Volunteer Recognition

Trent Garfield: The PPDM Association is proud to recognize Trent Garfield as our October 2025 Volunteer Recognition recipient.

Trent has been a dedicated PPDM member since 2019, and we are incredibly grateful for his leadership and continued contributions to our community. Most recently, Trent has been leading a new PPDM initiative focused on the Data Model, guiding a collaborative work group that is helping to shape the future of data management standards across the energy industry.

A long-time advocate of industry standards, Trent has championed the adoption of the PPDM Data Model across multiple organizations. He is an active contributor to the data management community, currently serving on the PPDM Houston Leadership Team and volunteering on several working groups and subcommittees.

Trent Garfield is a leader in the Data and Analytics space with nearly 20 years of progressive experience driving data strategy and innovation. He currently leads the Data Platforms and AI team at Marathon Oil (MRO), where he played an important role in navigating the organization through its recent acquisition by ConocoPhillips (COP).

Prior to this, Trent served as Head of ITS Data Strategy at Anadarko Petroleum (APC), where he was instrumental in aligning data initiatives with broader business objectives. Throughout his career, he has developed a deep understanding of the strategic value of Data and AI in the upstream energy industry, enabling more data-driven decision-making across enterprises.

Trent is recognized for his ability to bridge the gap between technical teams and business stakeholders, bringing a pragmatic and impactful approach to AI, Data Governance, Analytics, and Digital Transformation in Oil and Gas.

Thank you, Trent, for your exceptional leadership, dedication, and ongoing support of PPDM and the data community. Your contributions continue to inspire others and drive meaningful progress in our shared mission to make data trusted, accessible, and meaningful.

Antonie du Toit: Antonie du Toit is a CPDA with Distinction. He has been an active volunteer with the PPDM Association since 2018. He currently serves as Co-Chair for the Energy Data Analyst Certification Committee (EDMCC), and as Secretary for the Australian Leadership Team. Antonie’s commitment to sharing knowledge, supporting the professional discipline and cheering on those new to the fold is unwavering. We are so grateful for all he contributes to the PPDM and our community.

Antonie qualified as a geologist and a geophysicist in the late 1990’s and started his professional career in the minerals industry. It didn’t take long for his aptitude in data management to be recognised: in the days when it was cool to write data to CD’s, he catalogued a department’s CD collection and ended up managing a dataset of 1000 wells. In 2002 he switched to the Petroleum industry and as a static geological modeller spent enough time in the offices of four operating companies and a few consultancies to encounter various levels of data mismanagement, and a few professionals with healthy data habits. He has also encountered professionals who use data, but appear either dataphobic, data agnostic or allergic to Data Managers.

He is currently an independent geological modeller (ANTS GeoConsulting), so more of a Data User than a Data Manager, and more recently, joined SEAL Energy, building geological models for the purposes of CCS and UGS for projects involving CO2, Natural Gas and Hydrogen.

Antonie became a Certified Petroleum Data Analyst (CPDA™) in 2017 and continues to share why he chose to become certified as a CPDA and the path to success. He is actively volunteering as a co-presenter of CPDA Information Sessions and Earning PDUs. He also acts as an advisor to future CPDAs.

Shana Swirin-Miles: We are thrilled to recognize Shana Swirin-Miles as the PPDM Volunteer Recognition recipient for March 2025. Since joining PPDM in 2022, Shana has been an integral part of the Oklahoma City Leadership Team and recently stepped into the role of Chair of the committee. Shana’s creativity and enthusiasm have been invaluable in shaping successful luncheons, workshops, and social events. Her ability to generate fresh, innovative ideas and her dedication to making regional events a success truly set her apart as a leader.

"Shana is always willing to help and consistently goes above and beyond to make our regional events successful," says Linda Bragg, Senior Project Manager at PPDM.

Shana currently works in the Oil and Gas Division for the State of Oklahoma. Shana has 6 ½ years experience previous to her current position working on onshore oil rigs as a Wellsite Geologist and Geosteerer. She has a Bachelors Degree in Geology with a minor in Geospatial Sciences from Missouri State University. Shana also has her Masters Degree in Petroleum Data Management from Texas A&M.

Thank you, Shana, for your outstanding contributions and leadership — we are grateful for all you do!

Adrian Heafford: We are delighted to recognize Adrian Heafford as the January 2025 Volunteer Recognition recipient at PPDM. Adrian has been a member of PPDM since 2019 and recently joined the “What is Seismic?” project in the spring of 2024 and later became a member of the UK/Europe Regional Leadership Team that same year. Adrian has dedicated a substantial amount of his time and has gone above and beyond. We sincerely appreciate all his hard work. His enthusiasm and positive energy have contributed to the ‘What is Seismic?’ Project, and has contributed an abundance of written material to be used in the project. His seismic knowledge and expertise have been invaluable. Says Linda Bragg, Senior Project Manager at PPDM.

Adrian’s academic background and professional experience make his contributions particularly noteworthy. He earned a BA in Natural Sciences (Geology) from the University of Cambridge. Following his studies, Adrian began his career as a Geologist at CASP, where he authored reports on Arctic oil and gas prospectivity and plate tectonics and participated in five field expeditions to Svalbard, Norway. Adrian worked with JEBCO (1991-2005) involved compiling the first legally exportable data packages including for the first Russian International bid round (although at the time he was working on the geological aspects and logs rather than seismic) Adrian has spent over 19 years with one of the world’s largest corporate data giants, S&P Global, most recently as Product Manager for Surveys.

We thank Adrian for his dedication and outstanding contributions to PPDM. His expertise and commitment have made a significant impact, and we are fortunate to have him as a volunteer.