ENERGY PLAYERS

Energy finance executive Jim McBride has joined Opportune LLP as managing director in the firm's energy consulting practice. McBride holds over 35 years of petroleum engineering and energy finance experience. After starting his career as a petroleum engineer, McBride later turned to energy banking, leading the upstream and midstream energy banking practices for a number of firms including Capital One Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Bank of America and Texas Commerce Bank (now JPMorgan). He currently serves as a board member of the Independent Petroleum Association of America and on the Loyola University of New Orleans Board of Trustees. McBride received his BS in engineering from Mississippi State University.

KPMG names senior partner in Aberdeen

KPMG has appointed a new office senior partner in Aberdeen. Duncan MacAskill, an audit partner who became office senior partner in 2007 and has spent 35 years with KPMG, will retire in June. Martin Findlay, tax partner in Aberdeen, was named senior partner of the Aberdeen office in April. MacAskill spent 25 years with KPMG in Birmingham before moving to Aberdeen 10 years ago to lead the audit practice. Findlay has spent 24 years with KPMG, working in its Aberdeen and London offices, becoming the firm's head of tax in the city in 2000. Partner David Derbyshire, who has been with the firm for 18 years, will head up the audit practice.

Private equity attorney joins Willkie's Houston office

Scott Miller has joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP as a partner in the firm's its Houston office. Miller represents middle-market private equity firms and their portfolio companies as well as corporate clients in a wide variety of private M&A transactions including leveraged buyouts, platform company acquisitions, growth capital investments, early-stage financings and exit transactions. Miller joins Willkie from Bracewell, where he practiced for 16 years. He earned a JD from Washington University School of Law, an MBA from Washington University and a BS from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Willkie's Houston office focuses on M&A projects involving energy funds, upstream, midstream and OFS companies, industrial and growth capital sponsors and their portfolio companies, energy finance, energy restructurings and fund formation.

Daniel Yergin to receive honorary doctorate from Dartmouth College

Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of information and insight provider IHS Inc., has been named the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business. Dr. Yergin will deliver the keynote address during the school's graduation ceremony, Saturday, June 11 at the Dartmouth campus in Hanover, New Hampshire. He will formally receive the honorary degree during 2016 commencement ceremonies the following day. He is the author of several books, including his definitive work on oil and geopolitics, The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. His most recent bestseller is The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World. As vice chairman of IHS, he oversees energy research across conventional and renewable sources and has responsibility for the overall agenda for energy and its interaction with geopolitics and economics. A director of the Council of Foreign Relations and a trustee of the Brookings Institution, Yergin serves on the advisory boards of the MIT Energy Initiative, the Columbia University Center of Global Energy Policy and Singapore's International Energy Advisory Board. In 2014, he was the recipient of the first James Schlesinger Medal for Energy Security from the US Department of Energy. That same year, the Prime Minister of India presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Exterran appoints VP and CAO

Exterran Corp. has appointed Ray Carney as vice president and chief accounting officer. Carney brings to Exterran a 27-year accounting career, and most recently spent eight years with Dresser-Rand Group Inc. serving as its vice president, controller, and chief accounting officer. Carney began his career at Ernst & Young, where he held a variety of positions during his 13-year tenure. He earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Pennsylvania State University and is a CPA.

Enercapita names CEO, chairman

Enercapita appointed Greg Tisdale as the trust's CEO, effective April 1, 2016. Tisdale was the former CFO of Crescent Point Energy for the past 12 years. He has over 25 years of experience in the energy industry and has worked with several companies including Crescent Point, Direct Energy, Altagas Services, and Shell Trading. Enercapita has named Craig Hruska as chairman of the board of directors effective April 1, 2016. Hruska is the former CEO and chairman of Scollard Energy Inc., a private oil and gas production company he founded in October 2006. Prior thereto, Hruska founded and was president of Addison Energy, a private exploration and production company. He holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Alberta and is a professional engineer. Hruska has served and currently serves on the board of directors of a number of private and public companies. Enercapita is an energy fund focused on the growth of long life, low decline, low cost, low risk energy assets through the exploitation and optimization of existing production.

