Board of Directors
Jason Bednar – Chairman
Mr. Bednar is a Chartered Accountant (1996) with 15 years experience in oil and gas exploration companies. Mr. Bednar co-founded Sagres Energy Inc., a South American and Caribbean focused energy exploration company, in June 2009 and is currently a director. Mr. Bednar also currently serves as chairman of the audit committee of Canacol Energy Inc., a Colombian focused oil company, and has been a director of Canacol Energy Inc. since 2008. Mr. Bednar was the founding Chief Financial Officer of Pan Orient Energy Corp., a South East Asia Exploration company, in 2004 and served in that capacity until April 2009. He also served as Manager of Financial Reporting for Canadian 88 Energy Corp. between 1998 and 2002 and was Controller of Canadian Superior Energy Inc. between 2002 and 2004.
William H. (Bill) Smith – President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Smith is a professional engineer with over 35 years of oil and gas exploration and evaluation experience, largely focused on international projects. From 2000 to 2008 Mr. Smith was with AEC International Inc. and later Encana Corporation (“Encana”), where as VP France he was responsible for Encana's unconventional gas evaluation of Europe and its Foix project in the Aquitaine Basin of France. Mr. Smith has also held positions with Transworld Oil/Oman Oil, Forcenergy, and Anschutz Petroleum. Most recently, Mr. Smith was the principal of W H Smith International Consultants, whose main clients were Canacol Energy Ltd. and Sprott Resource Corp. Mr. Smith has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Geophysical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Mineral Economics.
Charle Gamba – Director
Mr. Gamba is currently and has been since 2008 President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of Canacol Energy Ltd., a South American focused oil company. Prior thereto, Mr. Gamba was Vice President of Exploration for Occidental Oil & Gas Company (“Occidental”) based in Bogota, Colombia from 2004 to 2006. In his 7 years with Occidental, Mr. Gamba lived and worked in Ecuador, Qatar, Colombia, and the United States in a variety of technical management roles. Mr. Gamba has also worked for Alberta Energy Company in Argentina and Ecuador between 1998 to 2001, and for Occidental Petroleum-Canada in Indonesia, Australia, and Canada between 1996 and 1998. He started his professional career as a geologist with Imperial Oil in Calgary in 1994. Mr. Gamba holds an MSc and PhD in Geology.
Richard Grafton – Director
Mr. Grafton has over 30 years of experience in the investment and energy business. Mr. Grafton is currently, and has been since January 2008, President and Chief Executive Officer of Grafton Capital Corporation, a private capital company concentrating on long term value creation. In 2007, Mr. Grafton was appointed, Vice-Chairman of Canaccord Capital Corporation acting as the firm’s ambassador to the global energy markets. Prior thereto, between January 2004 and December 2007, Mr. Grafton acted as Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Global Head of Energy of Canaccord Adams. He was responsible for all aspects of the firm’s oil and gas operations.
Gordon McIntosh – Director
Mr. McIntosh is currently, and has been since November 2010, the Manager of Southern Alberta Assets for Sonde Resources. Prior thereto, Mr. McIntosh held the position of Manager of Northern & BC Operations for Trident Exploration Corp from December 2008 to November 2010. Mr. McIntosh held the position of Vice-President, Engineering at Tecton Energy Canada ULC from March 2006 to December 2008 and the position of Senior Exploitation Engineer with Ketch Resources Trust from July 2005 to March 2006. From July 2003 to July 2005 Mr. McIntosh worked as a program manager with Samson Canada Ltd.
John Garden – Director
Mr. Garden is a professional engineer with over 30 years oil and gas drilling, completions and production operations experience and is currently the President and CEO of Deadeye Engineering Inc. Mr. Garden currently manages and engineers operations in Canada, Albania and Ukraine.
Jeffrey Scott – Director
Mr. Scott is Founder and Chairman of Gran Tierra Energy (GTE.TO), a South American based exploration and production company with a current market capitalization of $2.4 billion. He is also President of Postell Energy Co. Ltd., a 31-year-old private oil company operating in Western Canada. Mr. Scott has extensive mergers, acquisitions and public company experience. Over the last 16 years he has been involved in a variety of capacities from founder to officer and / or director of numerous publically traded companies. He was a co-founder and director of Saxon Energy Services, an international drilling company. Mr. Scott is currently also a director of Tuscany International Drilling Inc. and Petromanas Energy Inc. Mr. Scott holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Calgary, and a Masters of Business Administration from California Coast University.
Robert Cross – Special Advisor
Mr. Cross has more than 20 years of experience as a financier in the mining and oil & gas sectors. He is a co- founder and Non-Executive Chairman of Bankers Petroleum Ltd. (since June 2004), a Director of BNK Petroleum Inc. (Since July 2008), Non-Executive Chairman of B2Gold Corp. (since October 2007), co-founder and Chairman of Petrodorado Energy Ltd. (since December 2009), and until October 2007, was the Non-Executive Chairman of Northern Orion Resources Inc. Between 1996 and 1998, Mr. Cross was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yorkton Securities Inc. From 1987 to 1994, he was a Partner, Investment Banking with Gordon Capital Corporation in Toronto. He has an Engineering Degree from the University of Waterloo, and received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1987.