A World Class Operator in West African Oil Production
A World Class Operator in West African Oil Production
2012: Signed PSA in Block P Offshore Equatorial Guinea
Working Interest: 31%
20+ million BOE gross EUR discovered
2005: Signed PSA in Mutamba Iroru, Onshore Gabon
Working Interest: 41%
2012: Discovery encountered 49’ of oil play
1995: Signed Etame Marin Permit PSA, Offshore Gabon
Working Interest: 31.1%
1998: Etame Field Discovery
2002: First oil from Etame Field
2004: Ebouri, Avouma discoveries
2007-2009: Avouma and Ebouri Platforms installed and production commenced
2011: South East Etame Field discovery
2013-2014: Etame and SEENT Platforms installed and production commenced
Director
Mr. Pully has served on the Board since July 2015. Mr. Pully has over 30 years of experience in capital markets, finance, investing and legal matters. He also has extensive board participation and leadershipexperience, having served in a variety of roles on fifteen boards including EPL Oil & Gas, Inc., where he was the lead independent director at the time of the company’s sale. Mr. Pully is currently on the board of Bellatrix Exploration, a public Calgary-based oil and gas producer and Aspire Holdings (formerly Endeavour International), a private North Sea oil and gas producer.
From 2008 until 2014, Mr. Pully served as General Counsel and Partner of the investment firm, Carlson Capital, L.P. Mr. Pully previously was an investment banker, serving as a Managing Director in the energy and power investment banking division of Bank of America and as a Senior Managing Director in the natural resources investment banking department of Bear Sterns & Company. Mr. Pully began his career as an attorney with Baker Botts LLP in Houston.
Mr. Pully holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Georgetown University and a J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law. Mr. Pully is a Chartered FinancialAnalyst, a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Texas and a member of the State Bar of Texas.
Director
Mr. Thomas joined the Board in April 2019. Mr. Thomas has over 30 years of experience in the international energy industry as a senior executive, investment banker and entrepreneur. In 1982, Mr. Thomas joined the International Division of Pennzoil Company. In 1986, Mr. Thomas entered investment banking with the Mergers & Acquisitions Department at Bankers Trust Company where he represented energy clients in major transactions. Mr. Thomas later served as CEO and in other senior executive capacities for companies with petroleum operations in Russia and Kazakhstan.
During his career, Mr. Thomas has successfully built, managed and monetized several emerging-market oil companies. In 2001, he was a founder and appointed CEO of Urals Energy N.V. which became Russia’s largest independent oil company. He later was a founder and CEO of Urals Energy Public Company Ltd. and led the company to a successful IPO on London’s AIM stock exchange in 2005. Since 2010, through his wholly-owned entity, Texas Oceanic Petroleum Co., Mr. Thomas has negotiated transactions involving exploration and production companies around the world including in West Africa.
Mr. Thomas graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in Economics.
Director
Mr. Knapp has served on the Board since December 2015. Mr. Knapp is a Partner at CCM Opportunistic Advisors, LLC, an investment fund in Houston Texas, a position he has held since March 2011. He also serves as the President, Chief Executive Officer, and principal stockholder of Andover Group, Inc., a real estate investment and development company he founded in 1978. Mr. Knapp currently serves on the board of directors of ATRM Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRM) which he joined in April 2015, and previously served on from January 2013 until March 2013. He also serves as a director of On Track Innovations Ltd. (NASDAQ: OTIV), and has served since December 2012.
Previously, Mr. Knapp served as the Chief Executive Officer and a director of ICO, Inc. (NASDAQ: ICOC), from October 2005 to April 2010. Mr. Knapp is a Chartered Financial Analyst and is currently a trustee of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.
Mr. Knapp holds a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College.
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Mr. Bounds was appointed Chief Executive Officer on December 29, 2016 after having served as the Chief Operating Officer for VAALCO since July, 2015 as well as interim Chief Executive Officer since September 1, 2016. Mr. Bounds has held a variety of technical and management positions of increasing responsibility with major energy companies as well as independent E&P companies.
Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Bounds was Business Unit Manager and Vice President, Noble Energy Equatorial Guinea Limited from May 2013 until July 2015. Earlier in his tenure with Noble, Mr. Bounds held the position of North Sea Country Manager from April 2010 until May 2013. Prior to Noble, Mr. Bounds was the Engineering and Planning Manager, Worldwide for Terralliance Technologies, Inc. from 2007 to 2010 and served as their Country Manager in Mozambique from 2007 to 2010. Mr. Bounds was with SM Energy from 2004 to 2007 and held the position of Engineering Manager for their Gulf Coast and Permian regions. Mr. Bounds spent five years with Dominion E&P serving in corporate development, planning and reservoir engineering positions. Mr. Bounds began his career with ConocoPhillips in 1991 where he held a variety of reservoir and production engineering positions in U.S. onshore regions.
Mr. Bounds holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University.
Vice Chairman and Director
Mr. Keane has served on the Board and as its Vice Chairman since December 2015. He has over 25 years of experience in business strategy, corporate finance and investment banking. Since 2010, he has served asthe Chairman of the Board at Group 42, Inc. Previously, Mr. Keane was a Senior Vice President for Digital Domain, Inc., a visual effects and digital production company, from July 2010 to August 2012. Prior to Digital Domain, Mr. Keane was a Clinical Professor of Finance at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business where he served for more than 10 years teaching courses in investments and corporate finance.
He has also been an executive for several NYSE-traded companies and was Managing Director of Investment Banking for Susquehanna International Group, Seidler Companies, Incorporated, and Kemper Securities, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions, public offerings and private placements.
Mr. Keane holds a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago.
Chairman and Director
Mr. Fawthrop has served on the Board since October 2014 and as the Chairman of the Board since December 2015. Mr. Fawthrop has deep and broad-based experience in the oil and gas industry, including in West Africa, having served for 37 years with Unocal Corporation and Chevron Corporation (following its acquisition of Unocal in 2005) in a vast number of international leadership positions. Most recently, from January 2009 until his retirement in 2014, Mr. Fawthrop served as Chairman and Managing Director for Chevron Nigeria. Prior to his assignment in Nigeria, Mr. Fawthrop served as President and Managing Director for Unocal/Chevron Bangladesh from 2003 until 2007.
In his professional career, Mr. Fawthrop held various positions of increasing responsibility for exploration activities around the world in geographies including China, Egypt, Indonesia, South America, Africa, Latin America and Europe. Mr. Fawthrop served as a Member of the Advisory Board of Eurasia Group. He served as a Director of Hindustan Oil Exploration Co. Ltd. from 2003 to 2005. He was an active member of the United States Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce, the Asia Society of Texas and the Houston World Affairs Council.
Mr. Fawthrop holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology and Chemistry and a Masters degree in Marine Geology from the University of London.
Vice President of Treasury
Ms. Ray has over 15 years of experience in the energy industry, working primarily for publicly traded companies, in various management, finance, and accounting positions. Prior to joining VAALCO, she served as a Financial Reporting and Advisory Director for Sirius Solutions, LLLP, for nearly 13 years. Major clients served included Ethos Offshore, Republic Services, Noble Corporation, Willbros Oil and Gas, JP Morgan/Bear Stearns, and GDF Suez – North America. Many of her clients have both domestic and international operations. From 2004-2007, Ms. Ray served as the Controller for Sirius Solutions. Ms. Ray began her career working for Ernst & Young, LLP in the Assurance and Advisory Services group.
Ms. Ray holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Masters of Professional Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and is a certified public accountant in the State of Texas.
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Mr. Silver was appointed Vice President and General Counsel on April 1, 2019 after joining VAALCO in November 2018 as Senior Counsel. Mr. Silver has over 28 years of experience as in-house counsel working for major energy companies.
Prior to joining the Company, from 2009 to 2018, Mr. Silver served as Managing Counsel for the Petroleum Division of BHP Group plc where he supported the company’s international upstream activities, including major acquisitions and divestments. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Silver held the position of Senior Counsel at Constellation Energy Commodities Group, Inc. with responsibility for U.S. upstream and LNG operations. Mr. Silver began his career with ExxonMobil Corporation’s Law Department in 1990 and during the next 17 years served in multiple roles of increasing responsibility.
Mr. Silver holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Affairs from Lafayette College, an M.B.A. from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business and a J.D. from the Duke University School of Law. Mr. Silver is a member of the State Bar of Texas.
