Biography - John Weissenberger

John Weissenberger, a native of Montréal, has more than 25 years experience in the oil and gas industry, beginning as a summer intern with Petro-Canada and later full-time with Esso Resources, Canadian Pacific and Husky Energy. Now based in Calgary, Dr. Weissenberger has worked on projects in Western Canada, the North American frontiers and internationally. He also co-discovered the giant Deep Panuke gas field off the Nova Scotia coast. He formed Husky’s new International Exploration group in 2008 and later managed the company’s Western Canada exploration outside Alberta’s foothills region. In his current position as Manager of Geological Services, Dr. Weissenberger is responsible for geoscience IT applications, new technologies, external research partnerships, human resources and upstream business work.

Dr. Weissenberger holds degrees in geology from The University of Western Ontario (Hons B.Sc.), Université de Montréal (M.Sc.) and the University of Calgary (Ph.D.). His research focuses mainly on sequence stratigraphy and palaeontology. While at CP (PanCanadian) and Husky, he has managed several industrial/academic research partnerships, working with universities in Canada, the United States and Europe. Seconded to Ottawa in 2007-08, he served as Chief of Staff to then Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Diane Finley. Concerned with most aspects of the department’s work, Dr. Weissenberger’s team shepherded two major pieces of legislation, C-37 (citizenship reform) and C-50 (immigration system).

He has also volunteered at the local, regional and national levels for more than 30 years, and is a Laureate Circle member of the Esther Honens International Piano competition.