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Kent P. Watts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Kent Watts is Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hyperdynamics.
Mr. Watts is responsible for managing Hyperdynamics' strategic direction. A long-time entrepreneur, Mr. Watts' association with Hyperdynamics began in 1996, when an information technology services company he had founded in 1988, MicroData Systems, Inc. was acquired by Hyperdynamics in an internet company reverse merger. He assumed his current positions at Hyperdynamics in 1997. A certified public accountant, Mr. Watts, also held the additional role of Chief Financial Officer of the company until November 2005.
Following the technology industry downturn in 2001, Mr. Watts engineered the acquisition of SCS Corporation, a company that provided seismic data management and transcription services, and re-aligned company's technical capabilities from information technology to energy. The following year, he worked with management of SCS and initiated the company's oil and gas exploration program offshore Guinea. In 2004, he structured an acquisition that led to the establishment of HYD Resources Corporation, which conducts oil production activities onshore Louisiana. In 2005 and 2006 he orchestrated the activities that led to the signing of a new 2006 production sharing contract with the Republic of Guinea. In 2005, he secured Hyperdynamics' listing on the American Stock Exchange.
Mr. Watts earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston. Before founding MicroData Systems, he was an external auditor with the public accounting firm of Peat Marwick Mitchell and Company, now KPMG.
He is the founder of American Friends of Guinea, established in March 2006 as a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization to provide medical and other relief to the Republic of Guinea.
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Harry James Briers, Executive Vice President and Director
Harry Briers is Executive Vice President of Hyperdynamics. He joined the company in May 1998 and has served as a member of the company's Board of Directors since March 2000.
As Executive Vice President, he is responsible for managing daily operations of the company and is heavily involved in the execution of work programs for the company's oil and gas license offshore Guinea. Mr. Briers was a member of the Hyperdynamics team that worked in Guinea in 2006. He was instrumental in successful end-stage contract negotiations that led to the completion and execution of the Company’s 2006 Production Sharing Contract.
Prior to joining Hyperdynamics as Director of Integrated Information Systems, Mr. Briers owned and operated Perfect Solutions, a software consulting firm in Houston, Texas, for 10 years. He has extensive experience in marketing and implementation of mission-critical software applications.
Earlier, he was a consultant in Ernst & Young's Entrepreneurial Services Group, where he provided services to growing organizations such as Landmark Graphics - now a Halliburton company - whose software solutions integrate oil and gas exploration, reservoir management, drilling, production, business-decision analysis and data management.
Mr. Briers holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
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Steven Plumb, Chief Financial Officer
Steven Plumb joined Hyperdynamics as Chief Financial Officer on a consulting basis in 2005 and is responsible for all aspects of SEC reporting, the management of the financial audits and accounting staff.
Mr. Plumb, has over 20 years' experience in accounting and consulting to the oil and gas, utility, technology, health care, biotech, real estate, distribution, telecommunications and non-profit sectors. He is a former auditor and consultant with the Big 4 public accounting firm KPMG, and prior to starting his own financial consulting firm in 1992, Mr. Plumb served as CFO of DePelchin Children's Center and as controller of Memorial City Rehabilitation Hospital, both in Houston.
Mr. Plumb holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants and Houston Chapter of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants.
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Famourou Kourouma, Vice President of Guinea Affairs
Mr. Kourouma was hired in August 2005 as the
Company’s Vice President of Guinea Affairs. Born and
raised in the Republic of Guinea, Mr. Kourouma’s
father is the former Guinea Ambassador to the United
States. He speaks French, German, English and
several different African dialects.
He was one of the Hyperdynamics team to travel to
Guinea in August of 2005 and he met with many
government officials including President Lansana
Conté on numerous occasions. He prepared the way for
the Company’s Chief Executive to first come to
Guinea in September 2005. Mr. Kourouma has handled
governmental affairs and public relations in Guinea
and has given the Company a deep understanding of
the West African culture there. His work was mission
critical to the development of the Company’s
operating strategies in Guinea and he facilitated
all critical communications with the Government of
Guinea. Mr. Kourouma’s strategic advice was
paramount to the Company’s successful negotiations
in Guinea. He served a vitally important role in
these African based negotiations, beginning in 2005
and extending into 2006. On September 22, 2006, he
signed the 2006 Production Sharing Contract together
with Guinea’s minister of the Mines and of the
Geology, and Minister of Finance.
Mr. Kourouma earned a B.S. and M.S. in
Biopharmacology from the University of Greifswald in
Greifswald, Germany. He subsequently went on to
attend the University of Texas for his Ph.D.
studies.
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James R. Spear, Vice President and Chief Geophysicist (SCS Corporation)
Mr. Spear joined Hyperdynamics in November 2007 as SCS' Vice President and Chief Geophysicist.
Being adept at prospecting, he has led teams or been a key team member responsible for drilling 512 successful wells over his working career including both exploration and development wells. He has shelf and deepwater Gulf of Mexico experience and Deep Shelf experience GOM. His international experience includes Latin America (Mexico, Central America, Northern South America, Gulf of Paria, offshore Trinidad, Columbus Basin offshore Trinidad, Sub-Andean basins, offshore Brazil, and offshore Argentina (Malvinas Basin and Falkland Islands), Russian Federation, Southeast Asia, Africa and North Africa (Sirte Basin, Libya, Western Desert of Egypt and Muglad Basin, Sudan), Dubai, UAE, West Africa (Ivory Coast, Nigeria -Mobil Nigeria/Shell Nigeria) and Europe (Spain, UK onshore and offshore North Sea).
Mr. Spear is Experienced in some 42 global basins, inclusive of Malaysia, Philippine Islands, Bohai Gulf, Pearl River Basin, Palawan Islands, Northwest Shelf of Australia, Sumatra (Mobil Oil- Indonesia), onshore basins of Australia, New Zealand, and South China Sea offshore of Republic of Vietnam predominately in the Gulf Coast region of Texas, Louisiana, and the Gulf of Mexico. Recent international experience includes Trinidad, Mexico and offshore Nigeria. James is an expert on Landmark workstations and proficient on Geoquest IESX and Charisma workstations/SMT.
Mr. Spear earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1973 from the University of Delaware in Mathematics specializing in Astrophysics and Geophysics. He later went on to the South Dakota School of Mines for his PhD in Geology and Advanced Geophysics in 1977. Mr. Spear is a proud Vietnam War veteran.
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Sarah Berel-Harrop, Corporate Secretary
Sarah Berel-Harrop was appointed Hyperdynamics' Corporate Secretary in April 2006.
Ms. Berel-Harrop has been an accountant with Hyperdynamics on a consulting basis since 2001. Prior to that, she worked as a staff accountant at Malone and Bailey, PC, as an accounting consultant for various public companies, and as treasurer and controller of Harrop Construction Company, Inc., a privately owned mid-sized construction company.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in comparative literature from Cornell University and a Master of Business Administration degree from University of Texas at Austin. Ms. Berel-Harrop is a member of the American Society for Quality, the Institute of Management Accountants and the NAACP.
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