Denbury selects new chairman

As part of a planned succession process, Denbury Resources Inc. has selected John P. Dielwart to serve as its chairman of the board, succeeding Wieland F. Wettstein, a founding stockholder of the company, who has served as chairman of the board since 2008 and as a member of the board since the company's inception in 1990. Wettstein will stand for re-election to the board at the upcoming annual meeting. Dielwart has been a member of the board since 2013 and has served on the compensationr Reserves and HSE, and risk committees during his tenure. Dielwart is a founder and former CEO, as well as a current member of the board of directors, of ARC Resources Ltd. Dielwart oversaw the growth of ARC, first as its president and then as CEO from its startup in 1996 until his retirement in January 2013. Dielwart is currently vice chairman of ARC Financial Corp. Dielwart is also a member of the board of directors of Tesco Corp. and TransAlta Corp. Prior to joining ARC, Dielwart spent 12 years with a major Calgary-based oil and natural gas engineering consulting firm as senior vice president and director. Dielwart received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Calgary.

EXCO Resources makes management changes

EXCO Resources Inc. has made changes to its management team. Effective April 15, 2016, William L. Boeing, EXCO's vice president, general counsel and secretary, resigned from EXCO. W. Justin Clarke was promoted to the position of vice president, general counsel and secretary. Boeing served at EXCO for 10 years. Prior to his time with EXCO, he worked for 25 years at Haynes and Boone LLP in Dallas. Clarke had served as EXCO's assistant general counsel and chief compliance officer since January 2007. From September 2001 until January 2007, Clarke served as an associate of Haynes and Boone LLP.

BlueStone promotes Redmond to COO

BlueStone Natural Resources II LLC has promoted Doug Redmond to the role of COO. Redmond has more than 24 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and had been functioning as BlueStone's vice president of engineering. He will continue in his role as vice president of engineering as he assumes his additional role as COO.

CONSOL's chief commercial officer retires

James C. Grech, executive vice president and chief commercial officer of CONSOL Energy Inc., has retired. Due to the company's reorganization, no successor will be appointed. As part of the corporate reorganization, CNX Coal Resources LP, which operates the Pennsylvania mining complex, will manage all human resources, land, marketing, and external communications matters related to CONSOL's Pennsylvania operations. CONSOL Energy is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based energy producer, with operations in the shale formations of the Appalachian Basin.

Richards named Chevron treasurer

Chevron Corp. has named Randolph S. Richards to the position of corporate vice president and treasurer, effective May 1, 2016. Richards replaces Paul V. Bennett, who is retiring from the position after 36 years of service with the company. Richards is currently vice president of finance for upstream. In his new role, Richards will lead Chevron's banking, financing, cash management, insurance, pension investments, and credit and receivables activities. He joined Chevron in 1979. He earned a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering at Stanford and a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Chicago. Bennett joined Chevron in 1980 as a financial analyst. He has served as vice president and treasurer for Chevron since 2011. Prior, he'd served as vice president of finance, downstream and chemicals, from 2009 to 2011. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Wesleyan University and a master's degree in finance from the University of California, Berkeley.

Devon Energy executive team marks promotions, pending retirements

Devon Energy Corp. has promoted Tony Vaughn, executive vice president of exploration and production, to COO. Additionally, Darryl Smette, executive vice president of marketing, facilities, pipeline and supply chain, and Frank Rudolph, executive vice president of human resources, both plan to retire in July. In related moves, Tana Cashion, vice president of human resources, is being promoted to senior vice president of human resources. Sue Alberti, senior vice president of marketing, will assume the Supply Chain and Evaluation & Planning organizations upon Smette's retirement and will report to Vaughn. Before joining Devon in 1999, Vaughn spent 12 years with Kerr-McGee Corp. and, prior to that, worked as an operations engineer for Amoco Production Co. He holds a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa, along with a bachelor's degree in business management from Oral Roberts University. He currently serves on the board of directors of EnLink Midstream Partners LP.

Southwestern Energy to name Kehr as chairman of the board

Southwestern Energy Co. intends to elect independent director Catherine A. Kehr as chairman of the board following the annual meeting of shareholders on May 17, 2016. Kehr has served as a director since 2011 and as presiding director since 2014, as chairman of the board's nominating and governance committee, and on its audit committee. Kehr retired in 2006 as a senior vice president and director of Capital Research Company, a division of The Capital Group Companies. From 1997 to 2006, she was an investment analyst and fund manager with responsibility for global energy equities for The Capital Group Companies. She received a bachelor's degree from Yale University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Kerr will succeed Steve Mueller, who will retire as a director at the May meeting. Mueller formerly served as president and CEO of Southwestern and was named a director of the company in 2009. He was succeeded as CEO by Bill J. Way in January 2016, and has held the president title since December 2014.

