Cairn Energy appoints brace of NEDs

OIL AND GAS exploration firm Cairn Energy has appointed two new independent non-executive directors to its board.

Keith Lough will be anointed after its AGM on 14 May 2015 while Peter Kallos will join on 1 September 2015. Lough will join its audit, nomination and governance committees and Kallos the remuneration and nomination committees. Todd Hunt will retire from the board as a non-executive director following the company’s 2016 AGM.

In April last year, the company was thrown into upheaval following the departure of two key executives, including chief financial officer Jann Brown, just weeks after founder Sir Bill Gammell said he would step down as chairman of the Scottish oil explorer. Brown, who joined Cairn in 1998 and was named CFO in 2006, stepped down alongside deputy CEO Mike Watts after the company’s AGM in May 2014.

Chartered accountant Lough is currently a NED and chairman of Rockhopper Exploration’s audit committee, and NED of Papua Mining and Rock Solid Images. He is also NED and chairman of the audit committee of the UK Gas and Electricity Markets Authority, which has supervisory responsibility for Ofgem

Lough has held a number of senior finance and operational positions at British oil and gas exploration and production business LASMO, before joining British Energy as FD, a post he held from 2001 to 2004. During his tenure at British Energy, Keith led the complex restructuring negotiations with the Government and its creditors.

Lough went on to become a founder shareholder and chief executive of Composite Energy from 2004 until 2011.

Kallos has worked at Shell UK following its acquisition of Enterprise in 2002, before being appointed executive VP international and offshore for Petro-Canada. Following its merger with Suncor in 2009 he performed the same role for Suncor until the business was relocated to Canada in early 2010.

He is currently CEO of Buried Hill Energy, a UK-based oil and gas business with activities in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea.

Ian Tyler, chairman of Cairn, said Lough and Kallos “will be a significant asset as Cairn enters an exciting phase in Senegal and continues to focus on its strategy of delivering value from discovery and development within a balanced portfolio”.