Bernard Fried named CEO of Siterra Corp.
Novato, Calif.-based Siterra Corp., a provider of project, document, and property management solutions for companies that manage large numbers of high-value real estate properties and operating assets, has selected software industry veteran Bernard Fried as its CEO. Fried replaces Paul Remer, who co-founded the company and served as CEO since the company’s inception in 2001. Remer will remain on the board of directors and play an active advisory role. Prior to joining Siterra, Fried was CEO of Citadon, a venture-backed applications service provider. He also served as CEO of VBS, a securities industry transaction and back office services provider. Fried held many senior executive positions at the Bechtel Group, and was founder of Bechtel Business Services. Also during his tenure at Bechtel, Fried was the CFO and managing director of Bechtel Enterprises. Before that he held various positions at Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) in Canada, the US, and Switzerland. Fried holds an MBA from Concordia University and is a professional engineer and graduate of McGill University in Montreal.
Roderick Hayslett to serve as CFO of Energy Solutions
Energy Solutions International has named Roderick J. Hayslett CFO, a role he has filled on an interim basis since March 2005. He will report to CEO Alan Jacob. Hayslett has 36 years’ experience in finance, administration, and operations management. Twenty-six of those years were spent in the energy pipeline business with Florida Gas Transmission as CFO and treasurer. He holds a BS degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s degree from the University of Central Florida. Hayslett served in the US Navy as an officer in the Supply Corps for 10 years of active duty and continued in the US Navy Reserve until his recent retirement as a captain. Founded in 1976 and headquartered in Houston, Energy Solutions supplies pipeline management technologies to the global oil and gas industry. The company has more than 500 clients in over 70 countries through its offices in the US, UK, India, China, Dubai, and Canada. Energy Solutions has achieved ISO 9001:2000 accreditation renewal, following an audit performed by SGS United Kingdom Ltd. The audit included certification under the TickIT software quality certification scheme, an international standard administered by the British Department of Trade and Industry.
Transition plan in place for King, Greehey, Klesse at Valero Energy Corp.
Bill Greehey, chairman and CEO of Valero Energy Corp., will transition out of his role as CEO at the end of the year to focus on his responsibilities as chairman. Executive vice president and COO Bill Klesse has been appointed CEO and has been elected to the board of directors. He will serve as its vice chairman. The company has an orderly transition plan in place, which calls for Klesse to begin serving in his new role Jan. 1, 2006, and Greg King to continue as president.
“I plan to remain actively involved in the strategic direction of both Valero and Valero LP, and plan to stay involved in Valero’s employee, governmental, and civic initiatives,” Greehey said. “And, of course, I will remain a visible advocate for the company and for the refining industry.”
Valero Energy is a Fortune 500 company based in San Antonio, with about 22,000 employees and expected annual revenue of more than $75 billion. The company owns and operates 18 refineries throughout the US, Canada, and the Caribbean with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3.3 million b/ d, making it the largest refiner in North America. Valero is also one of the nation’s largest retail operators with more than 4,700 retail and branded wholesale outlets in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean.
Richard Packwood to guide company strategy at Aspen
Aspen Technology Inc. has appointed Richard Packwood as senior vice president of corporate strategy. Packwood comes to AspenTech with extensive experience in both formulating and implementing corporate strategies for a range of international businesses. Prior to joining AspenTech, Packwood was senior vice president for business development at Ajilon Consulting, where he played a key role in the growth of the company as a member of the executive team. Before joining Ajilon, he was vice president for operations for ProVision Technologies, and was a strategic management consultant for the Parthenon Group and Bain & Co. Packwood is a graduate of Durham University in England and holds an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Aspen Technology provides software and professional services that are designed to help process companies improve efficiency and profitability by enabling them to model, manage, and control their operations. Clients include Bayer, BASF, BP, Chevron, DuPont, ExxonMobil, Fluor, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Shell, and Total.
Cedric Burgher accepts position as senior VP and CFO at KBR
KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton, has named Cedric Burgher senior vice president and CFO. Burgher accepts the position in KBR’s Houston office while the company pursues a potential separation from Halliburton. Before joining KBR, Burgher was the CFO at Burger King Corp. Before that he worked for Halliburton from 2001 to 2004, most recently as vice president and treasurer, and previously as vice president of investor relations. Burgher has held financial management positions with Enron, EOG Resources, and Baker Hughes. Burgher received his BBA from the University of Texas at Austin, his MBA from the University of Dallas, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. KBR is a global engineering, construction, technology, and services company with more than 60,000 employees in 43 countries. Halliburton, founded in 1919, provides products and services to the petroleum and energy industries.
