Officers and Key Personnel
WesternZagros’ Management and Board of Directors possess extensive experience in the resource sector, both domestic and international, and have a history of value creation.
OFFICERS
Fred Dyment
Executive Chairman
Mr. Fred Dyment has over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. As Executive Chairman, Mr. Dyment provides direction and leadership to management and chairs the Board. He spent the majority of his career at Ranger Oil Limited holding the positions of Controller, Vice President Finance, Chief Financial Office and, finally, Chief Executive Officer. After Ranger Oil was sold to Canadian Natural Resources in 2000, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Maxx Petroleum Company from 2000 to 2001. Mr. Dyment served as Governor of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) from 1995 to 1997. He serves on the Board of Directors of Tesco Corporation, ZCL Composites Inc., ARC Energy Trust and Transglobe Energy Corporation. He holds a Chartered Accountant designation.
Simon Hatfield
President
Mr. Simon Hatfield has over 30 years of international and domestic experience in technical, managerial and executive positions with Imperial Oil, Exxon Production Research Company, Petro-Canada, Chauvco Resources, Talisman Energy and Western Oil Sands. Mr. Hatfield has conducted business throughout the Americas, North and West Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia and has extensive experience in Iraq since 1995. Mr. Hatfield initiated the Kurdistan opportunity for WesternZagros and led the technical and business process which successfully concluded the signing and ratification of the Company's Production Sharing Contract. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Geology with Physics, a Masters of Science degree in Geology and completed the Executive Development Program at the University of Calgary. He is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.
Robert Theriault
Senior Vice President Engineering & Operations
Mr. Robert Theriault has over 30 years of international and domestic experience in upstream and midstream oil and gas operations for several companies. Prior to joining WesternZagros in August 2007, he was employed with Cairn India Limited in Chennai and New Delhi since 1999, where he was Director of Midstream and Producing Assets. Previously, Mr. Theriault was Manager International Development with Husky Oil in Calgary for three years. His experience also includes management assignments with Pertamina-Husky in Indonesia and with CSR Petroleum in Indonesia and Australia after starting his career with Suncor in Calgary. He holds a Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary and is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta.
Greg Stevenson
Vice President, Finance
Mr. Greg Stevenson is a Chartered Accountant with over 11 years’ experience working with a major accounting firm as well as with large public companies in the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining WesternZagros as Vice President, Finance, Mr. Stevenson was Controller at Western Oil Sands. During his tenure at Western Oil Sands, Mr. Stevenson was part of the senior finance team responsible for budgeting, forecasting and modeling its business activities. Mr. Stevenson was also intimately involved in WesternZagros matters and he will lead the financial and accounting team in supporting the Company's activities.
KEY PERSONNEL
Dr. George Pinckney
Vice President, Exploration
Dr. Pinckney has extensive international experience and has spent the majority of his 32 year career with Mobil Oil and ExxonMobil in locations throughout Canada, the United States and Southeast Asia. He was educated in the United Kingdom and holds a PhD degree in Geology and a Bachelor of Science degree (Honours) in Geology. Dr. Pinckney is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta, the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, the American Society, the Indonesian Petroleum Association, the Southesast Asia Petroleum Exploration Society and the Canadian Gas Potential Committee (East Cost Sub-Committee).
Matt Swartout
Senior Drilling Manager
Mr. Swartout has over 25 years of oil and gas industry experience in drilling engineering, construction, supervision and management. He was previously employed with High Arctic Energy Services Trust. Mr. Swartout is renowned as an industry expert in under balance drilling and is an inventor and holder of two United States patents used in Advance Well Control, Under Balance Drilling and Managed Pressure Drilling, with one patent pending. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology and a Diploma of Petroleum Technology (Honours) from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
