Scott C. Larsen - President and Chief Executive Officer, Director
Scott C. Larsen is an experienced oil and gas executive who, from 2004 until
June 2010, served as the president and chief executive officer of TransAtlantic
Petroleum Corp., which has significant oil and gas exploration activities in
Europe, including Bulgaria. Mr. Larsen has had extensive experience in the acquisition
and assimilation of oil and gas assets and companies and early stage development
of oil and gas exploration companies. After completing his law degree at Rutgers
University in 1979, Mr. Larsen served as General Counsel, Chief of Staff and
Partner of several oil and gas companies. Then, in 1994, Mr. Larsen joined the
management team at TransAtlantic, which, over the years, had operations in Nigeria,
Benin, Egypt and other North African countries. Once he became President of
TransAtlantic, Mr. Larsen was responsible for a number of critical strategic
actions for that company: he opened four overseas offices and established acreage
positions in Morocco, Romania, Turkey and the UK North Sea; he sold the offshore
Nigeria producing property interest and eventually sold all U.S. properties;
and was instrumental in attracting significant investment into TransAtlantic.
Mr. Larsen served as Vice President of Business Development of TransAtlantic
from 2010 until his retirement in 2012. Subsequently, Mr. Larsen has served
as a consultant to several oil and gas companies, including the Company. Mr.
Larsen became involved with the Company initially as a consultant in 2013 to
help resolve the legal dispute over the award of the Bulgarian exploration permit.
On October 29, 2013, he was elected a director of the Company and on November
1, 2013 he was appointed its President and Chief Executive Officer.
Dr. David S. Campbell - Vice President of Exploration
Dr. David Campbell has over 30 years’ experience in the petroleum exploration
and production business and has worked in a wide variety of petroleum basins,
including the North Sea, Continental Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
He received a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from St. Andrews University
and a Ph.D. degree in geology from Glasgow University. After graduation in 1979,
he joined Esso Expro UK as a seismic interpreter and later spent the majority
of his professional career with ARCO, both in the UK and overseas. He was North
Sea Chief Geophysicist for ARCO British Limited, Geophysical Research Manager
for ARCO Exploration and Production Technology Company, and Middle East Exploration
Manager for ARCO International Oil and Gas Company. David was awarded ARCO’s
International Exploration Award in 1993 and 1994 for his contribution to discoveries
in the North Sea and Middle East. Following his retirement from ARCO in 2000,
David was an officer or director in a number of energy-related companies, including
Balli Resources Limited, TransAtlantic North Sea Ltd. and VND Energy 2008 Limited.
Charles (Chas) Michel - Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Michel has over 35 years’ experience in all aspects of finance, accounting
and administration in both private and public companies. Mr. Michel holds a
BBA from Texas Tech University. He began his career at KPMG in Dallas in 1976
where he was an audit partner from June 1986 to April 1992. Mr. Michel served
as Chief Financial Officer of Sfuzzi, Inc. from April 1992 to September 1994
and Dave & Busters, Inc. from October 1994 to November 2001 and was responsible
for financial reporting and financing of operations and strategic development.
He was Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller of Trinity Industries,
Inc. from December 2001 to April 2009, where he was responsible for all accounting
operations and financial reporting. He has been a partner at SeatonHill Partners,
LLC since October 2009. SeatonHill Partners, LLC provides professional services
to companies on a part-time, interim or project capacity basis. On September
15, 2014, Mr. Michel was appointed Chief Financial Officer of the Company.
William J. (Bill) McFie – Consulting Engineer
With over 40 years of oilfield experience as a petroleum engineer, Mr. McFie
has amassed a wealth of experience, both onshore and offshore, with respect
to the planning and engineering aspects of exploration. With a Bachelor of Science
degree, in chemical engineering from Strathclyde University, Scotland, Mr. McFie
began as a petroleum engineer with Amoco, and spent a large portion of his career
with Sun International, where he served as international operations manager
with postings in Aberdeen, Gabon, London and Argentina. Mr. McFie subsequently
served as country manager in Pakistan (for Premier), Namibia (for Ranger Oil)
and Yemen (for Nimir Petroleum Services). Mr. McFie then established a U.S.
based affiliate for a UK petroleum consulting firm, which endeavor included
a 2 year engagement planning operations in Romania and Morocco (for TransAtlantic
Petroleum). For the 3 years prior to joining Park Place, Mr. McFie served as
operations manager for coal bed methane and conventional fields in the San Juan
Basin and Texas (for Red Willow Production Company).
