Deaton takes reins at Baker Hughes
Baker Hughes Inc., Houston, has appointed Chad C. Deaton as chairman of the board and CEO, replacing the current chairman/CEO, Mike Wiley, who has retired. Deaton, who holds a BS degree in geology from the University of Wyoming, most recently was CEO and president of Hanover Compressor. He has more than 27 years of oilfield services experience with Dowell Div. of Dow Chemical, Schlumberger Ltd., and Hanover. Baker Hughes provides drilling, formation evaluation, completion, and production products and services to the worldwide oil and gas industry.
Remington chooses Frank T. Smith, Jr.
Dallas-based Remington Oil and Gas Corporation, an independent exploration and operating company that concentrates on onshore and offshore Gulf of Mexico regions, has named Frank T. Smith, Jr. as senior vice president/finance. He will function as the company's principal financial officer for reporting purposes.
Stevens is new Occidental VP
Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Los Angeles, has elected Todd Stevens to the position of vice president, acquisitions and corporate finance. Stevens, who joined Occidental in 1995, holds a bachelor of science degree from the United States Military Academy and a master of business administration degree from the University of Southern California.
Calvalley appoints McMullen CFO
Calgary-based Calvalley Petroleum has named W. J. Shane McMullen as its chief financial officer. McMullen practiced with Deloitte & Touche LLP for 29 years. He has advised Canadian and foreign public corporations with both inbound and outbound investment strategies and has extensive cross-border finance and profit repatriation experience. He also has advised many corporations and shareholders on reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and financings.
Sempra Energy taps Mark Snell
Mark Snell has been named group president of Sempra Energy Global Enterprises, part of the San Diego-based energy holding company, Sempra Energy. He succeeds Donald Felsinger, who became the parent company's president and COO in June after six years as president at Global Enterprises. Snell will oversee Sempra's interests in competitive energy markets, including energy trading, electric generation, liquefied natural gas, international utilities and retail energy marketing. Snell had been CFO of the Sempra group since 2002. Prior to this, he was executive vice president and CFO of Earth Tech, a California-based environmental and engineering consultancy.
Tesco selects Michael C. Kearney
Tesco Corporation, a provider of technology-based solutions for the upstream energy industry with headquarters in Calgary, has appointed Michael C. Kearney as executive vice president finance and CFO. Kearney has more than 30 years of financial and operational experience, including oil service manufacturing, exploration and production, and refining and marketing. Most recently, he was vice president and CFO of Hydril Company where he was part of the management team that took the company public. He holds a master's degree in accounting from the University of Houston and an undergraduate degree in finance from Texas A&M University.
SolArc names Chamberlain CFO
Scott Chamberlain has joined Houston-based SolArc, Inc., a provider of supply and trade management software solutions for global energy companies, as chief financial officer. Chamberlain joins SolArc from Dallas-based Fuego, a business process management software company, where he served as CFO for the past three years. Prior to Fuego, he was CFO of Invisible Worlds, Inc., an infrastructure software company. He also raised more than $95 million in venture capital financing over the past five years and spent more than a decade in senior financial leadership and corporate development positions at LexisNexis, a business-to-business information services provider. Chamberlain holds an undergraduate degree in business administration from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and an MBA from Ohio State University.
Al Jacob joins Energy Solutions
Houston-based Energy Solutions International, a supplier of oil and gas pipeline management software, has named Al Jacob, former CIO of Koch Pipelines, as executive vice president of global services. Jacob began his career in 1984 with EDS and worked worldwide on client assignments and implementing complex SCADA systems for the next 13 years. He went to Koch in 1997 as vice president and CIO, responsible for all IT and automation on Koch's pipelines and other applications. He holds a bachelor's degree in environmental science from Eastern Oregon University.
KWI appoints McDonnell to post
Don McDonnell has been named senior vice president of marketing of KWI, a provider of trading and risk management software for the global energy industry. McDonnell has more than 14 years' experience in the energy engineering and enterprise applications software industries. He will lead KWI's global product strategy, marketing communications and demand creation teams, as well as manage KWI's alliance and partner programs. Prior to joining KWI, McDonnell was chief marketing officer and senior business executive at CES International. Previously, he held positions with several energy industry suppliers, including Mincom, Servidyne Systems and TSW International. He holds an MBA in marketing from Georgia State University. McDonnell will be based at KWI's global headquarters in London. The company's North American headquarters are in Houston.
Attorney Ford returns to Houston
Barton D. Ford, a prominent attorney in the energy and project finance sectors, has been named a managing partner in the Houston office of Pillsbury Winthrop LLP. He had been a partner in the firm's New York office. A native Texan, Ford holds B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Texas and also has served as associate editor of the Texas Law Review.
PetroKazakhstan CFO resigns
Nicholas Gay, senior vice president and CFO of PetroKazakhstan, Inc., resigned from the company effective Nov. 1. Gay has joined a start-up company, Taghmen Energy Limited, with headquarters in the United Kingdom, as president and CEO. Taghmen will focus on Latin America. With headquarters in Calgary, PetroKazakhstan (formerly Hurricane Hydrocarbons Ltd.) is an independent, integrated energy company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of oil and gas, refining of oil, and the sale of oil and refined products in Kazakhstan.
