Board of directors

Charles has been Chairman of Salamander Energy since early 2005. Prior to joining Salamander, Charles retired as Chief Executive Officer of Premier Oil plc, a post he had held since 1991, during a period when Premier Oil was highly successful in establishing an attractive position in Southeast Asia. Prior to the CEO role, Charles was Finance Director at Premier Oil, a company he first joined in 1981.

Charles is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

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Prior to founding Salamander Energy, James was the Senior Partner in Lambert Energy Advisory, an upstream oil and gas corporate finance advisory business. James spent most of his career with LASMO plc, the UK-listed independent exploration and production company, first as a geophysicist in the UK North Sea exploration team and later in Vietnam and Indonesia.

James returned to the London head office in 1997 to work in Corporate Development and M&A. As a member of LASMO’s senior management team, James held a variety of corporate positions, including Corporate Affairs, Strategic Planning and Investor Relations.

James holds a BSc in Geology from the University of London and an MSc in Geophysics and Planetary Physics from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

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Jonathan began his oil and gas career working as an exploration geologist for Shell International in its Deepwater E&P team based in Holland and Houston. He then left industry, working for more than 10 years as a highly ranked oil and gas equity research analyst, most recently with Deutsche Bank where he was a Director of the Oil and Gas Equity Research team. Jonathan was appointed Salamander’s Chief Financial Officer in October 2011.

Jonathan has a PhD from the University of Cambridge and a First Class BSc in Geology from the University of Durham.

Mike's career has included 20 years with LASMO plc, as a geophysicist in the UKCS and Indonesia, chief geophysicist in Colombia, Exploration Manager in Vietnam, and Exploration and General Manager in Libya. Mike subsequently spent four years with ENI as Country Manager for Pakistan and Managing Director for ENI, Iran. Mike has 27 years of experience in international exploration and production.

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Struan spent over 23 years at BP plc, holding a number of posts including Downstream VP for Technology & Marketing in London and Chairman of BP Asia Pacific in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Between 2000 and 2004, he was Group Chief Executive of the Wates Group Ltd. He holds non-executive directorships with Tomkins plc, International Power plc, Henderson TR Pacific plc and Forth Ports plc.

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Dr Carol Bell has been a Non-executive director of Salamander since January 2012. Carol enjoyed a successful career in the City, as a Managing Director of Chase Manhattan Bank’s Global Oil & Gas Group, Head of European Equity Research at JP Morgan and several years as an equity research analyst in the oil and gas sector at Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS Phillips & Drew.

Carol began her career in corporate planning and business development in the exploration and production sector at Charterhouse Petroleum and RTZ Oil & Gas. Carol is currently a non-executive director of Det norske oljeselskap ASA, Petroleum Geo-Services ASA and Hardy Oil and Gas plc. She is also a trustee of the Renewable Energy Foundation and a member of the Investment Advisory Committee of Gemini Oil & Gas.

Robert (Bob) Cathery has been a Non-executive director of Salamander Energy since early 2005. Bob retired as Head of Oil & Gas at Canaccord Europe in 2005, a post he had held for four years. Bob has extensive equity market experience in the sector, and during his career he was a Director of Vickers da Costa and Schroders Securities, as well as Head of Corporate Sales at SG Securities (London) Ltd.

Bob is also a Non-executive director of SOCO International plc and a founding Non-executive director of Central Asia Metals plc and Vostok Energy plc. 

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John joined the Board of Salamander Energy in August 2006. John has enjoyed a career of over 30 years in Technical Management with LASMO, Enterprise Oil and most recently Shell, where he held the post of General Manager, New Ventures Organisation, where he was responsible for Shell’s exploration operations in Morocco and Pakistan. Highlights of John’s career with Enterprise Oil include establishing and developing the company’s Norwegian business from 1999 to 2002 and his role as Group Exploration Manager prior to the company’s acquisition by Shell.

John is also a Non-executive director of Rockhopper Exploration plc.

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Michael was appointed to the Board of Salamander in July 2007. He has had a distinguished career in the energy sector, being CFO of UK independent LASMO plc and then Seeboard plc (now EDF Energy plc). He is currently a non-executive director of Thames Water Utilities Limited, British Nuclear Fuels plc and Telecom Plus plc.

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