Michael Payne

Supervisory Board Member

Every team needs a strategic leader who can articulate and communicate like no other. Often he reminds us of Kambei Shimada in the magnificent Seven Samurais.

He studied in Atlanta, Santiago, Paris and Chicago, thus is fluent in Spanish and French, and is quite good in Dutch, too. An experienced executive from Enron and Shell, he also likes to grow and help start-ups, and serves a purposeful life dedicated to environmental causes and poverty alleviation, and currently chairs an African non-profit called Inkomoko.

He’s an enthusiastic cyclist, the proud father of three, and enjoys cooking, including a wonderful recipe for coq-au-vin.

Junying Chang

Managing Director, Co-CTO

She set up YTA in 2013 after time in Shell. Looking back, she couldn’t really tell whether it was courage or stupidity, or most likely both. But she always asks for help and guidance along the journey and she will move mountains to resolve challenges.

She grew up in the mid-land of China, spent summer holidays reading books and cycling in the wild. The river where she used to go fishing disappeared in her teens, hence her resolution to protect the environment. So she ended up researching Energy & Resources, and dedicates herself to sustainable development.

In and out of the office, she’s the proud mother of one, sings (tone-deaf) and hits the tennis balls.

Thomas Hahn-Jose

Director, Co-CTO

“My life is not so interesting”, so said Thomas. As a result, he invented some of the most interesting and leading-edge systems that are now used globally, and has his name stamped on 10+ patents. We are very grateful that he didn’t lead an interesting life.

He trained as an electrical engineer before becoming Team Lead of the Ultrasound Lab in Fraunhofer Institute, Germany. In 2002 his desire to create more value for society took him on the entrepreneurial and creative journey, and he is now co-leading YTA R&D effort on system development.

When not in the lab, he is probably grilling home-made sausages alongside his children with a glass of French wine, or chiselling the woodwork, hopefully not after too much wine.

Tonnis van Dam

Board Secretary

Warren Buffet likes to work with people who have integrity. So do we. The essence of Tonnis is integrity. He has travelled with us in very difficult times, with unreserved generosity and selfless support. Time and tide change, yet our confidence and trust in him never change.

He trained in economics and audited the 1^st offshore Wind Park Egmond aan Zee in the Netherlands, built by Shell. He continues his passion in the energy industry, as well as supports organisations on benchmarking activities.

He of course loves good times and is a real connoisseur of Scottish whiskey. So his Christmas present is always a bottle of Japanese whiskey!

Martin Hantke

Electronics Engineer

“If it ain't broke, don't fix it”. Not sure if you really want an engineer with this motto in the R&D team, but Martin has proven to be very intelligent and effective at fixing things that are broke and making things that don’t break.

He loves electronics and spells his magic onto the PCB boards so they come alive. Once given a task, he’s able to get things done, even if he had never done it before. One of the assignments we asked of him was to build 5 motor control boards and they had to fit into the smallest housing allowed. He managed to deliver 5 healthy babies working seamlessly together.

He is also a war veteran and firmly upholds the value of peace.

Martin Wannemacher

Electrical Engineer

You want a power supply of 600V or higher? Go no further than to Martin Wannemacher. He also designs toasters, not for your bread, but for our downhole tool power regulation. His calculations are neat, clean and thorough, and he can easily teach a layman (or woman) about the beauty and power (!!) of electricity.

He also solves communication problems, which we always have, technically and literally. So either lower the frequency, or find something that offers lower resistance. His wise words seem to apply to daily life as well.

By the way, he is not boring. He likes football and is uniquely blessed by the support of his wife and children, who like it even more.

Some people like Fabian seem to be born brilliant mechanical engineers and the solutions that they come up with invariably exude elegance. The TCT® Electro-Mechanical Cutter, one of the most complex and challenging downhole tools in the industry, has been largely credited to him on the mechanical front. He enjoys taming a beast and we often see sparks rising above his blond hair when the cutting challenge gets bigger.

He also delights everyone as a thoughtful engineering leader, though after management meetings, he has to recharge by either quietly doing more design work, or cooking a family meal on Sundays, to the joy of his wife and children.

Georg Somogy

Mechanical Engineer

Very soft spoken, he usually makes nothing out of his rather astonishing accomplishment, which is the opposite to the trait of some people, who like to make a huge story out of really nothing. So we have decided that soon we’ll send him to some sales and marketing courses, to diversify his skills.

He was a research fellow in Fraunhofer Institute, Germany, and we have been very pleased to convince him to join our team ever since. As a bonus, we let him listen to rock music when he’s busy vacuum filling hydraulic oils.

Never underestimate a woman, particularly who is also a mechanical engineer. The quality of her work is superb. Meticulous drawing, like fine art. She won’t tolerate bad work, nor bad bosses, and we love her for that.

Sometimes we even ask her dog Mimi to help. After all, she has been watching Ursula doing mechanical design work since she was a puppy. So we say, dogs, if trained by women mechanical engineers, are always welcome.

One wonders if he should be an engineer instead, as he takes more pleasure from asking questions and understanding of the technicalities, than working on the overall business. So we have to remind him from time to time, to not forget his excellent people and commercial skills.

He built the business in Asia from nothing, making it very difficult to calculate the percentage accomplished. And he’s driven to do more.

His son once wrote an essay about him, and his daughter framed it and hung it on the wall, which in essence says “Daddy, mommy is always right”.

Every business is lucky to have professionals both trained academically and through field work. Best are those who have intelligence, energy and integrity. Jeff graduated with a petroleum engineering degree and then honed his skills in 15 years working at Halliburton, before joining our team - to have more energy, creativity and fun. 

He admires the Chinese mathematician Hua Luogeng and often teaches us how to optimise our operation from a mathematical point of view. However sometimes we say he should switch to lecturing on“Background to Higher Analysis of Screams” when his children are chirping happy noises during our conference calls.

Sometimes he frustrates us with the saying “you don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude”. But we need skills, too! Fortunately, the youngest of our Operation Team, has proven that his attitude to put his head down and learn everything from the field to dealing with customers, has helped him acquire the skills.

He trained as a computer scientist, but we asked him to make his hands dirty with oil and grease, before he touches the keyboard. And he absorbed one of our company’s values of “always needing to learn” to the core.

He’s a native from Tianjin and speaks with an accent that is similar to Beijing’s but flavoured with a touch of seafood.

Every team needs a solid rock star. Zhou Lin has been our rock star for as long as we can remember. He’s someone who you can always rely on, who is often in the background, and whose value becomes so apparent in the absence thereof.

He walks alongside us, is always there, and is always indispensable.