Management
Stephen Goldfarb was previously CFO at Ensign Natural Resources, where he helped build the company from inception through several acquisitions and a $3 billion asset sale. Prior to that, he held senior finance roles at WildHorse Resource Development and Memorial Resource Development, where he was involved in IPOs, M&A activity, and capital structure planning. Stephen began his career in investment banking and private equity and holds an MBA from Stanford and a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
Garner Haydell is a co-founder and the Chief Operating Officer of Athena Energy Partners, bringing 20 years of experience in both E&P and oilfield services. Before AEP, he was Vice President of Drilling & Completions at Ensign Natural Resources, where he managed drilling, completions, and workovers across 130,000 net acres in the Eagle Ford and supported all operational aspects of acquisitions. Prior to Ensign, he led drilling and completions for Murphy Oil’s North American unconventional assets, overseeing over $1 billion in capital across the Eagle Ford, Montney, and Duvernay plays. Garner began his career in completions and stimulation engineering roles at Southwestern Energy and Halliburton. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University.
Matt Geiser is a co-founder and serves as Chief Financial Officer of Athena Energy Partners. He has over 14 years of experience in corporate finance, financial evaluation, and M&A execution. Prior to Athena, he served as Director of Finance and Treasury at Ensign Natural Resources, where he managed the company’s credit facility, hedge structuring, corporate modeling, and treasury functions. Before joining Ensign in 2020, Matt served as a Vice President in Petrie Partners’ Investment Banking team in Houston. There, he was an execution leader on Mergers and Acquisitions, strategic advisory, and corporate restructuring engagements. Early in his career, he held roles of increasing responsibility at Memorial Resource Development/Memorial Production Partners, Deutsche Bank, and Citi. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Louisiana State University.
Jennifer Smith is a co-founder of Athena Energy Partners and serves as Executive Vice President of Subsurface. Previous to Athena, she was co-founder and VP of Geoscience for Ensign Natural Resources, where she helped acquire, develop, and sell 130,000 acres in the Eagle Ford. Jennifer has worked in oil and gas for 30 years, the first 20 at large corporations, including Phillips Petroleum, Marathon Oil, and Murphy Oil. She has spent the bulk of her career developing a long list of onshore fields from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, through the western US basins down to South Texas. Her experience ranges across conventional and unconventional oil fields, both mature and emerging. Jennifer is skilled at building strong technical teams and a culture of collaboration, corporate responsibility, and hard work. She has a Master of Science in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources from The University of the South, Sewanee, TN.
Chris Hudson has served as the Vice President of Facilities and Production since February 2025. Prior to that, he served as Director of Operations for Marathon Oil Company’s Bakken Asset since April 2022. Before that, he was the Production Manager of Marathon’s Eagle Ford Asset from August 2017 to April 2022. Chris brings nearly two decades of experience in the Eagle Ford, Bakken, and Piceance basins through a variety of operational leadership and technical roles within Marathon Oil Company. He received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University.
Tre Simms is the Vice President of Reservoir of Athena Energy Partners. He most recently served as General Manager Commercial Development at Southwestern Energy, prior to its combination with Chesapeake Energy to form Expand Energy. During his tenure at Southwestern Energy, he served in various leadership roles in reservoir/planning, operations, and midstream/marketing. Prior to Southwestern Energy, Tre started his career at Halliburton. He has worked in the energy industry for 22 years. Tre holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Louisiana State University and an M.B.A. from National University.
Ryan Johnson is the Vice President of Land of Athena Energy Partners. He brings 18 years of oil and gas land experience with a focus on acquisitions and divestitures, identifying and capturing overlooked value, and building high-performing land teams. Ryan most recently served as Vice President of Land at Amplify Energy Corp, where he managed a multi-state portfolio of over 390,000 gross acres and led more than $270 million in transactions. Prior to Amplify, he served as Land Manager at Maverick Natural Resources, where he directed the acquisition, integration, and land operations of the largest position in the Western Anadarko Basin covering 700,000 gross acres. Earlier in his career, he held land leadership roles at Sanchez Oil & Gas Corporation, where he supported multi-rig development across the Eagle Ford, and Memorial Production Partners. Ryan holds a B.B.A. in Business Administration with a Finance concentration from Texas Tech University.
Russell Olszewski joined the Athena team in July 2025 and is a known contributor from the Ensign Natural Resources team. Prior to joining Athena, he was the Principal Reservoir Analyst at Crescent Energy, contributing his evaluations of more than $5 Bn in acquired assets. Before that, he was the Sr. Reservoir Engineering Tech at Ensign Natural Resources. He brings 13 years of reservoir experience across multiple basins as well as an integral ability to code, program, and process data. Russell has vast knowledge of multiple engineering and data platforms including Spotfire, Python, Aries, SQL, and many more. He completed 3 years at Georgia Tech working on his Mathematics and Computer Science degrees before taking his first role at Energy XXI.