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Our Management

Sivasankaran (

Sivasankaran ("Soma") Somasundaram

President & Chief Executive Officer

Sivasankaran “Soma” Somasundaram is President and Chief Executive Officer of ChampionX and serves on the Company’s Board of Directors. Soma has led the Company in these roles since its spin-off from Dover Corporation (“Dover”) in 2018 and through its transformational merger in 2020 when the Company added Chemical Technologies to its portfolio and changed its name to ChampionX Corporation.

Prior to the Company’s spin-off from Dover, Soma was vice president of Dover and president and CEO of Dover Energy. He held a number of other senior executive leadership roles at Dover, including executive vice president of Dover Energy, executive vice president of Dover Fluid Management, president of Dover’s Fluid Solutions Platform, president of Dover’s Gas Equipment Group and president of Dover’s RPA Process Technologies business. 

Before joining Dover in 2004, Soma served in various global leadership roles at GL&V Inc. and Baker Hughes Inc.  

Soma was named a 2022 Most Admired CEO by the Houston Business Journal, and he was recognized by the Energy Workforce & Technology Council as the 2022 recipient of its DEI Champion Award for his commitment and advocacy for diversity, equity and inclusion in the energy services and technology industry. In 2023, he was named as a member of the National Petroleum Council, a federally chartered advisory committee whose members are selected and appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Energy. In 2024, Soma was named as a recipient of ALLY Energy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Soma was named to the Board of Directors of Lennox International Inc., including the Board Governance Committee and Compensation and Human Resources Committee, effective March 15, 2024. He served on the Board of Directors of Magellan Midstream Partners, an NYSE-listed partnership, from May 2022 until its merger with ONEOK, Inc. in September 2023, where he was a member of the Compensation Committee and Nominating and Governance Committee.

He received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Anna University and a master’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Oklahoma. In addition, Soma has a strong global business management background having lived and worked in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.

Other Public Company Boards: Lennox International Inc.

Kenneth M. Fisher

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Ken Fisher is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Previously, Ken was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Noble Energy Inc. until its acquisition by Chevron in October 2020. Ken originally joined Noble Energy in 2009 as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. From 2016 until October 2020, he also served as Chair of the board of directors of Noble Midstream Partners.

Before joining Noble Energy, he served in a number of senior leadership roles at Shell from 2002 to 2009, including as Executive Vice President of Finance for Upstream Americas, Director of Strategy & Business Development for Royal Dutch Shell plc in The Hague; Executive Vice President of Strategy and Portfolio for Global Downstream in London and Chief Financial Officer of Shell Oil Products U.S.. Prior to joining Shell in 2002, Ken held senior finance positions within business units of General Electric Company.

Ken served on the ChampionX Board of Directors and was Chair of the Audit Committee until he became our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer on February 1, 2021.  He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a B.B.A. degree in business administration/finance.

Ken was named to the Board of Directors of APA Corporation  and now serves on the Board’s Audit Committee, and Cybersecurity Committee, effective October 2024.

Kenneth M. Fisher
Deric Bryant

Deric Bryant

Chief Operating Officer and President, Chemical Technologies

Deric Bryant is Chief Operating Officer at ChampionX. He is responsible for leading the Chemical Technologies business, the integration of the Chemical Technologies business into the Company, and achieving commercial and cost synergies for the Company.

Deric was previously executive vice president and president at Nalco Champion, an Ecolab company, with global responsibility for its upstream energy business.

He began his career with the company in 1995 and held various leadership roles with Nalco Water and Nalco Champion’ s downstream and upstream energy businesses, including international assignments in both Dubai and Singapore.

Deric received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University. He completed INSEAD Business School’s Advanced Management Program and Harvard Business School’s Executive Education in Leading Global Business.

Rob K. Galloway

President, Drilling Technologies

Rob Galloway is president of the Drilling Technologies business at ChampionX.   Rob joined  our US Synthetic business in 1997. He has served in various roles, including Chief Operating Officer and operations vice president, where he led his team in an enterprise transformation that earned the Shingo Prize for operational excellence. 

Prior to joining US Synthetic, Rob served in a variety of engineering roles for Baker Hughes and Hughes Christensen. 

He received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Utah. 

