Mike Watts and Jann Brown will head a new business development group at SOCO International PLC, London. They most recently have been joint chief executive officers of Magna Energy Ltd., which they cofounded with private-equity backing to pursue upstream opportunities in South Asia.
Before starting Magna Energy they were executive directors at Cairn Energy.
Watts has been a SOCO nonexecutive director since 2009 and will leave the board to assume the executive position.