Corporate Leadership

Chris Usher

President and Chief Executive Officer

Chris Usher brings over twenty-five years of leadership in the geophysical industry and hands-on experience in the fields of seismic data processing and imaging, new product commercialization, and software development.

Mr. Usher began his career in field operations at Western Geophysical. In 2000, he moved to Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) in London and served as President of its global data processing division until 2004. From 2004 to 2005, he served as Senior Corporate Vice President, Integrated Services, at Paradigm Geotechnology in London. In 2005, Mr. Usher joined Landmark Software and Services, a division of Halliburton, as Senior Director. From 2010 until 2012, Mr. Usher served as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Global Geophysical. Mr. Usher joined ION in December 2012 as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of ION’s GX Technology group and was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer in February 2015. Before becoming CEO, Chris Usher served as Executive Vice President of ION’s Operations Optimization segment and also oversaw information technology and marketing functions as well as new technology development.

Education:
Mr. Usher is a graduate of Yale University with a Bachelor of Science degree in geology and geophysics.

Mike Morrison

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Mike Morrison has over 25 years of experience in finance, accounting and management. In his 17-year tenure with ION, Mike held a variety of senior positions in finance, treasury and accounting and supported a number of capital market transactions.

Prior to joining ION, Mr. Morrison was Director of Accounting providing transaction support for an energy trading company and also served as Audit Manager at Deloitte.

Education:
Mr. Morrison holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas A&M University.

Matt Powers

Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Matt Powers joined ION in 2013 as Senior Counsel and was promoted to Deputy General Counsel in 2016 and Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in 2017. He has broad experience in energy, manufacturing and international transactions, as well as substantial experience in litigation and intellectual property matters.

Prior to joining ION, he practiced at top-tier international law firms, including the Houston offices of Sidley Austin LLP and Mayer Brown LLP, where he practiced in both transactional and litigation groups.

Education:
Matt is a 2003 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and a 1998 graduate of the University of Colorado at Denver, where he graduated summa cum laude and was awarded the Christine Conti Prize in Economics.

Dale Lambert

Executive Vice President, EPTS

Dale Lambert has over 30 years of multi-disciplinary engineering and management experience leading the development and commercialization of multi-million dollar offshore products and systems. He is a significant contributor to ION’s intellectual property portfolio, creating innovative solutions that meet the technical and business challenges of our clients.

Mr. Lambert began his career at Thompson Equipment Company, where he held various engineering and management roles spanning a decade that culminated in an EVP position responsible for engineering, sales, marketing and manufacturing. There he was involved in many automation projects involving early implementations of artificial intelligence. Next Dale became Engineering Manager for DigiCOURSE, which ION acquired in 1998. He held engineering positions with increasing levels of responsibility between 1998-2014 in ION’s marine equipment group, where he oversaw R&D, product design and systems engineering. From 2015-2019, Mr. Lambert served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of ION’s Marine Systems group. In 2020, Dale was promoted to Executive Vice President of our Operations Optimization group, which includes P&L responsibility for our software and equipment businesses.

Education:
Mr. Lambert is a graduate of the University of New Orleans with a Master’s in Engineering and Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering. He is a registered Professional Engineer in both Electrical and Controls Engineering.

Sheila Rodermund

Executive Vice President, Operations Optimization

Sheila Rodermund brings more than 25 years of experience to ION working across multiple technology disciplines in the Oil and Gas and Mining sectors. She joined ION in 2019 as the Chief Digital Officer and in 2021 assumed the role of Executive Vice President of Operations Optimization leading the offshore energy and maritime optimization business.

Prior to working at ION, Ms. Rodermund held global leadership roles within multi-billion-dollar companies such as Halliburton, a provider of products and services to the upstream oil and gas industry, and Orica, a provider of commercial explosives and innovative blasting systems to the mining, oil and gas and construction markets. Sheila has held varying roles of increasing responsibility across her career in technology from systems engineering through executive leadership. She previously served on the Intel Enterprise Capital Board and participated on multiple information technology sub-committees and research groups.

Education:
Sheila earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Liverpool in England.

Ken Williamson

Executive Vice President, Innovation & Strategic Marketing

Ken Williamson brings to ION over 30 years of broad international experience in the seismic industry, including technology development, geophysics, sales and marketing. Mr. Williamson joined ION in 2006 to lead the development and expansion of our multi-client business, and ultimately oversaw ION’s E&P Technology and Services segment until his most recent assignment to direct Innovation & Strategic Marketing in 2021.

Between 1987 and 2006, Mr. Williamson was employed in various positions by Western Geophysical, which in 2000 became part of WesternGeco, a seismic solutions and technology subsidiary of Schlumberger. While at WesternGeco, he served as Vice President, Marketing from 2001 to 2003; Vice President, Russia and Caspian Region from 2003 to 2005; and Vice President, Marketing, Sales & Commercialization of WesternGeco’s electromagnetic services and technology division from 2005 to 2006. Mr. Williamson joined ION in 2006 as Vice President of our Ventures group and was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in December 2012 and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Commercialization in February 2013, and most recently Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, E&P Technology & Services in 2015.

Education:
Mr. Williamson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geophysics from Cardiff University in Wales.

Lisa Ruiz

Senior Vice President, Global Human Resources

With 20 years of Human Resources experience, Lisa Ruiz is applying her knowledge, experience and passion to help shape the unique culture of technology and innovation at ION. Prior to her current title of Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Ms. Ruiz previously held positions as Vice President and Director of Human Resources at ION. She joined ION in 2016.

Ms. Ruiz has had progressive HR experience since 2001, spanning industries from healthcare to technology to oil and gas. Her experience includes the roles of HR Manager at RMI Physician Services between 2003 and 2007 and Director and Sr. Director of Human Resources at White Fence from 2007 to 2014. More recently, Ms. Ruiz served as HR Director at Global Geophysical Services in 2014 and Chem Rock Technologies in 2015. She obtained a Professional in Human Resources certification in 2006 and a became Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) Certified Professional in 2020.

Education:
Education: Ms. Ruiz holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and Human Resource Management, from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington.

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