Rob Galloway
Paul Mahoney

Paul E. Mahoney

President, Production and Automation Technologies

Paul Mahoney is president of the Production & Automation Technologies business at ChampionX and has led our global artificial lift business since 2012. Before joining Apergy, Paul was president of Dover Artificial Lift, part of Dover Energy. He also served as Chief Operations Officer for Dover and as senior vice president of global sales and operations for Dover Artificial Lift. 

In May 2023, Paul was elected to the Board of Directors of Chart Industries, Inc. an NYSE-listed global manufacturer of highly engineered equipment servicing multiple market applications in energy and industrial gas, and he serves as a member of the Nominations and Corporate Governance Committee and the Compensation Committee.

Before joining Dover Energy, Paul held a variety of sales and management roles at Emerson Electric Company, including vice president and general manager of the Analyzers Group, vice president, global sales and operations for the Analytical Group, and director of sales for the process automation group.  

Paul received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and physics from the University of Buffalo and an MBA from Seattle University.

Ross O'Dell

President, Oilfield and Specialty Performance

Ross O’Dell is president of the Oilfield and Specialty Performance segments within the Chemical Technologies business at ChampionX. 

Ross joined Nalco in 1996 in downstream energy sales and later served as marketing director and general manager for the Americas region. Ross joined the upstream division of Nalco Champion as vice president with responsibility for the Capex business segment and later onshore and offshore Americas before assuming his current role. 

He received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Clemson University. 

Ross O'Dell
Syed (

Syed ("Ali") Raza

Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer

Ali Raza is Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer for ChampionX. Prior to the Company’s spin-off from Dover, Ali was president of Dover Energy Automation, a division of Dover Energy. He has 27 years of experience in oil and gas automation and business process optimization software management. 

Prior to joining Dover Energy, Ali served in a variety of senior leadership roles with Honeywell Process Solutions, including vice president and general manager-advanced solutions. He also worked for AspenTech in process and supply chain optimization. Ali began his career with Caltex, a joint venture of Chevron and Texaco in Pakistan.  

He received a bachelor’s degree in computer systems engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology and a master’s degree in computer engineering from Wayne State University. Ali serves as a member of the University of Houston Engineering College and University of Oklahoma School of Computer Science Advisory Board. 

Mark Eley

Senior Vice President, Marketing & Technology, Chemical Technologies and Corporate Communications

Mark Eley is senior vice president, Marketing & TechnologyChemical Technologies and Corporate Communications at ChampionX. 

Mark was previously senior vice president of Marketing and Technology for Nalco Champion’s upstream energy business. Before relocating to Texas in 2019, Mark was vice president of oilfield chemical sales for the Eastern Hemisphere and was based in Dubai for 10 years. 

Mark has held a variety of sales, marketing and technology leadership roles with Nalco and Nalco Champion. After completing his Ph.D. in 1996, he joined Nalco Exxon Chemical as a research chemist in the U.K.  Mark has also held positions as a decision and risk economist with ConocoPhillips and with HB Fuller as part of their Global MBA leadership develop program. 

He received a bachelor’s degree, MBA and doctorate in chemistry from Robert Gordon University.

Mark Eley
Marc Kalmes

Marc Kalmes

Senior Vice President, Chemical Technologies Global Supply Chain and Corporate Category Management

Marc Kalmes is Senior Vice President, Chemical Technologies Global Supply Chain and Corporate Category Management.

Marc was previously vice president of our Eastern Hemisphere Supply Chain organization for Chemical Technologies, which included regional structures in Europe, MENA/SSA, Russia/CIS, and Asia Pacific.

He has nearly 30 years of experience leading and transforming supply chain operations. Prior to ChampionX, he led the EMEA Supply Chain for specialty chemical producer Axalta Coating Systems. He also held a variety of progressive Supply Chain leadership roles at Syngenta, a leading agricultural science and technology company.

Marc has an MBA from ESSEC & Mannheim Business Schools and a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Conservatoire National des Arts & Métiers.

Saurabh Nitin

Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy, Development and Energy Transition

Saurabh Nitin is Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy, Development and Energy Transition. Saurabh led the due diligence for the Company’s acquisition of the Chemical Technologies business and co-led the integration of the two organizations and also led our Emissions Technologies business from March 2022 to April 2023.. Prior to joining the Company in 2019, he held leadership roles in mergers and acquisitions and strategy at Pall Corporation and Kemira. Saurabh also was a management consultant and partner at leading consulting firms, working across the oil and gas, chemicals, and industrial goods sectors.