Francis M. Munchinski – Secretary and Treasurer
Mr. Munchinski is an attorney who has been involved in the oil and gas business
for more than 30 years. He spent 20 years in private practice, primarily with
the law firm of Jenkens & Gilchrist (1986-1998, 2001-2007) and then with
Cox Smith (2007-2009), where he specialized in oil and gas law. He served as
general counsel for Alliance Resources Plc from 1998 to 2001. In February 2009,
he became senior counsel with Denbury Resources Inc. From November 2012 until
joining Park Place as its Secretary in November 2013, Mr. Munchinski has worked
as an attorney in private practice and as a consultant. Mr. Munchinski received
his law degree from the University of Tulsa in 1985. On September 15, 2014,
Mr. Munchinski was appointed Treasurer of the Company.
Dr. Art Halleran - Director
Dr. Halleran has been a director since October 4, 2011. Dr. Halleran has a
Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Calgary, and has 33 years of international
petroleum exploration experience. His international experience includes work
in countries such as Canada, Colombia, Egypt, India, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Sudan,
Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Pakistan, Peru, Tunisia, Trinidad Tobago, Argentina,
Ecuador and Guyana. Dr. Hallerans experience includes work with Petro-Canada,
Chevron, Rally Energy, Canacol Energy, United Hunter Oil and Gas Corp. and United
Hydrocarbon International Corp. In 2007, Dr. Halleran founded Canacol Energy
Ltd., a company with petroleum and natural gas exploration and development activities
in Colombia, Brazil and Guyana, where he served as vice president of exploration.
Previously, Dr. Halleran was a consulting geologist for Rally Energy Corp. (Egypt),
which discovered prolific reservoirs in Egypt. Dr. Halleran currently serves
as Vice President of Exploration & Development for United Hydrocarbon International
Corp., a company with oil interests in Chad, Africa. Dr. Halleran was appointed
as a director of the Company to provide technical expertise and oversight to
the Dobrudja Basin gas project in Bulgaria. His education and technical experience
in the energy sector are valuable to our Company.
Ijaz Khan - Director
Ijaz Khan holds a law degree from Seattle University School of Law. He formerly
practiced corporate law with the Law Firm of Mussehl and Khan. He currently
serves as Vice President, Special Projects for United Hydrocarbon International
Corp. Previously, he was the General Counsel for the Kuwait Gulf Oil Company,
a subsidiary of Kuwait’s State Oil Company, Kuwait Petroleum Company.
There Mr. Khan was in charge of the team advising on the merger of all the upstream
subsidiaries of the Kuwait Petroleum Company and was responsible for negotiating
the terms of a master agreement with Saudi Arabia Chevron regarding the shared
concession in the Divided Zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Mr. Khan brings
extensive international experience in the oil and gas industry to the Board.
David M. Thompson – Director
Mr. Thompson has 30 years of financial experience in the oil and gas industry.
He successfully founded an oil trading company in Bermuda with offices in the
U.S. and Europe (Geneva, Moscow and Amsterdam). He was responsible for that
company’s production operations in Turkmenistan and successfully raised
over $100 million in equity. Mr. Thompson also negotiated the farm-out of a
number of company assets. Mr. Thompson is Managing Director of AMS Limited,
a Bermuda based Management Company. In the past he served as Founder, President
and CEO of Sea Dragon Energy Inc. (TSX:V), Chief Financial Officer of Aurado
Energy, Chief Financial Officer of Forum Energy Corporation (OTC), Financial
Director of Forum Energy Plc (AIM) and Senior Vice President at Larmag Group
of Companies. Mr. Thompson is a Certified Management Accountant (1998). He currently
also serves as a Director of United Hydrocarbon International Corp.
