Maxted succeeds Musselman as Kosmos CEO
Kosmos Energy LLC's chairman and CEO, James C. Musselman has retired from the company. John R. Kemp III has been named chairman, and Brian F. Maxted has been promoted to president and CEO and made a member of the company's board of directors. Musselman, along with Maxted and three other partners, co-founded Kosmos Energy in late 2003. Musselman previously served as chairman and CEO of Triton Energy. Following its sale to Hess Corp. in 2001, Musselman served as a senior advisor to Hess chairman and CEO John Hess. Earlier in his career, Musselman was founder and operator of JM Petroleum Corp. He is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Texas School of Law. Most recently, Maxted served as the company's COO. Prior to Kosmos, Maxted was senior vice president of exploration for Triton Energy. Kemp has been an independent member of the company's board of directors since March 2005. He spent 34 years at Conoco. He earned a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University.
Kim S. Cagle has been named a partner of energy law firm Burleson Cooke. Cagle concentrates her practice in energy lending, leveraged acquisitions, and senior and subordinated debt financings; asset-based lending transactions; project financings and derivatives. She has been practicing law for more than 20 years and joined Burleson Cooke in 2007 after serving as a partner with Mayer Brown & Platt. She earned her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Southern Methodist University and her JD, cum laude, from the SMU Dedman School of Law.
Aaron Ball has joined the corporate and finance practice as of counsel in the Houston office of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. Ball's practice focuses on international corporate, finance and government matters, with a concentration in the international energy industry. He has been the lead lawyer in transactions involving both public and private entities with interests in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, China and Mexico. Ball received his bachelor's degree from Butler University, his JD from the American University Washington College of Law, and his LLM (tax) from DePaul University.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP has added a group of five litigation and corporate lawyers to its Dallas office. The group is comprised of Robert C. Walters, executive vice president and general counsel at Energy Future Holdings; William B. Dawson, formerly the head of Vinson & Elkins' Litigation and Regulatory Department; Jeffrey A. Chapman, a corporate partner and formerly a member of Vinson & Elkins' Management Committee; Michael L. Raiff, a litigation partner who served as Vinson & Elkins' Media Practice Leader; and corporate partner Robert B. Little. They will be joining Gibson Dunn as partners in the Dallas office, and Walters will assume an additional role as Co-Partner in Charge of the Dallas office. Walters graduated cum laude from the University of Texas School of Law. Dawson received his JD with highest honors from Texas Tech University. Chapman, currently representing Doug Miller, the CEO of EXCO Resources, in Miller's $5.5 billion bid to take EXCO private, received his JD cum laude from Harvard Law School. Raiff received his law degree with high honors from the University of Texas. Little graduated from the University of Texas School of Law with highest honors. Over the past two years, he has represented Energy Future Holdings in debt issuances and exchanges totaling over $5 billion.
Energy consulting firm Opportune LLP has promoted Matt Flanagan to managing director in the Energy Process and Technology Practice. Flanagan brings over 17 years of experience in global refining and marketing, pipelines and transportation, E&P, petrochemicals and mining. His primary focus areas include mergers & acquisitions, business operations and planning, energy trading and risk management, hydrocarbon supply chain management, logistics, asset maintenance and reliability, and leading large scale business transformation initiatives. Prior to joining Opportune in February 2010 as a director, Flanagan led the M&A and Commercial Systems groups for Petroplus Marketing AG.
Roger D. Stark, a lawyer known for his work in US and cross-border energy sector project development and finance, has joined Ballard Spahr as a partner. As a member of Ballard Spahr's Energy and Project Finance Group, Stark will handle energy-related project development and financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, public-private partnerships, and infrastructure development matters. Stark previously served as a partner at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP in Washington DC. At Ballard Spahr, Stark is a member of the Energy and Project Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions/Private Equity, and P3/Infrastructure Groups and the Climate Change and Sustainability Initiative.
For the second time, Charles Lewis has been appointed by Palantir Solutions, which provides economic planning consultancy and software to the global upstream oil and gas community. The appointment follows his MBA gained in Energy Risk Management at the University of Houston. Lewis re-joins Palantir Solutions as vice president, business development. Following an internship with Merak, Lewis worked at Palantir for two years from 2003 as an economic consultant. He spent the following two years as an economic planning analyst for Kerr McGee and then Anadarko, moving to Constellation Commodities Group in 2007.
Gainsville, TX-based Select Energy Services LLC has named Ronald "Ronney" Coleman COO. Coleman joins Select Energy Services following a 33-year career at BJ Services. He most recently served as vice president of pumping for all of North America. He serves on the board of a small coiled tubing business and is an advisor to Cadent Energy, a private equity firm that invests in the oilfield service industry. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Texas – Permian Basin.
Houston-based W&T Offshore has appointed Jesus G. Melendrez senior vice president and chief commercial officer. Melendrez previously worked at Mariner Energy for seven years and served in a variety of positions of increasing responsibility, culminating as senior vice president and chief commercial officer and acting CFO and treasurer. Before that, he was a vice president at Enron North America Corp. in the Energy Capital Resources group. He was a senior vice president of trading and structured finance with TXU Energy Services from 1997 to 2000. From 1992 to 1997, Melendrez was employed by Enron in various commercial positions in the areas of domestic oil and gas financing and international project development. He holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the University of Southern California. He also has an MBA from the University of Houston.
On December 16, 2010, Whiting Petroleum Corp. elected James T. Brown president and COO of the company. He joined Whiting in May 1993 as a consulting engineer and became operations manager in 1999, was elected vice president of operations in 2000 and has held the position of senior vice president since May 2007. He began his career with Shell in 1975 and subsequently held engineering and supervisory positions at BP and his own consulting firm. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from the University of Denver. Mark R. Williams has been named senior vice president, exploration and development. Williams joined the company in December 1983 as exploration geologist and has been vice president of exploration and development since December 1999. He holds a master's degree from the Colorado School of Mines and a bachelor's degree from the University of Utah.
Louis A. Simpson has accepted an invitation to join the board of directors of Chesapeake Energy Corp. Simpson will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Frederick B. Whittemore, the final nonexecutive member of Chesapeake's 1992 founding board of directors. Simpson currently serves as chairman of SQ Advisors LLC. He has served as president and CEO, Capital Operations, of GEICO Corp. from May 1993 until his retirement on December 31, 2010. Prior, Simpson was president and CEO of Western Asset Management. Simpson obtained a bachelor's degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and a master's degree from Princeton University.
International law firm King & Spalding has added veteran corporate partner Steven D. Guynn to its New York office, the latest move in the firm's expansion of its transactional practices. Guynn has more than 25 years' experience in capital markets transactions and mergers and acquisitions. He joins King & Spalding from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Guynn specializes in strategic transactions and international matters for corporations, underwriters and capital providers. He has extensive experience with US and cross-border transactions for corporations, underwriters, private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds. He has advised clients in industries including financial institutions, energy, pharma/life sciences, telecommunications, transportation, retail and real estate. He received a JD degree from the University of Virginia Law School, and a bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, from Brigham Young University.
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