Dufourcq is new Capgemini CFO
Nicholas Dufourcq has been appointed CFO of the Capgemini Group, replacing William Bitan, who resigned several months ago. Dufourcq also will be in charge of corporate development and risk management. He joined Capgemini in Sept. 2003 as head of the central and southern region of Europe. A graduate of the prestigious French schools, the HEC and the ENA, and a former inspector of finance, Dufourcq was a member of the cabinet of Jacques Barrot, Health and Social Affairs minister in the early 1990s. He is a past executive director of France Telecom.
Brunet to lead Zurich energy unit
Fabrice Brunet has been promoted to branch manager of Zurich Global Energy, a part of Zurich Financial Services, an insurance-based financial services provider headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. He previously was a risk engineer with the energy unit.
Prior to joining Zurich, Brunet was head of the oil and gas group at Sulzer Chemtech, and he began his professional career at Elf Aquitaine, where he held various engineering positions. He is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Techniques Avancees in Paris.
Zurich Global Energy provides comprehensive risk solutions, risk engineering services and claims support for oil and gas, petrochemical, natural resources, mining and power generation customers worldwide. The energy unit has offices in Atlanta, Bermuda, Chicago, Hong Kong, Houston, Kuala Lumpur, London, Melbourne, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Singapore, Toronto and Zurich.
Thomson joins Object Reservoir board
Object Reservoir, Inc. has named James A. Thomson, RAND Corporation president and CEO since 1989, to its board of directors. RAND is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution that seeks to improve public policy through research and analysis. Thomson previously was a member of the National Security Council staff at the White House from 1977 to 1981 and was a Pentagon analyst from 1974 to 1977. He holds a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of New Hampshire and master's and doctoral degrees in physics from Purdue University.
Thomson joins Sam K. Smith, former chairman of Landmark Graphics, as a director-at-large on Object Reservoir's board. Other board members include Steve Krausz of US Venture Partners, James White of Sutter Hill Ventures, Chris Roser of Roser Ventures, and Elliott Bouillion of Murphree Venture Partners; Object Reservoir co-founder and chairman of the board John O. Mouton; and CEO and president Gene Ennis.
In the coming months, Object Reservoir plans to name additional board members to bring additional strategic insight to the board, said a company spokesman.
Austin-based Object Reservoir provides oil and gas companies with quick, actionable reservoir knowledge intended to allow them to make early decisions to improve their economic performance. The company has additional offices in Houston, Dallas and New Orleans.
Financial experts join Far East Energy
Randall Keys has joined the board of directors of Houston-based Far East Energy Corporation as an independent director and financial expert. He is the fifth experienced energy industry executive to join Far East Energy as an independent director in 2004 and comes to the company with considerable experience as a financial executive in the energy sector. Keys is a partner with Tatum CFO Partners and has been a financial consultant since 2001. He also served as CFO of Transmeridian Exploration, a public oil and gas company with operations in Kazakhstan. Keys will serve as chairman of the audit committee of Far East Energy.
Earlier this year, Bruce Huff joined Far East as CFO. He has more than 30 years of financial experience with emphasis on oil and gas exploration and production and served 13 years with Harken Energy, holding positions as president and COO. Huff, a Certified Public Accountant, has written several books and published articles on auditing small businesses and quality controls.
Earl Fischer to lead Atmos gas unit
Dallas-based Atmos Energy Corporation has named R. Earl Fischer to head the former TXU Gas distribution operation that Atmos acquired in October. He will serve as president of the new division while continuing to serve as the corporation's senior vice president, utility operations, a post he has held since April 2000. Fischer, who holds a degree in business administration from Brescia College in Owensboro, Kentucky, has served in various management positions for Atmos in Kentucky and Texas. Atmos Energy also will see considerable expansion of its non-utility operations as a result of the acquisition of TXU Gas pipeline and storage operations, one of the largest intrastate (Texas) gas pipeline systems in the United States. J. D. Woodward, Atmos senior vice president, oversees non-utility operations for the company.
Canadian Superior announces change
Greg Noval, president and CEO of Canadian Superior Energy, Inc. has reassumed the role of chief operating officer as well. Harvey R. Klingensmith, who served as COO, has resigned and is no longer an officer of the corporation. Canadian Superior, based in Calgary, Alberta, is an oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in western Canada, offshore Nova Scotia and offshore Trinidad and Tobago.
Bingham replaces Bowen at Enron
The Enron Corporation board of directors accepted the resignation of Raymond M. Bowen as the company's CFO, executive vice president and treasurer in October and immediately replaced him with Robert S. Bingham of restructuring firm Kroll Zolfo Cooper as its interim financial chief.
Bingham has served as Enron's associate restructuring director since February 2002 and is a director of the company's Portland General Electric Company business unit. Enron, which remains under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, pays Bingham $545 per hour in an arrangement with Stephen Forbes Cooper LLC, which has a shared employee contract with Kroll Zolfo Cooper. Stephen Cooper, Enron's interim CEO since January 2002 and chairman of restructuring for Kroll Zolfo Cooper, provides Enron with management services under an agreement approved by the bankruptcy court.
Before joining Kroll, Bingham served as CFO of Pick Telecommunications Corporation, a long distance and prepaid calling card provider. Bowen, an Enron employee since 1996, held various finance-related positions in different Enron units. He assumed the post of CFO in January 2002.
Enron said Bingham will remain as CFO through the completion of its court-approved reorganization plan, which is expected to end sometime in 2006. The company is selling its remaining assets to satisfy its creditors.