Triple Point Technology chooses Brad Hamlin as new VP of client care
Triple Point Technology has appointed Brad Hamlin as its new vice president of client care. In this role, Hamlin is responsible for global product support and issue resolution for Triple Point’s 80-plus global clients, as well as overall client satisfaction. Prior to his new role, Hamlin served as sales director for Triple Point, covering the Americas and Western Europe. Before joining Triple Point, Hamlin was a North American sales executive for Excelergy Corp., a start-up software company serving the deregulated energy industry. He has more than 13 years of software sales and delivery experience, having also served in both implementation and sales roles at Price Waterhouse and PeopleSoft. Hamlin holds a BS degree in industrial engineering from the University of Illinois. Triple Point Technology provides trading and risk management solutions for commodities, including power, oil, gas, coal, metals, agricultural products, and freight. The company serves clients in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, and South America for the supply, trading, marketing, and movement of commodities.
Forest Oil announces several personnel changes
Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. has made several executive personnel changes. Glen J. Mizenko has been recently named vice president, business development. Mizenko joined Forest in 2001 and was previously director of business development. He has been directly involved with the company’s active acquisition program.
Paul J. Dusha was recently named vice president of human resources. Dusha joined Forest in 2001 as director of human resources. Prior to joining Forest, Dusha served as vice president of human resources and administration for Virginia Indonesia Co., a privately owned international oil and gas company.
Michael N. Kennedy was promoted to a new position, managing director of capital markets and treasurer. Kennedy will report directly to David H. Keyte, executive vice president and CFO, and be responsible for the execution of capital markets and derivatives activities as well as all treasury activities.
Patrick J. Redmond, manager of insurance and financial analysis, was promoted to director of investor relations for Forest replacing Kennedy in that role.
Forest Oil is engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of natural gas and crude oil in North America and selected international locations. Forest’s principal reserves and producing properties are located in the US in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming, and in Canada.
Director, vice chairman Stephen Ludlow to retire from Veritas DGC Inc.
Stephen J. Ludlow will retire from Veritas DGC Inc. in March 2006. Ludlow will serve in his present role as a director and vice chairman until the next annual meeting of stockholders in December and will then be named an executive vice president of the company. He will continue in that role until his retirement to assure an orderly transition of his current duties. Ludlow began his career with Veritas DGC, then Digicon Inc. in 1971 as a member of a marine seismic acquisition crew. He rose through the ranks to serve in a number of executive positions, including president and CEO of Digicon Inc., president and COO of Veritas DGC, and ultimately vice chairman. He has served on the board of directors of Veritas DGC since 1994. Veritas DGC, headquartered in Houston, is a provider of integrated geophysical information and services to the petroleum industry worldwide.
Andrew Weissman joins FTI Consulting in Washington as senior managing director
FTI Consulting Inc., a provider of consulting and technology services to major corporations, financial institutions, and law firms, has named Andrew D. Weissman to the company’s economic consulting practice as a senior managing director in its Washington, DC office. Weissman is knowledgeable on the imbalance between natural gas supply and demand of natural gas and its likely impact on fuels markets and market participants over the remainder of this decade. His subscription newsletter, Energy Business Watch, provides clients - energy companies, energy consumers, traders, and hedge funds - with timely industry updates on supply and pricing issues for the natural gas and oil markets. Weissman has 30 years’ experience as a lawyer, consultant, and corporate advisor in the energy industry. Before joining FTI, he was founder and chairman of Energy Ventures Group LLC, an investment management and consulting firm based in Washington DC. Weissman was also a founding member of Swidler & Berlin LLC, a law firm based in Washington, DC and New York specializing in energy law and telecommunications. Subsequently, he headed the energy practice group in the Washington, DC office of Morrison & Foerster. Weissman holds a JD degree cum laude from Harvard Law School.
Sult named senior VP, chief accounting officer of El Paso Corp.
