Leadership Team

  • James Menzies, Chief executive officer

    James Menzies Chief executive officer

    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.

  • Mike Buck, Chief operating officer

    Mike Buck Chief operating officer

    Mike's career has included 20 years with LASMO plc, as a geophysicist in the UK 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 34 years of experience in international exploration and production.

  • Jonathan Copus, Chief Financial Officer

    Jonathan Copus Chief Financial Officer

    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.

  • Dr Carol Bell, Non executive Director

    Dr Carol Bell Non executive Director

    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  Petroleum Geo-Services ASA, Caracal Energy Inc and is a member of the S4C authority, the governing body of the Welsh language public service broadcaster.

     

  • Robert Cathery, Non-executive director

    Robert Cathery Non-executive director

    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.

  • John Crowle, Non-executive director

    John Crowle Non-executive director

    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.

  • Charles Jamieson, Chairman

    Charles Jamieson Chairman

    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 holds an MBA from INSEAD.

  • Non-executive director

    Michael Pavia Non-executive director

    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, Telecom Plus Plc, Wales & West Utilities Limited and non-executive chairman of PetroGranada Limited.

  • Struan Robertson Senior indep. non-executive director

    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 is currently non-executive chairman of Eredene Capital PLC and Senior Independent Director at Schroders Asian Total Return Company plc.

  • James Menzies, Chief executive officer

    James Menzies Chief executive officer

    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.

  • Mike Buck, Chief operating officer

    Mike Buck Chief operating officer

    Mike's career has included 20 years with LASMO plc, as a geophysicist in the UK 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 34 years of experience in international exploration and production.

  • Jonathan Copus, Chief Financial Officer

    Jonathan Copus Chief Financial Officer

    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.

  • John Bell, Group Technical Director

    John Bell Group Technical Director and General Manager, Thailand

    John was appointed Group Technical Director in January 2012, having previously been Salamander's General Manager, Thailand. He has over 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry, a number of which were spent in Southeast Asia.

    He began his career as a geologist with BP, then worked for LASMO for 17 years in London with spells in Jakarta and Bogotá and subsequently spent four years with ENI, before working for Hess in London. John holds a PhD in Geological Sciences from Durham University and an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.

  • Nick Ingrassia, Corporate Development Director

    Nick Ingrassia Corporate Development Director

    Nick is Salamander’s Corporate Development Director. Nick has over 14 years of experience in the upstream oil & gas sector both from an industry perspective at Valiant Petroleum and in an advisory capacity at Morgan Stanley and RBS. Nick holds an MA Hons in Ancient History from the University of St Andrews.

  • Charles Morgan, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary

    Charles Morgan Group General Counsel and Company Secretary

    Charles is Salamander’s Group General Counsel and Company Secretary. He has over 25 years experience providing legal counsel in the international upstream oil and gas sector having previously worked for companies such as BP, LASMO and CEPSA.

    He received his MA in Jurisprudence from Oxford and was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales, and California, U.S.A.

  • Craig Stewart, General Manager, Indonesia

    Craig Stewart General Manager, Indonesia

    Craig Stewart is Salamander’s General Manager, Indonesia. Craig has over 30 years industry experience and joined Salamander in April 2012 from Vico Indonesia where he was President and CEO. Vico Indonesia is one of the main operators in the Kutei basin and produces over 80,000 boepd and employs 700 people and 1,800 permanent contractors. Craig started his career as a drilling engineer with Unocal before moving on to take managerial roles with Unocal in both Thailand and Indonesia and with Eni in Indonesia.

    Craig has a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary and an MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles.

  • Shaun Richardson General Manager, Malaysia

    Shaun was appointed General Manager, Malaysia in January 2014, having previously been Salamander’s Regional Geoscience Director. Shaun has over 30 years of industry experience and was most recently exploration director for Harvest Natural Resources with responsibility for Southeast Asia. Prior to that Shaun spent nearly 18 years with BG Group, including a spell as chief geologist in Jakarta. He also worked earlier in his career for Gearhart, Britoil plc and BP Exploration.