Voser appointed Royal Dutch/Shell Group finance director

The board of Shell Transport & Trading Co. PLC appointed Peter Voser as a director effective Oct. 4. At the same time, he will be appointed a group managing director and director of finance of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group. Voser currently is CFO and a member of the group executive committee of Asea Brown Boveri Group, Zürich. From 1982 to March 2002, he held a variety of finance and business roles with Shell in Switzerland, the UK, Argentina, and Chile. In his last assignment, he was CFO on Shell's global oil products executive committee.

Houston independent producer Transmeridian Exploration Inc. appointed Earl W. McNiel vice-chairman, president, and CFO of the company. He previously served as vice-president and CFO of drilling contractor Pride International Inc., also of Houston—most recently as vice-president of planning and corporate development. He joined Pride in 1994 as its chief accounting officer and was promoted to CFO in 1997. Before joining Pride, McNiel served as CFO of several publicly owned waste management companies and as manager, finance, with Ensco International Inc. He replaces Randall D. Keys in the position. Keys, a partner with Tatum CFO Partners, joined Transmeridian as a financial consultant in December 2002 and has served as CFO since September 2003.

Keys was to continue as a consultant with the company through the end of August to ensure a smooth transition. Keys will remain a partner with Tatum, where he specializes in small-cap public companies and turnaround situations. Transmeridian focuses on acquisition and development of oil fields in the Caspian Sea region of the former Soviet Union.