About

Management Team

Jeffrey S. Boyce
Lead Executive Director
Senior oil and gas executive with over 35 years of domestic and international experience in building, financing and managing public oil and gas companies, including Vermilion Energy.

Nelson Navarrete
Executive Chairman
Over 27 years of oil and gas experience through his extensive career with the State Oil Company of Colombia – Ecopetrol.

Ralph Gillcrist
President, CEO & Director
More than 25 years experience worldwide in exploration and production, with extensive exposure to Colombia, for Union Texas Petroleum, LASMO and CEPSA.

Colin Wagner
CFO
More than 25 years experience working with many international oil and gas companies supporting operations in Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, Australia and Norway.

Dave Monroe
VP Development & Production
Over 33 years of diverse petroleum engineering experience with both international and Canadian oil and gas companies, most recently Suroco Energy in Colombia.

Board of Directors

Jeffrey S. Boyce
Lead Director
Mr. Boyce is a Calgary based, senior oil and gas executive with over 35 years of domestic and international experience in building, financing and managing public oil and gas companies. He is the former Chairman, CEO and Director of Sure Energy., former President & CEO and Co- Founder of Vermilion Resources Ltd. (Vermilion Energy is now a $4 billion international oil and gas company) and Clear Energy Inc. Mr. Boyce currently sits on the Board of Directors of a number of public and private companies.

Michael E. Beckett
Mr. Beckett is the Chairman of Endeavour Financial, and former Chairman of the Thomas Cook Group. He was previously Managing Director of Consolidated Gold Fields plc, Ultramar P.L.C., Oxus Gold plc, Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited and Clarkson plc; and a non-executive director of BPB plc and Foreign and Colonial General Income Growth plc.

Ralph Gillcrist
Dr. Gillcrist has more than 25 years experience worldwide in exploration & production, including extensive exposure to Colombia. Prior to joining Petroamerica, Dr. Gillcrist worked for CEPSA (Compañia Española de Petroleos, S.A.) where he was the Group Exploration Manager. He has also worked for the oil independents LASMO, and Union Texas Petroleum, and has evaluated exploration and production projects throughout South America, Europe, Africa and the Far East. He holds a PhD in Structural Geology from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London, UK, and a BSc in Geology from Portsmouth University, UK. A British citizen, he has lived and worked in the United Kingdom, Italy, Colombia, Venezuela, Spain and now resides in Canada.

Augusto Lopez
Mr. Lopez is a Director of Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. , Gran Colombia, and Sportsat, the managing partner of Prospectiva Financiera and former President at Bavaria, S.A. which is Colombia’s largest beverage maker.

Nelson Navarrete
Mr. Navarrete has over 27 years of oil and gas experience through his extensive career with the State Oil Company of Colombia – Ecopetrol. Mr. Navarette has held various positions with Ecopetrol, namely: E&P; Executive Vice President, Production Vice President and Reservoir Manager. During his tenure at Ecopetrol, he was instrumental in leading and consolidating new business opportunities and for taking Ecopetrol public. Mr. Navarette was also responsible for the development of producing oil fields through his association contracts with BP, Chevron, Petrobras, Meta Petroleum, Occidental and others. Mr. Navarrete has also held several board positions with some of the subsidiaries of Ecopetrol, namely; Ecopetrol America Inc., Ecopetrol Peru, Ecopetrol de Brasil, Savia(Peru) and Hocol S.A. Mr Navarrete received his Masters in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa in 1992 and his B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from the American University in Bogota, Colombia in 1985.

Juan Szabo
Juan Szabo, is a professional engineer with over 39 years’ experience in Oil & Gas industry and holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Houston. He served as a member of the Board of Directors of Pequiven, PDVSA Oil and Gas, Citgo Petroleum and several Joint Venture Companies. Since 2007, Mr. Szabo has served as advisor to private and public companies such as Inepetrol, CANTV, and P.T. Energi Mega Persada Tbk (Indonesia) and Alentar Holdings Inc., as well as for multilateral organizations such as the InterAmerican Development Bank (BID) and the Central Bank of Ecuador.

John Zaozirny
Mr Zaozirny is Vice Chair and a Director of Canaccord Capital Corporation, and was Counsel to the law firm of McCarthy Tetrault LLP from 1986 to 2008. He is Chairman of Provident Energy Trust, and Vice Chair and Lead Independent Director of Pengrowth Energy Corporation and serves as a Director of a number of other public and private companies. He is also a Governor of the Business Council of British Columbia. Mr. Zaozirny was Minister of Energy and Natural Resources for the Province of Alberta from 1982 to 1986.