Executive Team Resumées

Dr. Kurt Strack holds the positions of President and CEO/CTO at ETI Inc. and has served as President of KMS Technologies since 1999. His extensive career includes a notable tenure as Chief Scientist for Baker Atlas/Western Atlas. Throughout his professional journey, Dr. Strack has received numerous accolades from prestigious international societies, including the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Yangtze University, Wuhan, China, recognizing his groundbreaking contributions to surface and borehole geophysics. For building KMS Technologies into a viable company, he received the Cecil Green Enterprise Award from the SEG in 2012. Since 2015, he has developed with Norwegian colleagues the strategic concept of using geophysical technologies for Green Energy

A distinguished figure in both industry and academia, Dr. Strack possesses a unique skill set focused on developing commercially viable, innovative solutions in the geothermal/hydrocarbon application spaces.

Kurt holds a Doctorate from the University of Cologne and an M.Sc. from Colorado School of Mines.  He maintains active membership in several professional organizations, including SPWLA, AAPG, ASEG, BDG, DGG, EAGE, EEGS, GRC, SPE, SEG, and TSEG. Dr. Strack's influence extends beyond mentoring colleagues in the global industry and academy, as he authored over 200 publications,1 book on CSEM, and holds 40 US patents. Notably, he is an Honorary Alumnus of the University of Cologne, Germany, serves on the Board of the German Institute of the Southwest, Houston, and the Advisory Board of the Yangtze University’ Key Laboratory of Exploration Technologies for Oil and Gas Resources (Ministry of Education of China). He also frequently teaches as an Adjunct Professor at various universities in the US, Germany, China, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Ruslan Nutrobkin is the COO of ETI Inc. and a board member. As an accomplished executive with experience in international business development, government relations, and general management, he is the global expansion engine. His career includes more than 17 years of international experience in senior management roles from the United States, Canada, the Middle East, Europe, and Southeast Asia. 

He worked for Weatherford, where his last role was Area Manager for Myanmar, and before that for Baker Hughes in the USA and Canada. He has also served as Operations Manager at MPRL E&P, developing the company's exploration portfolio in Myanmar.  

For the last 8 years, Ruslan has been part of the team at Narai Hayashi Co. Ltd. He is responsible for Sales, Revenue growth, Profitability, and other value targets, including quality, distribution, and customer service satisfaction. He helps ensure the company meets its high standards for product quality, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth. Ruslan builds rapport with partners and agents in Asia, handling all issues related to daily business activities. 

Ruslan holds a Master of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Moscow State Academy of Oil and Gas and is currently pursuing an MBA at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. 

Miguel Silva serves as Clean Energy Director at ETI Inc. Responsibilities include: project development in the energy transition area. Advise on clean energy strategy for ETI.

Prior to this, he worked for Avalon International Corporation, developing DOE-funded CCUS projects, securing necessary partnerships, budgets creation and interacting with DOE project managers. Developing EPA’s Class VI applications, in charge of geological work management, Team integration with other specialties, Lab work supervision, vendor/contractor supervision. For 25 years, he worked in reservoir characterization in the USA and Latin America.

Miguel holds an M.Sc. degree from the University of Houston and a B.Sc. from Universidad Central de Venezuela. Member of SEG, AAPG, AEGE, as well as member of clean energy-related consortia.

Dr. Cesar Barajas-Olalde serves as ETI Inc. Chief Geoscientist. He is responsible for all geoscience products and their implementation. He worked for 9 years on CCUS projects as a Principal Geophysicist at the EERC at the University of North Dakota. Before that, he worked for Schlumberger from 2002 to 2015 in Saudi Arabia, the UK, Argentina, and Colorado, and on various geophysical projects in operations and R&D. 

Cesar holds a Doctorate from the University of Kiel, Germany, an M.Sc. from Ensenada, Mexico, and a B.Sc. from the Technological Institute of Ciudad Madero, Mexico. He has published many papers throughout his career and mentored colleagues and students. He is a member of the SEG, AAPG, AMGE.

Hans-Christian (HC) Freitag is an Oil & Gas technology and business executive with over 30 years of global experience with a deep and well-developed understanding of customer drivers and customer culture. Wide, over-arching knowledge of business drivers and technology landscape in Up-, Mid- and Downstream operations. Proven performance in terms of leading, developing, energizing and enabling sales teams across various geographies to deliver revenue and margin growth. Strong in building alliances, leading by influencing, nurturing innovation and creativity in others to develop and implement novel strategy and tactics. Acknowledged industry thought leader with many technical papers and invited appearances as plenary or key-note speaker at industry technology events. 

HC joined Atlas Wireline Services in 1989 and worked in geoscience, operations, and P&L management positions around the world. In 2002, he moved to Baker Hughes’ Drilling Services Product Lione to lead the development and market introduction of advanced LWD technology. He managed operations in North America and held a number of senior and executive management positions with Baker Hughes in the Middle East and Asia Pacific. From 2014 to 2016 he returned to the global technology organization as VP Integrated Technology. From 2016 to 2019, he led the global Geoscience & Petroleum Engineering team of 600 subsurface experts, addressing customer opportunities related to formation evaluation, well construction and production and recovery. 

From 2022 to 2023, HC turned his attention to applying O&G industry technology and Best Practices in the rapidly evolving geothermal industry, appointed as Sr. VP Business Development for XGS Energy.  

HC has authored publications on Open Hole and Cased Hole formation evaluation with SPWLA and SPE.  

He holds an MSc in Geophysics from TU Clausthal, Germany and a BSc in Physics from TU Berlin, Germany.