Charle Gamba, President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Gamba founded Canacol Energy Ltd. in 2008. He has held a variety of technical and management roles with major and mid-sized international oil companies, with the majority of his professional career focused on E&P in South America. Prior to creating Canacol, Mr. Gamba was Vice President of Exploration for Occidental Oil & Gas Company based in Bogota, Colombia. In his 8 years with Occidental, he has lived and worked in Ecuador, Qatar, Colombia, and the United States, working in a variety of technical and management roles. Mr. Gamba has also worked for Alberta Energy Company in Argentina and Ecuador, and for Canadian Occidental in Indonesia, Australia, and Canada. He started his career as a geologist with Imperial Oil in Calgary, and holds an MSc and PhD in Geology.
Mr. Michael Hibberd, BA, MBA, LLB
Mr. Hibberd has extensive international energy project planning and capital markets experience, and has served as former President and CEO of MJH Services Inc., and former Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance with ScotiaMcLeod. He is current Chairman and Non-Executive Director of Heritage Oil, and Co-Chairman of Sunshine Oilsands Ltd. He also currently serves on the boards of directors of AltaCanada Energy Corp., Challenger Energy Corp., Iteration Energy Ltd., Pan Orient Energy Corp., Avalite Inc., and Zapata Energy Corporation. He also served as a director of Rally Energy Corp. until October 2007 and as a director of Deer Creek Energy Limited until December 2005.
Dr. Luis Baena, MPA, MIA, MD, VP of Business Development-Colombia
Dr. Baena holds an MD, MPA, MIA from the Universities of Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Universidad Externado de Colombia, and Columbia University of New York. He has significant experience in the public and the private sector in Colombia. In the public sector, Dr. Baena was the Secretary of Health of Bogota for 2 years and the Welfare Commissioner of the Country for 4 years. In the private sector, Dr. Baena has managed several enterprises, the last one being in the telecommunications industry which he sold to Telmex, a company owned by Carlos Slim. In the oil and gas industry, Dr. Baena represented BGP in Colombia as branch of CNPC, the Chinese Oil and Gas Company, and was one of the founders of Canacol Energy Ltd.
Mr. Stuart Hensman, BSc, MSc
Mr. Hensman is Chairman of the Board of Governers of CI Funds, Lead Director of Creststreet Mutual Funds Ltd. and a Director of Rifco Inc. and Ria Resources. Prior to 2003, Mr. Hensman was Chairman & CEO of Scotia Capital (USA) Inc. Mr. Hensman was a Managing Director at Scotia Capital Inc. (London) from 1987 to 1989. Prior to this, he held a number of analytical and portfolio management positions at the Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada from 1981 to 1986. Mr. Hensman holds a BA from the University of Winnipeg and a MSc from Loughborough University in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Jason Bendar
Mr. Bednar is the Chief Financial Officer and a director of MENA Hydrocarbons Inc., an international oil and gas company. Formerly, he was Chairman of Gallic Energy and Chief Financial Officer and Director of Sagres Energy. From 2004 to 2009, he was Chief Financial Officer of Pan Orient Energy. Mr. Bednar is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan.
Dr. David Winter, BSc, MSc, PhD
Dr. Winter holds Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and PhD degrees in Geology from London and Edinburgh Universities. He was a co-founder of Canacol Energy Ltd. Dr. Winter brings 27 years of international experience in a variety of technical, management and leadership roles working in Latin America, Middle East, Southeast Asia and the UK North Sea. His experience was gained working at British Petroleum, Sun Oil, Canadian Occidental (now Nexen), Alberta Energy Company (now EnCana), Calvalley Petroleum and Excelsior Energy Limited.
Mr. Gary Petersen
Managing Partner and co-founder of EnCap Investments L.P., an investment manager and leading provider of private equity capital to the upstream and midstream sectors of the oil and gas industry. Prior to the formation of EnCap in 1988, Petersen was a Senior Vice President and Manager of the Corporate Finance Division of the Energy Banking group for Republic Bank Corporation from 1985 to 1988. Prior to his position at Republic Bank, Petersen was an executive vice president and a member of the board of directors of Nicklos Oil & Gas Company in Houston from 1979 to 1984. Previously, Petersen was a Group Vice President in the Petroleum and Minerals Division of Republic Bank Dallas, where he began his business career in 1972. He served from 1970 to 1971 in the U.S. Army in Washington D.C. as a First Lieutenant in the Finance Corps and as an Army officer in the Army Security Agency.
Petersen obtained his Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Business Administration degrees in finance from Texas Tech University and has done postgraduate work at American University and the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University.
Mr. Greg Elliott
Started his career in 1981 at Chevron serving in various drilling engineering related assignments in the U.S. He moved to their international headquarters in 1986, located in San Ramon, California. He served as a well test Engineer, frequently traveling to Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia until 1989. He then joined Chevron’s International Drilling team planning and drilling wells in the above regions plus Kazakhstan and South America.
Mr. Elliott founded Workstrings, LLC., a high-end oilfield Tubular Rental Company in 1997, headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana. Superior Energy Services acquired Workstrings, LLC. in 2001. Mr. Elliott continues to manage and grow Workstrings globally. Currently Workstrings is the second largest oilfield rental company in the world.
Mr. Elliott was a Charter member of Geoproduction Oil and Gas Company, L.L.C. Geoproduction Oil and Gas was founded in 2001. Mr. Elliott received a degree in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1981.