Kirby J. Walker

Kirby Walker is originally from the Freeport area of Pittsburgh and graduated from Penn State in 1993 with a B.S. in petroleum and natural gas engineering. He spent the first twenty years of his career with Schlumberger working in operations, business development, technical sales, technical management, and asset development. While with Schlumberger, Walker worked in Texas, Alaska, Venezuela, Russia, and West Virginia before moving back to the Pittsburgh area, where he currently resides.
After leaving Schlumberger, Walker worked as a senior advisor for Chevron and CNX Resources in technical oversight, asset management, and reservoir characterization. He then spent time as a senior advisor for EdgeMarc Energy. Kirby spent the next couple of years as a consultant, transitioning into a software development role, where he currently works as the director of product development for LINQX (formerly Stratagen), a subsidiary of Carbo Ceramics.
Walker has been an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) since 1993 and has held various executive positions including chair of the Pittsburgh section (2009–15). He has published eight SPE papers in completion design, monitoring, and modeling. Walker holds two U.S. patents: one in well construction and the other on a reservoir analysis technique.
He has served on the Petroleum and Natural Gas IPAC at Penn State since 2018 and has held the chair position for the past three years. He currently lives in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two sons, where he serves on the board of directors at the local YMCA, chairs the engineering committee for the Sewickley Water Authority, and is an assistant coach of the middle school track team.