Houston-based El Paso Corp. has named John R. Sult to the position of senior vice president and chief accounting officer. Sult will assume the responsibilities of his new role immediately following El Paso’s filing of its third quarter SEC Form 10-Q. Sult most recently served as vice president and controller for Halliburton Energy Services in Houston. In his new position, Sult will serve as controller and chief accounting officer for the holding company as well as El Paso’s Pipeline Group. He will report directly to D. Mark Leland, El Paso’s CFO. Before joining Halliburton in 2004, Sult provided finance and accounting advisory services to energy companies as an independent consultant. Prior to that, he was an audit partner with Arthur Andersen LLP. Sult earned a BS degree in commerce from Washington and Lee University in 1981. El Paso Corp. owns North America’s largest natural gas pipeline system and is one of North America’s largest independent natural gas producers.
Terax Energy appoints Rex White to board
Rex H. White Jr. has been named to Austin-based Terax Energy Inc.’s board of directors. White owns a private legal practice in Austin and specializes in oil, gas, and mineral law. He handles civil litigation, mediation, and representation of producers and pipelines, all related to oil and gas matters. Previously, White was a partner in Hutcheson & Gundy LLP and White & Grove PC, both in Austin. He has also served as Austin resident partner of O’Neill Haase & White, and Dickstein Shapiro & Morin, both headquartered in Washington, DC. In addition, he was special counsel to the Railroad Commission of Texas and has worked in various divisions of the office of the Assistant Attorney General for the State of Texas. White has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geosciences from the University of Texas at Austin and graduated from the University of Texas Law School. Terax Energy is an independent, managed risk, gas exploration, development, and production company. The company is focused solely on the exploitation and development of large, mostly contiguous acreage blocks in the Barnett shale play within the Fort Worth basin of Texas.
Michael Jennings joins Frontier Oil Corp. as executive VP, CFO
Frontier Oil Corp. has named Michael C. Jennings executive vice president and CFO. In this Houston-based position, Jennings will have responsibility for all the financial activities of the company. He will report to the CEO. Jennings comes to Frontier with 18 years’ experience in finance and acquisitions with Cooper Cameron Corp., Unimin Corp., British Petroleum, and US Trust Co. of New York. His most recent position was as vice president and treasurer at Cooper Cameron. He earned an MBA degree in finance and accounting from the University of Chicago and a BA degree in economics and government from Dartmouth College. Frontier operates a 110,000-b/d refinery in El Dorado, Kan., and a 46,000-b/d refinery in Cheyenne, Wyo., and markets its refined products principally along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and in other neighboring plains states.
Sandler, Schadt join PRB board of directors
PRB Gas Transportation Inc. has added Reuben Sandler and James P. Schadt to its board of directors, enlarging the board to seven members.
Sandler, 68, has been chairman and CEO of Intelligent Optical Systems Inc., an R&D company developing technologies in optical sensing and instrumentation, since 1999. Before that he was president and CIO for MediVox Inc., a medical software development company. Earlier, he was an executive vice president for Makoff R&D Laboratories Inc. Sandler currently serves on the board of directors of JMG Exploration Inc., Optech Ventures LLC, and Optisense LLC. Sandler received a PhD from the University of Chicago, is the author of four books on the subject of mathematics, and has held professorships at Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, the University of Hawaii, and Technion University of Haifa, Israel.
Schadt, 67, retired as chairman and CEO of the Reader’s Digest Association in 1997. He is currently a partner of Contagion LLC, an operator of magazine publishing services, a director of LEK, a Boston-based consultancy specializing in shareholder value and a life trustee of Northwestern University. From 1980 to 1991, Schadt was with London-based Cadbury Schweppes PLC serving on the board of directors and rising to CEO of the global beverage business. Schadt began his business career in the marketing department at Procter & Gamble, following his graduation from Northwestern University with a BA degree in arts and sciences.
PRB reported it has drilled or completed 14 wells and has hired a drilling rig to drill an additional 12 wells. The company has connected two of the wells in its North Gillette (Wyo.) field and is marketing gas from these wells. PRB has plans to connect the additional completed wells and anticipates gas flow from those wells in the near future. PRG is engaged in the exploration and development of coal bed methane gas as well as gas processing and transportation.
