Meet Our Team

Experienced Management Team with History of Operating Excellence

Mr. Sharma is the CEO of Pilot Water Solutions and has more than 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining Pilot Water Solutions, Mr. Sharma was the CEO of Phoenix Global Resources, plc, a London-listed Independent E&P Company focused on unconventional development in Argentina. Prior to Phoenix, Mr. Sharma headed Mercuria Energy Group’s oil & gas investments in Argentina where he led Mercuria’s upstream oil and gas company, PETSA, to significant exploration and development success and took the company public. Mr. Sharma started his oil & gas career as an engineer for Schlumberger and his energy experience spans from oil & gas services, to buy-side investments, to leading the upstream and midstream companies in the energy sector. Mr. Sharma received his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from MNIT in India and an MBA from Duke University, USA where he graduated with the highest honors as Fuqua Scholar.

Mr. Grounds joined Pilot Water Solutions in January 2021. Mr. Grounds has more than 19 years’ experience in the oil & gas and water midstream industry managing health, safety, environmental, and regulatory compliance. Prior to joining Pilot Water Solutions, Mr. Grounds served as Director of Health, Safety, Environmental & Regulatory with H2O Midstream. Prior to joining H2O, Mr. Grounds served as an EHS Consultant for EOG Resources for 10 years’ and worked with drilling, completions, production, midstream, and shared services operations. Prior to joining EOG, Mr. Grounds served as an HSE Supervisor for Nabors Drilling. Mr. Grounds has an AS from North Central Texas College, and a BS and MS in HSE Management from Columbia Southern University.

Mr. Neal serves as the Executive Vice President of Corporate Development for Pilot Water Solutions and has dedicated his career to midstream and water infrastructure development and financing. Prior to joining Pilot Water Solutions, Mr. Neal served as Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Expedition Water Solutions (“Expedition”). Under Mr. Neal’s leadership, Expedition grew from a one facility start-up to a market leader across multiple basins in the Rockies. Prior to joining Expedition, Mr. Neal served as Manager of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development at Sterling Energy, a pipeline infrastructure company, and specialized in deal structuring, corporate finance and water pipeline business development. Prior to Sterling, Mr. Neal worked at Morgan Stanley in energy private equity and energy investment banking, in both Houston, TX and New York, NY, and focused on energy investments, financing and M&A. Zach graduated, magna cum laude, with a BBA in Accounting from Texas A&M University.

Steve Bennett joined Pilot Water Solutions in Oct 2022. Mr Bennett has over 30 years’ experience in Quality, Health Safety and Environment. Prior to joining PWS, Mr Bennett served as Global Sr. Director HSE, with Weatherford International. Mr Bennett has held senior QHSE roles in Australasia, USA and Europe. Steve is a subject matter expert in a wide range of disciplines including Health and Safety, Risk Management, Incident Investigation, Occupational Health, Industrial Hygiene & Monitoring, Environmental Protection, Auditing, Water Safety, Technical Rope Rescue and Environmental Health and Communicable Disease. During his career, he has served in the British Military, Australian Law Enforcement and worked in various facets of the energy/mining industry including in situ leach mining (Uranuim) and gold mining. Mr. Bennett is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Management.

Mr. Ellis serves as the Executive Vice President of Finance & Control for Pilot Water Solutions. Mr. Ellis has over 17 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining Pilot Water Solutions, Mr. Ellis served as Vice President of Finance & Controller with H2O Midstream, a premier water midstream company operating in the Permian basis. While at H2O, Mr. Ellis managed the finance and accounting functions, information technology, and human resources. Prior to H2O, Mr. Ellis served in multiple finance and accounting leadership roles across a range of companies including Harkand, Direct Energy, and Fluor Corporation. His over 17 years of experiences have been centered around establishing controlled financial frameworks and ensuring integrity to the financial metrics. Mr. Ellis received his Bachelor of Business Administration from Millsaps College in Jackson, MS and a MBA from Tulane University in New Orleans where he graduated with an International business concentration and an Energy markets specialization.

Mr. Law serves as General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Legal for Pilot Water Solutions. Prior to joining Pilot in June 2023, Mr. Law served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary of Select Water Solutions, Inc (NYSE:WTTR), a leading provider of sustainable water and chemical solutions to the energy industry across the United States, managing Select’s corporate governance, securities compliance, mergers and acquisitions, EHS and human resources functions. Mr. Law began his career in private practice with Baker Hostetler LLP and then Vinson & Elkins LLP, where he focused on capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance matters for public and private companies.  Mr. Law received his Bachelor of Business Administration, Business Honors Program and Finance from the University of Texas at Austin, and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.

Mr. Jones joined Pilot Water Solutions in June 2022. Mr. Jones has over 13 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining Pilot Water Solutions, Mr. Jones served as Assistant General Counsel with Southwestern Energy Company and Associate General Counsel at Indigo Natural Resources. In these organizations and several others, Mr. Jones was responsible for securities, mergers and acquisitions as well as upstream and midstream commercial transactions. Mr. Jones began his career at Baker Botts LLP where he focused on capital markets in addition to mergers and acquisitions transactions. Mr. Jones received his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center where he graduated magna cum laude.