Philippe Aimé Charlez is a Mining Engineer and graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique de Mons (Belgium). He obtained his PhD from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris and went on to join Total in 1982 where he worked as a Rock Mechanics Expert for 15 years. He then occupied several operational and management positions in Scotland, Angola and more recently, Kazakhstan.

He is currently Development Manager of Unconventional Resources for the Total Group. Ph. Charlez is the author of two books on Rock Mechanics, and over 50 scientific papers.

Pascal Baylocq  is an Engineer with a PhD in Mechanics and holds a degree in economic sciences. He began his career at Total in 1995 as a Drilling Engineer. After several years spent abroad (Argentina, United Arab Emirates and the UK), he joined the Finance Division as an internal auditor. Having set in motion the deployment of internet technologies in the Exploration & Production Branch, he took on responsibility for an offshore oil complex in the United Arab Emirates in 2005. In 2007, he joined Geostock as Executive Vice President, a position he still holds. Since 2011, he has been the President of the CLAR think tank ‘Hydrocarbon source rocks’ in the GEP-AFTP.