Best to head St. Mary Land & Exploration

St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. Pres. and Chief Operating Officer Tony Best, who joined the company in June, will transition into his new role as chief executive officer on Feb. 26, 2007.

Dec. 5, 2006

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Dec. 5 -- St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. Pres. and Chief Operating Officer Tony Best, who joined the company in June, will transition into his new role as chief executive officer on Feb. 26, 2007. On this same date, Chief Executive Mark Hellerstein, who has been with the company for 15 years, will become nonexecutive chairman.

In addition, St. Mary hired Javan Ottoson as chief operating officer, effective Dec. 18. At that time, Best will relinquish the chief operating officer position but will continue to serve as president of the company.

Ottoson has 23 years of experience in the energy industry, most recently with Energy Partners Ltd. in New Orleans, where he served as senior vice-president, drilling and engineering. He also managed the Permian assets for Unocal Corp. subsidiary Pure Resources Inc. and its successor owner, Chevron Corp., from 2003-06.

Prior to that, Ottoson worked 20 years for ARCO in management and operational roles, including president of ARCO China, commercial director of ARCO British, and vice-president of operations and development, ARCO Permian.