Bracewell elects Bopp as managing partner

Bracewell LLP has elected Gregory M. Bopp as the firm's managing partner, effective July 1. Bopp will succeed Mark C. Evans, who will become co-chairman of the firm, along with Patrick C. Oxford. Bopp has held a number of leadership positions at Bracewell and currently serves as co-chair of the firm's business and regulatory section and as a member of the firm's management committee. He has spent his entire legal career at Bracewell, joining the firm in 1995 and becoming a partner in 2001. Bopp earned his Juris Doctor degree from South Texas College of Law, and his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin.

Santos establishes new executive team

Santos Ltd. has established a new executive team reporting to the CEO, Kevin Gallagher. The following senior executives will comprise the new executive team: Bill Ovenden, vice president of exploration; Brett Woods, vice president of development; Vince Santostefano, COO; John Anderson, executive vice president of commercial and business development; Andrew Seaton, CFO; and Angus Jaffray, executive vice president of strategy and corporate services. The executive team will be based in Adelaide, Australia.

Energy Navigator expands US, Canadian teams

Oil and gas software maker Energy Navigator has added three new members to its North American account services team. Bill Agee brings nearly 18 years of oil and gas technology, petrotechnical application advisory, and account management experience with Halliburton/Landmark Graphics to his role as vice president, US Operations for Energy Navigator. Based out of the Houston office, Agee takes responsibility for growing and mentoring the company's US team, and building the client base for Val Nav and AFE Nav software products among US E&P companies. Lynn Babec joins Energy Navigator's Houston office as senior account manager. Babec brings experience in developing and delivering E&P technology solutions, coupled with a strong petroleum operator background. Kerry Befus joins the company's Calgary office as senior account manager. Befus brings more than 15 years' experience assisting oil and gas clients in software and services selection.

NuEnergy appoints deputy executive chairman

NuEnergy Gas Ltd., a gas and ancillary power generation development firm focused on unconventional gas production in Indonesia, has appointed Kee Yong Wah as deputy executive chairman of the company, effective April 7. He will be based in Jakarta. Kee was appointed as non-executive director of NuEnergy in 2014 and re-designated to executive director from Jan. 1, 2015. He has more than 30 years of experience in the oil and gas exploration, production, and servicing industry. In 1984, Kee joined Halliburton as general manager of business development in Asia and the US. His latest appointment in Halliburton was general manager of business development. After leaving Halliburton, Kee joined Smith International Inc. as general manager of China operations. Subsequently, prior to joining NuEnergy, Kee served as the vice president of SPT Energy Group Inc.

Manning resigns from Antero board

Christopher R. Manning has resigned from the board of directors of Antero Resources and from the board of directors of the general partner of Antero Midstream. Neither Antero Resources nor Antero Midstream has plans to fill the vacated board seats in the near term.

CFO leaves Nuverra Environmental Solutions

Greg Heinlein, executive vice president and CFO of Nuverra Environmental Solutions, has left the company to pursue other professional interests, effective April 1. The company says that there have been no disagreements with the board of directors or with executive management, and that the departure is not related to any issues regarding financial disclosure, accounting, or legal matters. Nuverra focuses on the delivery, collection, treatment, recycling, and disposal of restricted solids, water, wastewater, waste fluids, and hydrocarbons.

Odgers Berndtson opens Houston office

Odgers Berndtson, a global executive search and leadership advisory firm, has opened a Houston office and added three new partners. Jim Thompson, Gary Payne, and Mary Campagnano, all formerly managing partners at Allen Austin, will serve as partners in the Energy & Industrial Practice at Odgers Berndtson. Thompson will serve the talent search needs of US B2B industrial companies in oil and gas, power, renewables, clean technology, and related industrial businesses. Payne will focus on filling C-level positions in industrial manufacturing, distribution, clean tech, oil and gas, and power with roles in general management, finance, supply chain, international leadership, and human resources. Campagnano will leverage her chemical, power, and oil and gas senior talent relationships by focusing on the full energy value chain and related industrial products and services. Thompson and Payne will be based in Houston, and Campagnano will be based in Dallas. Odgers Berndtson plans to add another four to five sector specialists before the end of 2016.