LEADERSHIP
Rene Casadaban
Chief Executive Officer
Rene has 31 years of midstream management and business development experience for onshore, offshore and deepwater.
Before joining Black Bear Transmission, Rene served as SVP and Chief Operating Officer for the NYSE-traded American Midstream and its privately held successor Third Coast Midstream. He is the former Chief Operating Officer for the NYSE-traded Summit Midstream Partners. Before Summit, Rene worked for Enterprise Products Partners as the Director for Deepwater Business Development of floating production platforms and offshore pipelines. He has also served as an independent consultant to ExxonMobil Corporation and GulfTerra Energy Partners for the Gulf of Mexico and international pipeline projects. At Land and Marine Engineering, Rene was responsible for managing domestic and international pipeline river crossings and beach approaches by horizontal directional drilling.
Rene began his career as a field engineer for McDermott International. He currently serves on the Board of Angel Reach and is a graduate of Auburn University with a Bachelor of Science in Building Construction.
Scott Langston
Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer
Scott joined Black Bear Transmission in 2019 and brings more than 19 years of natural gas pipeline experience. His background consists of commercial management of regulated pipeline assets, development of capital projects, execution of A&D transactions, MLP and C-Corp investor relations, natural gas market analytics, and commercial pipeline operations.
Prior to joining Black Bear, Scott served as the Commercial Director of Third Coast Midstream LLC’s natural gas transmission segment. He previously served as Senior Commercial Manager at American Midstream, Business Development Manager at Harvest Midstream, an affiliate of Hilcorp Energy Company, Senior Account Manager at Kinder Morgan, Principal Negotiator at Tennessee Gas Pipeline, Senior Investor Relations Analyst at El Paso Corporation, and Senior Analyst of Market and Project Analysis for El Paso Corporation’s western pipeline group.
Scott holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and graduated with honors while earning an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Karen Acree
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer
Karen joined Black Bear Transmission as Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer in May 2020. She has over 37 years of experience in accounting, financial reporting, and tax leadership roles in both public and private entities.
Prior to joining Black Bear, Karen served as V.P. and Chief Accounting Officer for two years at Third Coast Midstream LLC, formerly known as American Midstream Partners LP. Before her tenure at Third Coast, she served as Chief Accounting Officer at Jones Energy Inc. from 2015-2018 and as V.P. Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at W&T Offshore, Inc. from 2007-2015. Prior to that time, Karen spent approximately 24 years employed in various accounting leadership roles at Santa Fe International Corporation
Karen is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Texas and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Texas Tech University.