Premium Petroleum adds Paul Bennett to its management team
Calgary-based Premium Petroleum Inc. has appointed Paul J. Bennett as vice president of exploration and advisory board member. Bennett spent 31 years with Exxon Mobil Canada where he held various management positions including manager of western Canada exploration, senior VP for exploration and an officer of Mobil Oil Canada Ltd., and most recently head of all Canadian geoscientists with responsibility for EMC geoscience, technical computing, and well approvals for Western Canada (WCSB, namely Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Mackenzie, West Coast). Bennett has done geological/technical work in every province and territory in Canada over a 36-year period and has lived and worked in Europe and the USA. He has worked for oil and gas companies, mining companies, and provincial geologic/mining surveys. The company will be looking to Bennett to source quality exploration and development projects and acquisition opportunities. Premium is an emerging junior oil and gas company focused on exploiting oil and gas reserves in the western Canadian sedimentary basin to 6,000 feet in depth.
Joseph Bryant named to board of directors at Berry Petroleum
Berry Petroleum Co. has elected Joseph H. Bryant to the board of directors. Bryant has more than 28 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and most recently served as president and COO of Unocal Corp. until Sept. 30. Prior to his position there, Bryant was president of BP Angola from 2000 to 2004 and previously was president of BP Canada and an Amoco joint venture in China. He has also held numerous leadership positions for Amoco in engineering, financial, and operational assignments through the continental US. Bryant has a BS degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Nebraska. Berry Petroleum is a publicly traded independent oil and gas production and exploitation company with headquarters in Bakersfield, Calif.
Coolen and Idland appointed to board of Canadian Superior
Calgary-based Canadian Superior Energy Inc. has named Michael (Mike) Coolen, Halifax, Nova Scotia and Kaare (Kory) Idland, Red Deer, Alberta to its board of directors. Coolen is Canadian Superior’s vice president of east coast operations, and joined the company in July 2001, establishing the company’s Halifax, Nova Scotia office, and has been instrumental in heading up Canadian Superior’s east coast Canada drilling operations. Coolen is a graduate mechanical engineer from the Nova Scotia Technical College and Dalhousie University and has over 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas business. Prior to joining Canadian Superior, he worked for Mobil Oil Canada for 20 years in a variety of senior technical and management positions and was an original team member on the Sable Offshore Energy Project and a senior manager during the Sable project. Idland is the founder, owner, president, and CEO of Kidd Construction Ltd., of Red Deer, Alberta, one of Alberta’s largest independent oil and gas construction service companies. Idland founded Kidd Construction in 1960 and is a well-known member of the Alberta business community with extensive knowledge of the oil and gas industry. Canadian Superior is an oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in western Canada, offshore Trinidad and Tobago, and offshore Nova Scotia.
White appointed to board at Denver’s Teton Energy
Denver-based Teton Energy Corp. has appointed William K. White as an independent outside director. White has 30 years of financial and operating experience in the domestic oil and natural gas industry. He is currently president of Amado Energy LP, an investment vehicle formed to focus on oil and gas producing properties in the Permian Basin. Prior to forming Amado, he was CFO of Pure Resources Inc. At Pure he helped to build the company from a startup with $20 million in initial seed equity to an investment grade, NYSE-listed company with an enterprise value of $1.8 billion and proved reserves of 1.5tcf in a little over six years. Pure Resources was acquired by Unocal Corp. in 2002.
Prior to working with Pure, White was SVP of TCW Asset Management Co., a fund manager with $53 billion under management. Previous to his work there, White served as SVP of finance and CFO of Ensource Inc., VP of finance and administration at Lear Petroleum Corp., and VP of finance and treasurer at Mitchell Energy & Development Corp. White is past chairman of the IPAA’s capital markets committee and the IPAA’s oil and gas investment symposium and served two terms on its national board of directors. Teton is an exploration and production company with operations in the Rocky Mountain region of the US.
Thomas Sloop brings experience to Sanders Morris Harris Group
Houston-based Sanders Morris Harris Group Inc. has added Thomas W. Sloop as a managing director. Sloop will be based in the Houston office and be responsible for expanding the company’s presence in the energy sector, and focusing on middle market, growth-oriented oil and gas clients in the US and Canada. Sloop has over 20 years’ experience in the oil and gas business. He joins Sanders Morris from WestLB AG, where he was most recently managing director in the oil, gas, and petrochemicals investment banking group. Before that he was head of structured and corporate finance at Anadarko Petroleum, and previously worked for Texaco’s upstream development and project finance effort. He began his investment banking career with Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York, followed by senior leadership positions in debt capital markets with UBS Securities and Barclays Capital. He holds a BS degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Sanders Morris Harris Group is a financial services holding company that provides investment banking services and manages over $6.2 billion in client assets. The company has offices in Houston, New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas, and Fort Worth.
