November 2010 Vol. 237 No. 11

Business Meetings & Events

November 2010 Association and Personnel News

America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) has named Sarah K. Magruder Lyle as vice president of External Affairs. She will work to cultivate partnerships with local, state and national constituencies to promote ANGA’s goal of expanding the use of American natural gas.

Don Vinci has been named vice president of Entergy’s gas distribution business. He is responsible for providing gas service to more than 188,000 customers in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans, LA areas. Vinci’s Entergy career spans 24 years.

T.D. Williamson Inc. has promoted Bruce Thames to vice president – Eastern Hemisphere. Thames has full profit-and-loss responsibility for all product and service lines and oversees operations, marketing and financial management of the company throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Stewart & Stevenson LLC has named John B. Simmons as CFO and as a director of the company. He also served as vice chairman and CEO of Stewart & Stevenson LLC.

Kevin R. Fox has been named CEO of Laney Directional Drilling Co. Fox joins Laney after a 19-year career with Willbros Group, Inc. where he was most recently president of the Willbros Construction division. He previously served as president of Willbros Engineering. During his 23-year career, he has performed various engineering functions, managed EPC projects, directed multiple-project programs, and held numerous senior management positions with increasing responsibility after joining Willbros in 1991. From 1987-1991 he was employed by Butler Manufacturing Co. as a structural engineer.

Jamie Efurd has been named vice president of marketing at Foster Marketing Communications. She will manage business development efforts, including growing operations in its current market, leading the company into additional markets and expanding its international presence.

John Barrett has been named vice president at URS Corporation. He will serve as private sector leader for the Pacific Group and will be based in Santa Ana, CA.

Stephen L. Arata has resigned as executive vice president and CFO of Regency Energy Partners LP to accept a position as CFO of a private energy company. Regency officials say they are considering internal and external candidates for the position.

EagleBurgmann announced the following additions to its staff: Steve Rose is now engineering manager and Pradeesh Somasundaram is the new manager of supply chain and continuous improvement of processes.
Joseph R. Wright is the newly appointed chairman of the board of directors at MTN Satellite Communications.

Ander Foor of Chicago was named Midwest regional sales manager – construction for Topcon Positioning Systems. He will work with Topcon dealers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Texas, Louisiana, Ohio, Maryland and Michigan, and parts of Missouri and Kentucky.

In other news, Mark Larranaga joined the company as its new software business development manager.
Former Alaska Gov. Steve Cowper has joined Knowledge Ops, Inc. as a senior fellow for Government Affairs. He will advise management on local, state and federal governmental matters, including regulatory aspects of oil and gas drilling and production and maritime operations.

Ziff Energy Group has appointed David Grevelle as director of Gas Services in the Houston office. He has more than 20 years experience in the North American and European energy markets, including physical and financial trading, asset management, mergers and acquisitions, expert testimony, and analytics.

DTE Energy President and COO Gerard M. Anderson became president and CEO on Oct. 1, taking the reins from Anthony F. Earley Jr. who will have the title of executive chairman of the board and continue as a full-time employee of the company with responsibility for relationships with external constituents.

Ecopetrol has appointed Hector Manosalva Rojas as executive vice president of Exploration and Production. He replaces Nelson Navarrete who retired.

Jim Slagle has joined the Business Development Team of the Power Division at UniversalPegasus International. He will be work at the Golden, CO office.

Tulsa, OK-based MESA has named Sarfraz Shaikh as senior marketing and communications specialist. He will oversee the internal and external strategic marketing and communications efforts along with public relations initiatives.

Michael A. Lucki, CPA, has joined CH2M HILL as senior vice president and CFO.
John R. Rutherford was named executive vice president with responsibility for Business Development and Strategic Planning at Plains All American Pipeline L.P.
Branko Terzic has been named the executive director of the Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions. The Center for Energy Solutions was launched in 2009 as a forum for discussion, research and industry collaboration. Terzic will be its first executive director.

Aberdeen, Scotland-based Red Spider has expanded its sales team with the appointment of Euan Fraser to sales engineering and Richard McKimmie as senior sales engineer.