Corcel plc has appointed three new directors to its board with immediate effect and expects to add a further two on completion of checks.
Geraldine Geraldo, the company’s MD Angola and chief commercial officer, joins as an executive director.
Ms Geraldo has a legal and business development background and more than 15 years’ experience in the oil and gas sector.
She has held multiple positions with Chevron in the USA and in Angola, and is also an entrepreneur and the founder of multiple businesses.
Pradeep Kabra, with more than 35 years’ oil and gas experience, is appointed as a non-executive director.
He is currently the MD of Geneva-based Ojas Consulting SA, providing oil and gas technical, strategic, financial and investment banking services across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Mr Kabra was previously the CEO and director of ShaMaran Petroleum Corporation which conducted oil exploration and development in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Prior to this he held various positions with Addax Petroleum, Petro Canada and Lundin Oil.
The third confirmed director is Andrew Fairclough who joins the Corcel board as an independent NED.
Mr Fairclough has more than 28 years’ finance and oil and gas experience, and was most recently the chief financial officer of Serinus Energy plc, prior to which he was CFO of Whalsay Energy Ltd.
Mr Fairclough was previously an investment banker with experience in M&A and capital markets, predominantly at Flemings, Rothschild and Merrill Lynch.
Subject to completion of regulatory checks, the company’s chief technical officer Jennifer Ayers will join the board.
A trained geologist with more than 25 years’ experience in the oil and gas sector, Ms Ayers has held senior positions at CNOOC, Chevron and TotalEnergies, as well as at Netherland, Sewell & Associates focusing on audit reserve bookings.
She currently serves as a consultant until due diligence is complete.
Deepak Kohli will also join the board in due course as a NED.
Mr Kohli is the CEO of Dubai-based Faber Capital which is active in M&A advisory, capital restructuring, capital raising and asset management in the oil and gas and other sectors.
He was previously the global head of debt capital markets at Standard Chartered Bank and has a background in audit and accounting.
Scott Gilbert, a vendor of the APEX transaction in the Kwanza basin, will no longer join the board and instead become a consultant to Corcel, in order to focus on full time opportunities in oil and gas.
NED Ewen Ainsworth, previously with Ascent Resources plc before joining Corcel, will step down as planned.
Corcel executive chairman, Antoine Karam, said: “We thank Ewen Ainsworth for his multiple years of service at Corcel, his having joined during a historically challenging time for the company, and now departing with the business in fundamentally excellent shape with bright prospects.”
On completion of all the appointments, Corcel’s board will comprise executive chairman Antoine Karam with 135,709,008 shares representing 8.48% and 94,996,305 warrants; chief commercial officer and MD Angola Geraldine Geraldo (39,200,000, 2.45%); chief technical officer Jennifer Ayers; NEDs Deepak Kohli, Pradeep Kabra and Yan Zhao (38,833,333, 2.43%); and independent NED Andrew Fairclough.