Executive Management
Ahmed S. Said - President & Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Said is a Professional Engineer and his background includes operational and senior management roles in the oil & gas industry both domestically and internationally. His recent focus has included corporate strategy development and host government negotiations. He is concurrently the President & CEO of Vast Exploration Inc. and the President Oil & Gas Group of Forbes & Manhattan Inc., a private merchant bank. He is also the director of several public and private companies. Mr. Said holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Calgary, Canada.
Fari Goodarzi - Vice President, Exploration
Dr. Goodarzi’s background includes over 40 years of technical and management roles with public, private and government corporations. Fari managed and successfully conducted various regional hydrocarbon evaluation studies in frontier basins such as Arctic Canada. He has extensive experience in the exploration of conventional and unconventional oil, gas & coal resources. Dr. Goodarzi holds a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy in Geology and Geochemistry from University of Newcastle-Upon Tyne in England and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Sig Slotboom - Vice President, Operations
Mr. Slotboom is a Petroleum Engineer with over 28 years of diversified technical and management experience in the upstream oil & gas industry. Sig started his career at Exxon/Imperial where he had a wide range of technical and business development roles, including a foreign assignment in Norway to develop a major offshore gas-condensate field. He has valuable experience in Iraq gained in the mid 90’s with Chauvco Resources where he played a major role in leading the evaluation and negotiation of several exploration and development/EOR projects. Recently he has led exploitation and production operations teams focused on the development of various complex reservoirs for Provident Energy Trust and Devon Corp.
Ms. Deborah Battiston - Interim Chief Financial Officer
Ms. Battiston is a Certified General Accountant with over 23 years of accounting and financial management experience. At present, she is the Chief Financial Officer of a number of Canadian public companies. Ms. Battiston obtained a B.A. in Economics from the University of Guelph.
Patrick Gleeson - Corporate Secretary
Patrick Gleeson is General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. A lawyer in Canada, he joined the Company in April 2007. Prior to joining the Company Mr. Gleeson was a corporate and securities lawyer at a major Canadian law firm. For more then six years, he has counseled companies regarding transactions material to their business, including significant equity and debt financings, transformational acquisitions, defences of hostile take-overs and court approved mergers. In addition, Mr. Gleeson has advised companies in connection with applications to list on stock exchanges in Canada, the United States and England. He has lectured to various audiences on corporate governance and stock exchange guidelines and requirements. Mr. Gleeson is a director of a number of private companies and an officer of several public companies.