Management Team

Ben is a geoscientist and manager with 3 years of environmental consulting and 15 years of upstream oil and gas experience with majors, public independents, and private equity-backed companies, in addition to more than 2 years in the geothermal space as co-founder of Transitional Energy. Fluent in R and SQL, and proficient in Python, he also leads data science for the company. He holds an AB magna cum laude from Bowdoin College in Geology, MBA from Texas A&M University, and a PhD from Dartmouth College in Earth Sciences.

Water is his passion. From mucking about as a kid in creeks and developing a passion for geoscience and earth surface processes from that young age, water has been the theme in his career. It started with remediation of water resources early in his career, the use of stable isotopes in water to understand petroleum systems, and now to the harvesting of geothermal resources from water. He also loves efficiency—in resource use and in producing subsurface energy not just from hydrocarbons but also from the heat under our feet. Connecting his passions of water and efficiency and you get Transitional Energy.

Outside of his career passions, he gives back to the community through service to professional societies, non-profits, and schools. In specific, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, the Denver Earth Resource Library, and volunteer instruction as an Affiliate Professor at Colorado School of Mines and a Collaborating Professor at Iowa State University.

Johanna has 15 years of experience within the oil and gas industry in a wide variety of engineering, regulatory, policy, and management positions. With a degree in Geological Engineering from Montana Tech, Johanna has brought an intradisciplinary and collaborative approach to every position she has held. With various roles at Noble Energy, SM Energy, Extraction Oil & Gas, and the Clean Air Task Force, Johanna has contributed to every part of the energy development value chain.

We have the tools and technology to reduce emissions from energy industry right now. Johanna strongly believes that thermal energy is a wasted (and often ignored) resource and should be utilized to help solve our energy and climate crisis. 

Johanna currently volunteers her time as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force chair at Geothermal Rising as well as sitting on the Board of Directors of the Energy Leadership Institute. 

Lia Sedillos is SVP of Operations for Transitional Energy. With over 20 years in the Oil & Gas industry, she brings a wealth of knowledge in field operations, completions and production. Lia has experience in the both national and global environments including working with unconventional resources.

Advancing energy production to fit into our 21st century world motivates her to keep seeking new alternatives to help fuel our planet. Looking past oil production and to the energy sector as a whole. 

As SVP of Operations, Lia plays a major role in safety, operations and engineering Design. While at Noble Energy she led productions in both the DJ and Appalachian basins. More recently, Lia was the VP of Technical Sales at Covia Corporation and as a Strategic Sales Leader at Workrise. Lia holds a Bachelors in Civil Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines as well as an MBA with an emphasis in finance from Tulane University. She is an avid cyclist and skier. 

Dr. Russell Roundtree began his career with Geophysics degrees from the Colorado School of Mines starting in seismic data processing, moving through interpretation, petrophysics, and finally into geologic modeling. He traversed large oil field service companies, small, upstart software companies, and finally Oil and Gas Operators. Late in life he decided to go back to school and get his PhD in Petroleum Engineering focusing on hydraulic fracturing and microseismic technology. At IHS he was selected to head up a new division for Data Science applications in the upstream Petroleum sector. Most recently, he took a position outside the oil industry as an Engineering Advisor at Transitional Energy working on most aspects of the fledgling medium temperature geothermal industry. He is an avid bicyclist, and loves the mountains.