Executive Vice President of Corporate Development
Mr. DesAutels is an oil and gas industry executive with over 40 years upstream experience in development and exploration. He has worked on over 100 development projects worldwide, both conventional and unconventional. Mr. DesAutels gained senior executive experience by working for Noble Energy (Director, Development Geoscience, 2008-2016) and Occidental Oil (Chief of Production Geoscience and Vice President of Geoscience, 2000-2007) and founding Synertia Energy, LLC and Seregon Energy, LLC, two oil and gas consulting companies. In addition, he has international experience from working in Colombia, Indonesia, Equatorial Guinea, Qatar, Oman, Argentina, Israel, UK, Ecuador, Peru, Russia, Canada, and the UAE. Mr. DesAutels is also a published author of two books, one fiction and one non-fiction.
Dave holds an M.S. and BA in Geology from University of Minnesota- Twin Cities.
Regional Vice President-West Africa
Mr. Black joined VAALCO in 2014 as the country manager in Gabon. In 2015, Mr. Black was appointed Regional Vice President – West Africa, increasing his responsibilities to include the activities in Equatorial Guinea and Angola.
Prior to joining VAALCO, Mr. Black was the Deputy General Manager for Tullow Oil in Nairobi, Kenya. He was responsible for executing seismic acquisition programs and exploration drilling activities in Turkana County. Prior to that, Mr. Black was employed by Marathon Oil Corporation for 35 years. Early in his career Mr. Black was involved in reservoir engineering projects in Illinois and New Mexico as well as operations engineering assignments in Wyoming, California, Louisiana and Texas. Later in his career with Marathon, Mr. Black gained extensive experience working and living abroad during numerous international assignments of increasing operations management responsibilities. These included Tunisia, Russia, Indonesia, Egypt, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Kurdistan (Iraq).
Mr. Black holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas. He is a registered Petroleum Engineer in California and a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Chief Financial Officer
Ms. Prochnow was appointed Chief Financial Officer on April 1, 2019 after having served as the Company’s Chief Accounting Officer since March 2015. Ms. Prochnow has held a variety of finance management positions primarily with publicly traded companies including a number of companies in the energy sector
Prior to joining the Company, Ms. Prochnow served as Controller and Chief Accounting Officer for Total Safety, U.S., Inc. from August 2014 to March 2015. Prior to that, she served as a director of Carrtegra, LLC, a financial advisory consulting firm, from June 2013 to August 2014 with a focus on E&P companies and as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Sterling Construction Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: STRL) from November 2011 to May 2013. Before beginning with Sterling in February 2011, Ms. Prochnow was Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Bristow Group Inc. (NYSE: BRS) from May 2009 to June 2010 and Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller from 2005 to 2009. From 1997 to 2005, Ms. Prochnow served in positions of increasing responsibility at MAXXAM Inc., ultimately as the company’s Vice President and Controller. Before MAXXAM, Ms. Prochnow served as the Controller and Chief Accounting Officer of GulfMark Offshore, Inc. (formerly GulfMark International, Inc. (NYSE:GLF)) from 1990 to 1996. Ms. Prochnow began her career as a public accountant at Arthur Andersen LLP in 1981.
Ms. Prochnow holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Accounting from Rice University and is a certified public accountant in the State of Texas.
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Mr. Bounds was appointed Chief Executive Officer on December 29, 2016 after having served as the Chief Operating Officer for VAALCO since July, 2015 as well as interim Chief Executive Officer since September 1, 2016 Mr. Bounds has held a variety of technical and management positions of increasing responsibility with major energy companies as well as independent E&P companies.
Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Bounds was Business Unit Manager and Vice President, Noble Energy Equatorial Guinea Limited from May 2013 until July 2015. Earlier in his tenure with Noble, Mr. Bounds held the position of North Sea Country Manager from April 2010 until May 2013. Prior to Noble, Mr. Bounds was the Engineering and Planning Manager, Worldwide for Terralliance Technologies, Inc. from 2007 to 2010 and served as their Country Manager in Mozambique from 2007 to 2010. Mr. Bounds was with SM Energy from 2004 to 2007 and held the position of Engineering Manager for their Gulf Coast and Permian regions. Mr. Bounds spent five years with Dominion E&P serving in corporate development, planning and reservoir engineering positions. Mr. Bounds began his career with ConocoPhillips in 1991 where he held a variety of reservoir and production engineering positions in U.S. onshore regions.
Mr. Bounds holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University.