John Doran, founder, CEO of ROC Oil passes away

It is with much sadness that the board and staff of ROC Oil Co. announced the passing on June 27 of founder and CEO Dr. John Doran, after a short illness. “John’s sensibly contrary enthusiasm, passion and charm have been the driving force behind the company since its foundation in 1997,” the board wrote. “He will be greatly missed by ROC’s board and worldwide staff, business partners and shareholders, many of whom were known personally by John. Our deepest sympathy and thoughts are with John’s family at this tragic time.”

Medco Energi US appoints four new VPs

Lafayette, La.-based Medco Energi US has appointed four new vice presidents. The new executives and their positions are Daniel Frugé, vice president and CFO; Steve Goff, vice president of petroleum engineering; Gary Johnson, vice president of production operations; and Ted Russell, vice president of drilling and capital projects. Prior to his new position, Frugé served as executive vice president and CFO for WHC Inc. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Prior to joining Medco, Goff served as president for EPiC Energy Resources. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University. Johnson comes to Medco from ENI Petroleum, where he was offshore operations manager. Russell earned a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University. Medco Energi US is engaged in the exploration, development, acquisition, and production of oil and natural gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico.

KBR names DeNicola senior VP, new CFO

KBR has named T. Kevin DeNicola as the company’s senior vice president and CFO. DeNicola’s responsibilities will include oversight of KBR’s Treasury, Accounting and Finance, Investor Relations, Tax and Internal Audit operations. DeNicola served recently as CFO at Houston-based Lyondell Chemical Co. DeNicola holds an MBA from Rice University and a master’s degree from the University of Virginia.

Enterra taps Klapko president, CEO

Enterra Energy Corp. named Don Klapko as president, CEO, and a director. Klapko has served as senior executive management consultant to Enterra since November, 2007. Klapko has over 30 years of industry experience. He most recently served as president and director of Trigger Resources Ltd., a private exploration and production company.

Burgher joins Quantum

Quantum Energy Partners has hired Cedric Burgher to the company’s COO post. Prior to joining Quantum, Burgher, a 24-year finance veteran, was senior vice president and CFO for KBR. Before returning to Halliburton/KBR, Burgher served as CFO for Burger King in Miami. Prior to that, he worked for Halliburton as vice president and treasurer as well as vice president of investor relations. Quantum is an investment firm specializing in the energy industry with over $3.2 billion in capital under management.

Index appoints Bain as COO

Index Oil and Gas Inc. has named Dr. Ronald Bain to the newly created position of COO of Index Oil and Gas Inc. Bain joined the company as its senior vice president of exploration and production in February. Bain has over 34 years’ experience within the energy sector. Prior to joining the company, Bain was the corporate exploration advisor and vice president of geosciences of Houston-based Endeavour International Corp.

Talisman Energy hires Thompson for CFO post

Talisman Energy Inc. has named L. Scott Thomson executive vice president, finance and CFO. Phil Dolan will continue in his existing duties as senior vice president, finance. Thomson was previously executive vice president, corporate development and planning for both BCE and Bell Canada. He has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA from Queen’s University. Talisman Energy Inc. is an independent upstream oil and gas company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Stratum Holdings elects new CEO, appoints auditors

Stratum Holdings Inc. has elected Larry M. Wright as its chairman and CEO, replacing Frederick A. Huttner. Wright, an energy industry veteran, was an incumbent board member and major shareholder of Stratum prior to his election. Stratum presently conducts operations in the domestic exploration and production business and in the Canadian Energy Services business. Through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, CYMRI LLC and Triumph Energy Inc., Stratum owns working interests oil and gas wells in South Texas and South Louisiana. Stratum’s operations in the Canadian Energy Services business are conducted through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Decca Consulting Ltd. Decca provides drilling and completion consulting services to oil and gas operators in Canada. Stratum has also appointed the Houston-based accounting firm, Malone & Bailey PC as its accounting firm for the year.

Capital One names McBride to head energy banking

Jim McBride has joined Capital One Financial Corp. as executive vice president and manager of energy banking at Capital One Bank. He also will be a managing director of Capital One Southcoast, Capital One’s investment banking subsidiary, and manager of corporate finance. McBride has a combined 31 years of experience as a petroleum engineer and energy finance executive. He joins Capital One Bank from The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), where he was managing director of North American Energy Finance. Experienced energy bankers Scott Joyce and Michael Higgins, who were members of McBride’s Houston-based team at RBS, have joined him in the newly formed group at Capital One Bank in Houston. Joyce is senior vice president of energy banking and of Capital One Southcoast, and Higgins is vice president of energy banking and of Capital One Southcoast. McBride received a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University. Joyce received a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University and a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkley. Higgins holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M University.

Mainland Resources taps Thomas as new CFO

The board of directors of Mainland Resources Inc. has appointed William D. Thomas as CFO and treasurer. Thomas has a lengthy career in finance and accounting for the natural resource sector spanning more than 30 years. Thomas held various management positions with Kerr McGee’s China operations, ending in 2004 with his final position as business director of business services. Robert. D. Fedun resigned as the CFO and treasurer of the company, but remains as a member of the board.

Tesco names Kayl senior VP, CFO

Tesco Corp. has promoted Robert L. Kayl to senior vice president and CFO. Kayl has served as TESCO’s acting CFO since June 25, 2008 and has been vice president and corporate controller since August 2007. He has been the company’s principal accounting officer since April 8, 2008. Tesco designs, manufactures, and services technology based solutions for the upstream energy industry.