He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management.

Saurabh Nitin
Alina Parast

Alina Parast

Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Alina Parast is senior vice president and Chief Information Officer at ChampionX.  

Alina has more than 25 years of experience in global information technology leadership roles across various industries. She joined Ecolab in 2007 as a vice president of Information Technology and held leadership roles in several business technology areas, including Enterprise Business Applications and Infrastructure Services. 

Prior to joining Ecolab, Alina led the Global Infrastructure Services organization and other organizations at Alcatel-Lucent. She held similar positions at Lucent Technologies and AT&T Network Systems. Alina has also held Research and Development, manufacturing and process engineering positions. 

She received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Northeastern University, a master’s degree in technology policy management from Boston University and a doctorate in information technology management from the University of Phoenix.

Byron Pope

Vice President, ESG and Investor Relations

Byron Pope is vice president, ESG and Investor Relations at ChampionX.

Byron has more than 25 years of experience covering the energy sector. He joined ChampionX in 2020 from Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH). During his time with TPH, he held managing director, co-head of research and head of oilfield service research roles where he analyzed and provided insights about companies across the oil and gas industry value chain. He also was a member of TPH’s leadership council and the management committee of its parent company, Perella Weinberg Partners. Prior to TPH, Byron’s experience included time spent as a portfolio manager and energy analyst at Smith Graham & Company, Davis Hamilton Jackson & Associates, and Tudor Investment Corporation, and as an investment banker at Simmons & Company, International.

Byron earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and managerial studies from Rice University and an MBA from Harvard University.

Bryon Pope
Julia Wright

Julia Wright

Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

Julia Wright is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at ChampionX, positions she has held since February 2018.  

Prior to joining the Company, Julia served as vice president and general counsel at Nabors Industries Ltd. She held a variety of position in the Nabors legal department, including interim general counsel, assistant general counsel and senior counsel. Julia also served in senior legal roles at Tesco Corporation. She began her legal career as a corporate attorney at the international law firms Baker & McKenzie LLP and Vinson & Elkins LLP. 

She received a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Southern Methodist University, a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University and a law degree from Fordham Law School. 

Mike Wood

Vice President, Chemical Technologies Safety, Health, Environment & Quality

Mike Wood serves as the Chair of the ChampionX HSE Council and Vice President, Chemical Technologies Safety, Health, Environment & Quality.  In this position, Mike is responsible for our critically important task of overseeing our safety performance and quality, as well as continuing to drive our “You Lead” culture and Goal Zero expectations for Chemical Technologies.  As Chair of the HSE Council for ChampionX, he coordinates our safety programs and accountabilities across the enterprise, including best practices, crisis responses, and other global responsibilities.   

Mike is a Certified Safety Professional and has extensive knowledge of the oil and gas industry with more than 35 years of experience. Mike previously led the QHSSE group at TEAM Industrial Services, a Sugar Land, TX-based company that serves the global oil and gas industry. He has also previously worked at Dow Chemical, Baker Hughes, and Dresser-Rand/Siemens in a variety of roles including executive leadership, quality assurance, auditing, and operations. 

Mike has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from St. Bonaventure University and an MBA from the University of Texas at Tyler.

Mike Wood
Jordan Zweig

Jordan Zweig

Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer

Jordan Zweig is senior vice president and chief Human Resources officer at ChampionX. He serves as the company’s global leader for Human Resources.  

Jordan joined Ecolab in 2013 as the Global Human Resources leader for Nalco Champion and more recently served as the Global Human Resources leader for Ecolab’s Institutional business, based in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Before joining Ecolab, Jordan spent nearly 14 years at GE, where he served in Human Resources leadership roles in the Oil & Gas, Healthcare, and Supply divisions while based in the U.S., Turkey, Italy, and the U.K.   

Jordan began his Human Resources career at Rotorex International and later progressed into leadership roles at Graham Packaging Company and Monsanto.   

He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in industrial relations (MSIR) from West Virginia University. Jordan serves on the university’s John Chambers College of Business & Economics MSIR Advisory Council and leads an annual practicum with its graduate students. 

Our Global Presence

7,100+

Employees

74+

Countries

40+

Manufacturing
Locations