Oil & Gas Training for our Next Generation

Message from Clark

During the past few months, Rainmaker has made leaps toward fulfilling our vision in becoming truly a global organization, accelerating the growth of our clients by leveraging our international partnerships and finding success through cross-market business development. With our four international locations serving Calgary, London, Houston and Dubai, Rainmaker is defining A New Approach to Business Development.

In these turbulent economic times, it has become increasingly difficult to raise capital for growth. Reducing costs and increasing results by outsourcing business development through the Rainmaker model is making sense to more and more companies. In fact, our increasing client base has driven us to grow our team here in Calgary. I would like to extend a special welcome to our newest Business Development Executive, Jason Baker, who will be a great addition to our team in Calgary.

— Clark Grue, President & CEO

Oil & Gas Training for our Next Generation

On October 23rd and 24th, 2008, over 150 Calgary area high school students became perhaps the most knowledgeable group of teens across Canada when it comes to the oil and gas industry.

On behalf of Simprentis Ltd., an innovative company based in the Faroe Islands, Rainmaker successfully organized the first annual “SAIT/CEAMS OilSim 2008” competition at SAIT Polytechnic. This two-day event was co-sponsored by the MacPhail School of Energy at SAIT and the Centre for Energy Asset Management Studies (CEAMS). Supporting partners included the Canadian Association for Petroleum Producers (CAPP), June Warren Publishing, and the Petroleum Human Resources Council through their Careers in Oil and Gas initiative.

OilSim™, developed by Simprentis Ltd., is an online simulation game that provides students with an overall understanding of the oil and gas industry. Participants are grouped in teams of three or four, and each team acts as an oil company exploring for economically viable volumes of oil and gas in a new region. The teams buy and study scientific data and oil field information, discuss the appropriate actions to take, and submit their decisions to the simulation for analysis and evaluation. Teams go through all phases of the exploration process and collaborate and compete with each other to discover viable volumes of oil and gas using the least funds possible and acting in a socially and environmentally responsible way.

This marked the first OilSim competition to take place in Canada. OilSim events have been held across Europe for the past five years with winning teams going on to the international championship in London, England. The goal of Simprentis, in partnership with Rainmaker, and the event sponsors is to make this an annual initiative involving high school and post-secondary students from across the province and eventually across the country, with the top teams competing at the international level. OilSim™ is also used at the corporate level for staff selection and recruitment, new staff development, leadership development, team building, language and communication, and understanding the business.

The fabulous and enthusiastic response from the sponsors, stakeholders and students to the SAIT/CEAMS OilSim event in Calgary last week heralded the successful entrance to the Canadian market for Simprentis. Fundamental to this success was the contribution of Blaire Lancaster of Rainmaker Global Business Development Group. Blaire had absolute belief in the potential for Simprentis, understood what needed to be done to introduce Oilsim to the market, was responsible for winning the hearts and minds of an initially sceptical Stakeholder group and who worked tirelessly to ensure that all expectations regarding the delivery of the inaugural event at SAIT were met. In this respect it is clear from the feedback that all expectations were, indeed, far exceeded. Needless to say, this was all made possible by a combination of excellent relationship management, support and guidance from Blaire’s senior team at Rainmaker and the close co-operation with the Simprentis organisation as a whole.

— Graeme, Simprentis

Integrating Houston

Opening our first American office in Houston, Texas seemed only a natural decision for Rainmaker. Houston is an energy giant and the centre for procurement in the oil and gas industry, housing the headquarters of ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corp, and Dynegy. By opening an office in Houston this summer, Rainmaker has established a gateway for our clients from around the world to grow their businesses in this market. GuildOne, a Calgary software company targeting the Houston energy industry, has partnered with Rainmaker to do just that.

Rainmaker is working to introduce GuildOne’s product, Synergy3, to the Houston energy sector. Synergy3 optimizes business process through information integration, work flow automation and provides key business analytics. Synergy3 will improve efficiency, minimize cost and increase revenue.

As with all new clients, Rainmaker assigns a Business Development Executive to the account to manage the company’s growth. Ron Clarke, a seasoned veteran in the oil and gas industry, is managing this client relationship on behalf of Rainmaker. Ron has over 25 years experience in the Houston market (he is originally from Scotland) and was a co-founder of Precision Tube Technology. Clarke is well connected to the business community in Houston, and connected internationally with decision-makers abroad.

Last month Ron travelled to Calgary to spend three days with GuildOne to learn about their business, competitive advantages and products and services to enable him to better position GuildOne in the Houston Market. Although Rainmaker is an outside company we engage with our clients to represent them in a seamless transition to their clients.

Rain and Wind in London

Archon Energy is a strategic renewable energy developer with a focus on advancing installed renewable energy capacity worldwide, and doing so in new and profitable ways using innovative technologies and leading edge business strategies. Kevin Ablett, COO, explains, We have an extremely good project in Saskatchewan that we are moving forward, that we have leading edge ideas and strategies to make us a unique and significant player in the industry, and we are looking for private equity from accredited investors to fund our growth plan.

Archon Energy is a privately owned company with head offices in Calgary. They partnered with Rainmaker in September to raise capital for their innovative business ventures. Rainmaker Director, Mark Hawkins, is looking overseas to raise the amount needed for Archon to succeed. By teaming up with Sheetal Mehta, Business Development Executive, UK office, Mark is confident Archon will be able to expand its operations.

Sheetal Mehta is Co-Founder of Shivia Microfinance, a charity focussing on a recyclable fund that lends to the poor in India and Nepal, as well as CEO of Innovative Social Ventures, a London based company that provides global advisory services to companies in the area of fundraising, technical due diligence, corporate partnering and business development. Sheetal brings an extensive network from both the technology and venture capital community from her experience working with Microsoft both in the U.S. and the UK.

Rainmaker finds success in practicing cross-market business development. Accelerating the success of local clients abroad, and of international clients in Alberta, is optimized by tapping into the combined resources of our international networks.

November Raindrop

In the Arab World the left hand is considered to be unclean. Avoid gesturing, and eating, with your left hand!

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