January 2010 Vol. 237 No. 1

Business Meetings & Events

January Personnel Changes

ConocoPhillips reports that Larry E. Archibald, vice president, Exploration, will become senior vice president, Exploration and Business Development. He will assume additional responsibilities for E&P global business development and will join the CP management committee.

Kinder Morgan announced organizational changes within its Natural Gas Pipelines Group. Tom Martin was named president of Natural Gas Pipelines, which encompasses 25,000 miles of pipelines with a transportation capacity of more than 22 Bcf/d and 400 Bcf of working gas storage capacity.

Duane Kokinda was named president of the Texas Intrastate Natural Gas Pipelines Group which operates primarily along the Texas Gulf Coast. The Texas Intrastate Pipelines include more than 6,000 miles of pipelines with a peak transport and sales capacity of over 5 Bcf/d.

Steven J. Kean, who had been serving as president of the Natural Gas Pipelines Group, returns to his role as executive vice president and COO of the Kinder Morgan companies. He also remains a member of the Office of the Chairman, along with President C. Park Shaper and CEO Richard D. Kinder.

Andrei Galaev was appointed CEO of Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. Ian Craig, who led the company for five years will get a new appointment with Shell. Under Craig’s management Sakhalin Energy completed the main construction scope of the Sakhalin-2 Phase 2 Project, switched over to year-round hydrocarbon production and brought on stream Russia’s first LNG plant.

FMC Technologies Inc. promoted Bradley D. Beitler to vice president, Technology. Previously, he was the director of Technology for FMC since 2006.

Kim R. Cocklin, president and COO of Atmos Energy, was elected to the board of directors. Cocklin joined the company in June 2005. Kenneth M. Malter was promoted to vice president, gas supply and services, succeeding Mark S. Bergeron who was named president of Atmos Energy Holdings, Inc.

CH2M HILL CEO and President Lee A. McIntire has been elected chairman of the board of directors. He assumed the role from interim chairman Jerry Geist, an outside director. Geist has been a member of CH2M HILL’s board since 1989 and will remain as an outside director.

The Department of Energy announced the following appointments to the Office of Fossil Energy: James F. Wood, deputy assistant secretary for Clean Coal; Christopher A. Smith, deputy assistant secretary for Oil and Natural Gas; and Michelle Dallafior, senior policy adviser to the assistant secretary.

Lou Taylor has joined the Liberty Group as regional sales manager for the Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and western Pennsylvania territories. Chad Cuvo was promoted to the new position of transmission and contractor sales specialist.

Ken Blott has joined Caesar Systems as chief strategy officer to lead business planning.

Fluor Corporation’s board of directors has elected David T. Seaton to the newly created position of chief operating officer. He has been with Fluor since 1984.

Peter McDonnell has joined MODEC Management Services Pte. Ltd. as vice president of global operations.

Dresser-Rand Group Inc. has named Stephen A. Snider as a new independent member of its board of directors, bringing the number of directors to eight.

Copano Energy, L.L.C. has appointed R. Bruce Northcutt president and COO and a member of the board. William L. Thacker was elected chairman of the board. These appointments follow the passing of John R. Eckel, Jr. who founded Copano Energy in 1992 and served as president and CEO until April 2003 when he became chairman of the board and CEO.

Michael Loesch, an attorney who held leadership positions at both the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission, joined Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.
ESRI has hired Ahmed Abukhater as the new community development industry solutions manager on its government team.

Bisso Marine promoted Glenn Posik to general manager of Diving and Subsea Services where he will manage all aspects of diving safety and diving operations. Wojtaszcyk joined the company as subsea services project manager, managing saturation diving and ROV operations.

BJ Services Company announced personnel appointments and promotions within its pipeline services group. Dave Drysdale was promoted to area manager for the Northern Europe and West Africa (NEWA) region. Supporting Drysdale in the role of business development manager – NEWA and Nigeria is Pete Clenshaw. He also joined BJ Services as a result of the acquisition of Norson in 2007. Richard O’Dowd was appointed executive account manager. All three managers are based at BJ Services’ facilities in Portlethen, Aberdeen.

Albert Zahalka, a former executive officer with two global Fortune 500 companies, was named senior vice president of Topcon Precision Agriculture, a business unit of Topcon Positioning Systems.

In line with the transition announced last year, Santos Chairman Stephen Gerlach stepped down as chairman of the company, ahead of his scheduled retirement from the board on Dec. 31, 2009. Deputy Chairman Peter Coates is the new chairman.