performs oil and gas reserve estimation and builds models of reservoir performance analysis, production forecasting, and economic evaluation for oil and gas reservoirs. Chang performs testing and evaluation for both products, with particular attention to GASTAR’s Business Associates Module, Pipelines and Points, Contracts, Production Meters, the product’s measurement interface, and allocation programs for oil, gas, and gas liquids.

BRITTNEY BARNES - Associate, Corporate Development

Brittney Barnes graduated from McNeese State University with a Bachelors of Science. She has 7 years of experience as a promotional marketing representative for companies across the United States. Brittney assists with both marketing and administrative functions at ENSYTE and produces regular internal communications. Brittney is responsible for the organization and coordination of office administration, staff activities, orientation and training of new staff members, and helping to create and administer office policies and procedures.

ENSYTE also specializes in the design, implementation, and support of core computer and network technical issues within the Microsoft software systems. Core technical areas consist of the following key elements:

  • System Administration and Operation
  • Database Management
  • Network Administration

ENSYTE experts have diverse practical backgrounds to include: Risk Analysis, Trade Support, Commodity Markets, NAESB Compliance, Nominations / Scheduling, Acquisitions Analysis, Oil Refining, Oil and Gas Marketing, Land / Lease Management, Production Operations, Material Control, Joint Interest Accounting, Electricity Generation, Quality Control, Process Efficiency, Information Technology, Applications Development, Systems Architecture, Software Installation, and Data Integration.

We also partner with several key organizations to deliver a streamlined solution. Click HERE to learn more.