Alan Booth, Chief Executive Officer, 52Prior to co-founding EnCore, Alan Booth was Chairman and Managing Director of EnCana (U.K.) Limited (now Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited), and a member of EnCana Corporation's executive management team. He was instrumental in building EnCana UK from a new UK entrant in late 1996 with a $55 million exploration funding obligation into a significant UK production operator and the discoverer and development operator for the Buzzard field. In late 2004 Alan lead the UK team which sold EnCana (U.K.) Limited to Nexen Corporation for $2.1 billion. Prior to EnCana, Alan worked in a number of positions of increasing seniority for Amerada Hess and Oryx Energy both in the UK and overseas. He has particular experience in new ventures acquisitions and exploration in the UK, Scandinavia, Australasia as well as the Middle East and Africa.From December 2003 until March 2005, Alan was President of the United Kingdom Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) the representative body for all UKCS offshore operators. He also subsequently served as a Director of Oil & Gas UK and was a member of PILOT, the main forum for Government-Industry liaison chaired by the Energy Minister, as well as being a member of the Industry Leadership Team (ILT). In 2003, he was elected President of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain; in April 2004 Alan was awarded the Petroleum Group Silver Medal by the Geological Society in recognition of his contribution to the Industry. Alan's background is in geoscience and he holds a BSc in Geology from Nottingham University, and a Masters Degree in Petroleum Geology from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London.Alan is a current director of industry body, OGIA and a Non-Executive Director of Egdon Resources plc.
Eugene Whyms, Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary, 53
Eugene Whyms was co-founder of EnCore and was previously the Finance Director of EnCana (U.K.) Limited (now Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited). He joined EnCana in 2002 and was responsible for finance and IT as well as for acquisitions and disposals, in which role he was part of the team that sold EnCana (U.K.) Limited to Nexen Corporation. He has over 20 years’ experience in the oil industry and held a variety of posts at Enterprise Oil plc including Head of Group Finance, Group Audit Manager and Manager Financial Accounting. He has extensive experience of finance, tax, treasury, and joint ventures in UK, Ireland, Norway, Italy, USA, Brazil, Indonesia and Australia, together with extensive mergers and acquisitions experience, both on corporate and asset deals. Mr. Whyms was until 2010 a fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants and is a trustee of the St. Christopher’s Fellowship, a London-based housing association and charity for the homeless.
Graham Doré, Exploration Director, 47
Prior to joining the EnCore Companies, Graham Doré was a senior geologist with Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited. He has over 20 years’ experience in the oil industry, initially as a geologist with Amerada Hess in the UKCS and Norway. After joining EnCana (U.K.) Limited in 1997, he was responsible for developing and acquiring a wide-ranging exploration portfolio. He generated and developed the Buzzard prospect leading to the discovery of the Buzzard field in 2001.
James Clark, Commercial Director, 59
James Clark commenced his career as an economics researcher in the House of Commons, and moved into tax in 1975 with the Inland Revenue. After a period in the Oil Taxation Office, he switched to the private sector in 1984, joining Ernst and Whinney as the firm’s specialist oil and gas tax manager, and then moved to Enterprise Oil plc as tax manager in 1989. Between leaving Enterprise Oil in 2002 and joining EnCore Oil in February 2006, James worked in a variety of roles for Harrison Lovegrove & Co, and for EnCana (UK) Limited (later Nexen Petroleum UK Limited). In these roles James has had extensive experience of both corporate and asset transactions across the oil and gas industry. Since joining EnCore Oil James has been responsible for the group’s commercial activities
Christine M.K. Wheeler OBE, Non-Executive Chairman, 65
Christine M.K. Wheeler commenced her career advising clients in the upstream sector of the oil industry when she joined Arthur Young, Chartered Accountants in 1973. She has advised on UK taxation issues since that time including lobbying for fiscal changes. More recently, her advisory role has focused on structuring and commercial transactions from small farm-ins to acquisitions and disposals, the largest of which was US$2 billion. She was the head of the natural resources division of Ernst & Young and subsequently, for ten years, was the chairman of an independent consultancy. She now has an active consultancy which remains focused on exploration and production activities in the UK and overseas. Christine is also a non-executive director of Panoro Energy ASA, a Norwegian company with a focus on Brazil and West Africa. In 1994, she was awarded the OBE for services to the oil industry.
Keith Hughes, Non-Executive Director, 59
Keith Hughes, currently a partner at law firm Dewey and LeBoeuf, has more than 30 years of corporate transaction experience, centered in large part on the energy industry: debt and equity financings, mergers and acquisitions (including privatisations), and restructurings required by down cycles. He has long experience in representing and understanding the requirements of North American institutional investors, including most major US and Canadian life insurance companies and large pension funds. He has also represented a number of independent petroleum companies in mergers and acquisitions involving both upstream and downstream operations, as well as in various project and acquisition financings. Keith is fluent in Spanish.
