Kerr-McGee appoints David Hager chief operating officer

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David A. Hager is the new chief operating officer for Kerr-McGee. In this new position, Hager continues to lead the company’s worldwide exploration and production business, including operations, development and services, environmental, health and safety, and supply-chain initiatives.

“Dave is a strong, visionary leader, with the business expertise and industry knowledge to guide the future growth of our oil and gas business,” said Luke R. Corbett, Kerr-McGee chairman and chief executive. “He was instrumental in the development of our balanced exploration and production strategy and his focus on creating value for stockholders will be invaluable as we become a pure-play exploration and production company. Dave’s promotion is part of the board’s ongoing succession planning efforts to ensure we have the right people in place to continue our success.”

The board of directors also appointed three corporate officers as part of its succession planning and management development.

Richard C. Buterbaugh was named vice president of corporate planning, responsible for strategic corporate planning, investor relations, corporate communications and government relations.

Al Harris was promoted to vice president and chief information officer, responsible for all aspects of information technology.

Charles A. Meloy was named vice president of exploration and production, responsible for worldwide oil and natural gas exploration and production.

Hager has more than 25 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. The graduate of Purdue and Southern Methodist universities began his career in 1979 as a geophysicist with Mobil, and joined Sun Oil (predecessor of Oryx Energy) in 1981. He joined Kerr-McGee as vice president of Gulf of Mexico operations following the company’s merger with Oryx in 1999. He held positions of increasing responsibility, including vice president of international operations, vice president of worldwide deepwater exploration and production, vice president of Gulf of Mexico and worldwide deepwater exploration and production, and vice president of exploration and production. He was promoted to senior vice president responsible for oil and gas exploration and production in 2003.

Buterbaugh, who has more than 28 years of experience, started his career with Chevron U.S.A. The University of Colorado product was an investment analyst for Freeport-McMoran from 1980-88. He served as manager of capital markets for US West until joining Kerr-McGee in 1989 as staff director of corporate business development. In 1996, he was promoted to director of investor relations. He was named vice president of investor relations in 1998.

Harris joined Sun Oil in 1982 as an application and system support analyst for international exploration and production. He served in positions of increasing responsibility with Oryx and joined Kerr-McGee in 1999 with the Oryx deal. He was promoted to director of information management and technology (IM&T) for oil and gas and then to director of IM&T. In 2003, the University of Texas at Arlington grad was named vice president of IM&T.

Meloy began his career with Sun Oil in 1982 as a production engineer. He held various positions with Oryx prior to joining Kerr-McGee in 1999 as director of Gulf of Mexico deepwater development. The Texas A&M grad has served as vice president of Gulf deepwater, vice president and managing director of Kerr-McGee North Sea (U.K.) Ltd., and vice president of Gulf of Mexico exploration, production and development.