Gary Morris joins Paradigm as CFO

Paradigm, a provider of enterprise software solutions to the global oil and natural gas exploration and production industry, has hired Gary V. Morris as CFO. With over 30 years in the finance industry, he joins Paradigm from Herodotus Energy LLC, a consulting company where he served as partner.

Mitchell replaces Mino as T-3 Energy Services CFO

T-3 Energy Services Inc. has named James M. Mitchell senior vice president and CFO. Mitchell replaces Michael T. Mino who has been appointed to the position of vice president-special projects. Mitchell previously served at Pride International Inc., where he was CFO for Latin America Land and E&P Services from January 2007 until after the sale of that business in August 2007. T-3 Energy Services provides a broad range of oilfield products and services primarily to customers in the drilling and completion of new oil and gas wells, the workover of existing wells and the production and transportation of oil and gas.

TPH Partners names senior advisors

Houston-based Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. LLC, the energy investment and merchant banking firm, has named four senior advisors to its private investment subsidiary, TPH Partners LLC. Frank Kalman joins the company with more than 34 years of financial experience. He was most recently executive vice president and CFO of McDermott International. Based in Denver, Dick Lewis has been self-employed in the investment and management of personal financial holdings since 2004. Lewis received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado. Steve Shapiro is a business consultant and from October 2000 to April 2006, he served as executive vice president and CFO of Burlington Resources Inc. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Union College and an MBA from Harvard University. Joel V. Staff is a private investor. He previously served as chairman and CEO of Reliant Energy Inc. from 2003 until 2007. He earned a bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Grinsfelder promoted to president of TXCO

San Antonio-based TXCO Resources Inc. has promoted Gary S. Grinsfelder to president of the oil and gas company. He previously served as vice president. James E. Sigmon will retain his titles of chairman and CEO. Grinsfelder joined TXCO in April 2007 after the company bought Output Exploration LLC in Houston. He was Output’s vice president of exploration and business development.

Energy M&A lawyer joins White & Case

Global law firm White & Case LLP has hired Michael S. Shenberg as a partner in its mergers and acquisitions practice in New York. Shenberg is a transactional attorney concentrating on mergers and acquisitions, finance, and corporate and commercial law matters in the energy sector. Shenberg was previously the head of the energy and project finance group at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP.

CIT appoints Casey as director of CIT Energy

CIT Group Inc., a global commercial finance company, has appointed Steven Casey as director of CIT Energy. He will be responsible for advising and originating deals, as well as executing advisory mandates for a variety of energy interests, including independent power companies; sponsors, developers of power, renewable energy, utilities and energy technology. Prior to joining CIT Energy, Casey was a senior vice president of New Harbor Inc. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University.

Global Mainframe adds to management team

Calgary-based SaaS solutions provider Global Mainframe has made four new appointments to its management group following the completion of the recent MapFusion acquisition. Joining the team are Guy Paterson, David Young, Graeme Boyce, and Mark Paterson. Each has been given a vice president title and will be located at the company’s office in Toronto. Paterson, VP GIS Services, previously architected and developed the WAN-based Geographic Information Systems for MapFusion. Young, VP Infrastructure Services, was previously director of technology at MapFusion. Boyce had been named VP of marketing and communications.

South Texas Oil restructures management

South Texas Oil Co. has named its chairman of the board, Michael Pawelek, to the positions of CEO and president. Wayne Psencik has been appointed executive vice president and COO and Sherry Spurlock has been named executive vice president and CFO. J. Scott Zimmerman has resigned as CEO and president and from the board. In conjunction, the company has retained the Dallas-based energy investment banking firm of Petro Capital Securities LLC as exclusive financial advisor. Pawelek’s most recently served as president of San Antonio-based Sonterra Resources Inc. He received a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University. Psencik previously served as vice-president-operations at Sonterra Resources and its predecessor companies. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University. Spurlock previously served as CFO of Sonterra Resources and its predecessor companies. She received her bachelor’s degree from Stephen F. Austin State University. The company has also recently moved its headquarters from Bastrop to San Antonio.

NASDAQ’s Singer named CEO of DIFX

The NASDAQ OMX Group Inc.’s senior vice president of international listings, Jeff Singer, has left to become the new CEO of the DIFX. DIFX is an international financial exchange serving the region between Western Europe and Asia. He will also join the board. NASDAQ OMX has a one-third percent ownership in DIFX as a result of the NASDAQ OMX transaction. NASDAQ OMX’s CEO, Bob Greifeld, is vice chairman of the board of directors of DIFX, and NASDAQ OMX executive vice president, Adena Friedman, is also a member of the board. Singer will be based in Dubai.

Chevron exec McDonald appointed to CTO Forum

Chevron Corp.’s vice president and chief technology officer, John McDonald, has been appointed to the executive board of the CTO Forum. The forum brings together senior technology executives within the US to discuss and collaborate on key technology issues facing the industry and to advance technology development within organizations. McDonald will initially serve for two years on the CTO Forum’s executive board.

Spectraseis strengthens board with two key appointments

Spectraseis, a provider of low frequency geophysical solutions to the upstream oil and gas industry, has named Ian Vann, former BP Group vice president for exploration and business renewal, and Bjarte Fageras, chairman of Octio Geophysical AS, as Spectraseis’ directors.