CFO University 2025 Part Two Speakers

Laura Fulton 

Laura Fulton is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the American Bureau of Shipping. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Targa Resources Corp (NYSE: TRGP), where she is the Audit Committee Chair, Lead Independent Director, and a member of the Nominating and Governance Committee. Previously, Laura was the CFO of Hi-Crush Inc. (NYSE: HCR), a leading provider of proppant and logistics services to the North American energy industry. She also held the role of Executive Vice President and CFO at AEI, an operator of energy infrastructure assets in emerging markets. Earlier in her career, Laura led Internal Audit at Lyondell Chemical Company and began her professional journey in audit with Deloitte.

Laura was ranked #10 on the Wall Street Journal's 2025 Top 250 Board Directors and was recognized by the Houston Business Journal as a 2025 CFO of the Year honoree and a Women Who Mean Business award winner. In 2019, Oil & Gas Investor magazine named her one of the “25 Most Influential Women in Energy.” Institutional Investor included her in the 2018 All-America Executive Team for Oil Services & Equipment as the Best CFO, nominated by both the buy side and sell side. Additionally, Laura was a finalist for the Houston Business Journal’s 2018 CFO of the Year award and won their CFO of the Year honors in 2013 for both the Small Public Company and Community Impact categories.

Laura graduated cum laude from Texas A&M University with a B.B.A. in Accounting. She was named an Outstanding Alumni of the Mays Business School in 2020 and was inducted into the Accounting Department Hall of Honor in 2019. She actively contributes to her alma mater by serving on the Mays Dean's Advisory Board and the Accounting Department Advisory Board. Laura is also involved with the Houston Chapter of Financial Executives International (FEI) and the FEI Houston Scholarship Foundation, serving on both boards.

Christine Morris 

Christine is a seasoned CFO and global executive with over 30 years of experience leading financial strategy, transformation, and governance across capital-intensive industries including oil and gas, shipping, and telecommunications. With deep expertise in M&A, turnarounds, and international operations, she has driven enterprise value and built resilient organizations, advising boards on capital allocation, risk oversight, and sustainable growth.

Most recently, Christine was the CFO of BT Business, where she led the restructuring the of the division to focus on its UK operations.  Previously, she held CFO roles with FMG (Australia), Maersk Drilling (Denmark) and BJ Services and spent seven years in various finance roles at Halliburton.   She also managed high-profile Chapter 11 for Covad Communications and Adelphia Communications. 

Christine currently chairs the Audit Committee for DOF ASA and Svitzer A/S, providing oversight across financial reporting, controls, and enterprise risk. She also serves as a Board Advisor to Cyanergy Inc., a company focused on innovation in the green energy space. 

Christine holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as a master’s and bachelor’s degree in actuarial and mathematical sciences from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.  She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and has two children aged 22 and 26.  She enjoys running, tennis, hiking and traveling with her family.

Jennifer Whalen 

Jennifer Whalen is serving as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer for the Bristow Group Inc. beginning in June 2020. The CFO role is responsible for overseeing our Information Technology department, company accounting, decision support, financial reporting, internal audit, investor relations, strategy and M&A, tax, and other financial functions of the Company.

Previously, she served as the Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, for Era Group Inc. since February 2018. Jennifer served as the Company's Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer since August 2013 until her appointment as Vice President, Acting Chief Financial Officer in June 2017. Jennifer joined the company as Controller in April 2012. From August 2007 to March 2012, Jennifer served in several capacities at nLIGHT Photonics Corporation, a supplier of high-performance lasers, including as Director of Accounting. Prior to these roles, Jennifer served as the Manager of Accounting at lnFocus Corporation for over two years. After serving in the

U.S. military, Jennifer started her career in public accounting in the assurance practice group at PricewaterhouseCoopers for approximately five years. She received a B.S. in Accounting from Alabama A&M University and a master's degree in Accounting from the University of Southern California.

Howard Wagner, CPA

Howard has over 35 years of accounting and tax experience. He is the Corporate and M&A leader in the Forvis Mazars Washington National Tax Office. His practice focus on corporate taxation, global deal structuring, the taxation of debt instruments, and the preservation and management of tax attributes in corporate transactions and bankruptcy across a broad variety of industries. 

Prior to joining Forvis Mazars he led the Washington National Tax Office of another national accounting firm. He also served as a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Tax Section’s Corporations and Shareholders Technical Resource Panel, the Kentucky Society of CPAs Tax Committee, and he is a former editor of the AICPA’s Tax Adviser column.  He is a frequent speaker and author on corporate tax matters.  

Howard is a member of the AICPA and the Kentucky Society of Certified Public Accountants.  He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting.