IADC/SPE Managed Pressure Drilling & Underbalanced Operations Conference & Exhibition 2026

Bernie Wolford graduated from Texas Tech University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1981. He held a number of significant operations management positions with Noble Drilling, working in the US, the far and middle East, Brazil, and Europe. Wolford then joined Pacific Drilling as CEO in 2018. In 2021 he was named CEO of Diamond Offshore. Diamond operates a fleet of twelve deep-water rigs across the major basins of the world.

Todd Conklin spent 25 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Senior Advisor for Organizational and Safety Culture. Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the world’s foremost research and development laboratories; Dr. Conklin has been working on the Human Performance program for the last 15 years of his 25-year career. It is in this fortunate position where he enjoys the best of both the academic world and the world of safety in practice. Conklin holds a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the University of New Mexico. He speaks all over the world to executives, groups and work teams who are interested in better understanding the relationship between the workers in the field and the organization’s systems, processes, and programs. He has brought these systems to major corporations around the world. Conklin practices these ideas not only in his own workplace, but also in the event investigations at other workplaces around the world. Conklin’s best selling book, Pre-Accident Investigations: An introduction to Organizational Safety is a best selling book on safety. Conklin has several other books and a huge podcast following for his twice-weekly podcast of the same name. Conklin defines safety at his workplace like this: “Safety is the ability for workers to be able to do work in a varying and unpredictable world.”