Our people
Jan Jette Blangé, Founder and director of Canopus Drilling Solutions Geothermal
Following a PhD in quantum physics Jan Jette entered the energy industry and became department lead for well construction technology development and commercialization. He filed over 30 patents, became a technical expert on drilling automation, directional drilling, abrasive jet drilling and multiphase fluid dynamics.
Jan Jette managed the development, commercialization, and deployment of various technologies, including a rotary steerable system, drilling automation, drill string vibration mitigation, well construction modelling kernels and non-directional steel shot drilling for slim hole drilling. He is an industry wide recognized expert on innovating well construction.
In 2018 Jan Jette started as an independent contractor and investigated the need for novel well construction technology for the energy transition and geothermal in particular. He filed various patents on Directional Steel Shot Drilling for geothermal drilling and founded Canopus Drilling Solutions Geothermal BV as the commercialization vehicle on 1 September 2019.
Diederik Wawoe, CEO of Canopus Drilling Solutions Geothermal
Diederik is a mechanical engineer from TU Delft with a mission to bring power to the people. In the 90’s, Diederik started his career in Shell Solar as a project manager and account manager, thus pioneering solar energy long before it became mainstream. He held several senior commercial positions in Shell since then in Shell Gabon, Shell India, and Shell Global Solutions.
After he left Shell in 2018, he started his own business that focuses on energy transition. He has been in the leadership team of two other start-ups before he joined Canopus. Since 2019, he is also a Non-Executive Director of Sima (Social Impact Managers and Advisors). Sima is an Impact Fund with a mission to positively impact the lives of at least 1 million households and reduce CO2 emissions by 4 million tonnes. Diederik speaks six languages.
Jeanet Schouten, Manager Deep Geothermal
After graduating in Applied Earth Sciences at the TU Delft, Jeanet started her career in the oil and gas industry. She worked for Shell as production technologist, based in Oman, Norway, Cameroon and the Netherlands, then joined Petro-Canada and worked as field development lead in Tripoli, Libya before joining BG Group as petroleum engineering manager for the New Technologies hub in Queensland, Australia. After leaving Australia, Jeanet moved back to the Netherlands to work as business development consultant for the Ruisdael Observatory at the Technical University of Delft, a nationwide observatory for atmospheric measurements.
Currently Jeanet works as a geothermal energy professional. She joined Canopus Drilling Solutions to work on the deep geothermal energy projects. In Canopus she applies her experience as an all-round petroleum engineer with industry recognized expertise and a track record of delivery in multiple reservoirs to the production of geothermal energy.
Marlies Creyghton, Manager Shallow Geothermal
After graduating as a Geodetical Engineer at Technical University of Delft, Marlies started her career in the telecommunications industry as an allround engineering professional. She worked as an organizational advisor, information manager and project manager in a wide range of large industrial company’s, banks and governmental organisations. Marlies was team manager for consultants, initiated and led major business change projects and was trainer and coach for advisory skills.
Since 2021 Marlies focuses on the energy transition as an independent advisor. After a year she joined Canopus Drilling Solutions. Marlies is responsible for managing and acquiring Shallow Geothermal projects. She currently leads the Green Village project.
Sicco Dwars, DSSD Development Manager
Sicco Dwars, expert in embedded electronics and systems, is a seasoned engineer for challenging designs. After a 33 years technology career with an Anglo-Dutch energy major, Sicco still enjoys inventing, realising and deploying innovative mechatronics systems. Shifting away from oil and gas, Sicco today helps energy transition pioneer Canopus to materialise its step-change well drilling technologies. High temperature sensors and actuators, electronics, embedded computing – not because it is easy but because it is hard.
The Name ‘Canopus’
Canopus is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina, around 310 light-years from the Sun. Its name originates from the mythological Canopus, who was a navigator for Menelaus, king of Sparta. It is the second-brightest star in the night sky, after Sirius.
In ancient times it served as a southern pole star, a beacon to help sailors and fishermen navigate. In modern times, Canopus’ brightness and location make it popular for space navigation. Many spacecrafts carry a special camera known as a “Canopus Star Tracker”, to determine the orientation of the spacecraft with respect to the stars.
Canopus drilling solutions offers innovative drilling technology based on jetting and advanced underground navigation. We are particularly proud of the technology’s ability to steer a drilling unit accurately and to allow it to drill long horizontal wells. We aspire to be a guiding light for geothermal drilling, navigating drilling units towards new horizons, opening up new possibilities for geothermal reservoir development projects.
Directions
The Canopus Drilling Solutions office can be found at De Loods, Treubstraat 25, 2288 EH Rijswijk.
Accessibility
The Canopus office is on the first floor of the building De Loods, Treubstraat 25-27.
De Loods is centrally located in the Metropolitan Region of The Hague/Rotterdam and is easily accessible by both car and public transport. Rijswijk station is a few minutes’ walk away. From here you can use train, bus and tram.
Public transport
De Loods is a 10-minute walk from Rijswijk train station.
Parking
Parking close to De Loods is free. Canopus has private parking spaces for visitors at the parking area of De Loods.