About us

Management

David Donnelly   David Donnelly, Non-Executive Chairman
David Donnelly was CEO of the Private Equity business of Fleming Family and Partners until March 2008. He also sits on the board of two quoted Electra Kingsway Venture Capital Trusts. Previously, Mr Donnelly was Chairman and Chief Executive of Highland Participants plc, which was one of the fastest growing and most successful UK independent oil companies in the 1980's. Highland developed partnerships with 23 companies, including Kerr-McGee in the North Sea. It operated in the US, in Texas and Oklahoma, as well as both onshore and offshore the UK. Mr Donnelly graduated from Trinity College, Dublin with an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Economics.

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Paul Clarke-Walker   Paul Clarke-Walker, Director and Company Secretary
Paul Clarke-Walker has been the resident Director of Cabre Maroc in Cyprus since 2002. Mr Clarke-Walker worked in public accountancy practice in the UK for 22 years. Since 1986, Mr Clarke-Walker has held appointments as Director or Trustee of a number of major and intermediate companies, including subsidiaries of Canadian Occidental, the Valmet group, Riggs National Bank and, from 1992 to 2003, the operating subsidiaries of Anglo Siberian. Paul is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

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Ian Strachan   Ian Strachan, Non-executive Director
Ian Strachan is currently an independent director of several listed companies in both the UK and the US: Transocean Inc, Xstrata plc, Rolls Royce plc and Johnson Matthey plc. He was also non-executive Chairman of Instinet Inc and a director of Reuters plc.

Ian was previously Chief Executive at BTR plc and Deputy Chief Executive and CFO at Rio Tinto plc (formerly RTZ plc). Prior to that he spent 16 years at Exxon most of which was as a senior executive in the Far East and South East Asia and in New York where he was head of Corporate Strategy.

Ian was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge where he took a double first in History, Princeton University (Master in Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School) and Harvard University where he was a Teaching Fellow.

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John Roper   John Roper, Non-executive Director
John Roper was appointed a Director of Caithness Petroleum Limited in June 2008.

John has been based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates since 1991 and is currently Vice President LNG and Upstream of E.ON Ruhrgas and is also Chairman of the Dubai Petroleum Club.

John has worked in the oil and gas industry for over 25 years. John spent the early part of his career working in the UK North Sea, and has since gained extensive international experience in regional company management and oil and gas operations in the Middle East, North Africa and the Caspian regions. He has worked for companies including Petro-Canada, EnCana, Cairn Energy and Neste Oy. John has a successful record of finding, negotiating and concluding sound commercial contracts with host governments and international companies. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of offshore companies.

John has a BSc degree in Geology from Kings College, London and an MSc degree in Marine Geology and Geophysics from University College, London

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Robert Kennedy   Robert Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer
Robert Kennedy has over 30 years' experience in the international oil and gas industry and is a founder and major shareholder of Caithness Petroleum. Mr Kennedy was CEO of Anglo Siberian Oil Company plc from 1992 until 2003, when it was acquired by Rosneft. Prior to this he was Director of International Negotiations with Kerr-McGee from 1976 to 1992. While at Kerr-McGee he was involved with the discovery and development of the Brae, Beatrice, Scott and Gryphon fields in the North Sea. Previously he was with Sunningdale Oils Limited, a successful Canadian independent which made major oil discoveries and was purchased by Kerr-McGee in 1976.

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Peter O'Sullivan   Peter O'Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer
Peter O'Sullivan joined Caithness Petroleum from Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading global strategy consulting firm, where he was a Senior Associate. While at Booz Allen, Mr O'Sullivan focused on strategic issues relating to business growth and cost reduction for Upstream Oil & Gas and Telecoms clients. Prior to this he worked for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) from 1995 to 1999, where he designed and delivered on business process outsourcing services for the energy industry. He began his career as an oil and gas field engineer for Caterpillar. Mr O'Sullivan has an first class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from University College Dublin, an MSc in Cognitive Science with distinction from the University of Edinburgh, and an MBA from INSEAD.

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Nigel Wright   Nigel Wright , Chief Financial Officer
Nigel Wright joins Caithness from Ineos. He has a wealth of experience, having been CFO of substantial multinational oil and chemical businesses. He joined BP in 1981 and during his time there he was CFO of Innovene Europe, a $16Bn business, and Global Cash Flow Manager of BP Chemicals, a $23Bn business. Prior to joining Caithness he was CFO of Ineos Refining, a $9Bn turnover business. Nigel graduated with a first class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1981 before becoming a Chartered Management Accountant in 1989.

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Jacqueline Forbes   Jacqueline Forbes, Commercial Manager
Jacqueline Forbes has been General Manager at Cabre Maroc since 2003, prior to which she was Systems & Data Manager of Anglo Siberian Oil Company plc. Her background is in accountancy and management consultancy, having previously worked for KPMG and REL (now part of the Hackett Group), a global working capital management consultancy.

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Anass Costagliola   Anass Costagliola, Cabre Maroc Operations Manager & Chief Geologist
Anass Costagliola joined Cabre Maroc in 1997, prior to which he was Senior Petroleum Geologist with the Moroccan state oil company, ONAREP (now ONHYM), which he joined as an exploration geologist in 1982, working on detailed in-house and independent studies of petroleum basins across Morocco. He has a PhD in Dynamic and Structural Geology from the University of Marseilles.

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Jim McKenny   Jim McKenny, Caithness USA CEO & Chief Geologist
Jim McKenny has extensive experience in identifying, evaluating, acquiring and managing oil and gas properties in the mid-continent region of the United States. He has an excellent background in geology with extensive land and engineering skills and numerous industry contacts. In particular he has significant experience in conventional as well as unconventional gas resources in the Fort Worth Basin of Texas as well as the Arkoma and Anadarko basins of Oklahoma. Mr McKenny currently manages properties in the Barnett Shale play of North Texas as well as offshore in the US Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana. He identified and acquired the Barnett properties and currently manages a drilling program worth in excess of $30,000,000. Previously he built an oil and gas development project in the City of Oklahoma City from a 5 person investment firm to an operating company employing 55 people with 15,000 acres and 76 producing directional wells.

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