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 USA, 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.
Mr. Alvaro Barrera, BEng, MSc
Mr. Barrera is a chemical engineer and former President of Ecopetrol, the State Oil Company of Colombia, with 40 years of experience in the upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas industry in Colombia. Mr. Barrera graduated from the Universidad Nacional in Bogota, and earned a Master of Science in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. USA. Mr. Barrera was formerly General Manager for Dow Chemical International responsible for Colombia and Ecuador.
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 sector which he sold to Telmex, a company owned by Carlos Slim. In the Oil & Gas sector, 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 was former CFO of PanOrient Energy. He is currently CFO of Sagres Petroleum.
Dr. David Winter, BSc, MSc, PhD
Dr. Winter holds Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and a PhD in Geology degrees from London and Edinburgh Universities. He is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Excelsior Energy Limited and was one of the founders of Canacol Energy Ltd. His experience was gained both offshore and onshore in the North Sea, Middle East, Latin America and Southeast Asia, including working and living in a number of industry centers overseas in Yemen, Indonesia, China, Australia and the United Kingdom. Dr. Winter brings 26 years of international experience in operations, oil and gas exploration and development, and business development gained at British Petroleum, Sun Oil, Canadian Occidental (now Nexen), Alberta Energy Company (now EnCana) and Calvalley Petroleum.