Executive Directors

Alastair Beardsall: Executive Chairman (d.o.b. 1954)
Alastair Beardsall has been involved in the oil industry since 1981. His first 12 years were on international assignments with Schlumberger, the oil-field services company. In 1992 he started to work for small independent operators, first as technical manager, then project manager and finally holding overall responsibility for specific exploration, development and production ventures. He is currently a non-executive director of First Calgary Petroleums Ltd.

Angus MacAskill: Chief Executive Officer (d.o.b 1959)
Angus MacAskill entered the oil industry in 1981 when he joined Schlumberger, the integrated oil service company, working on international assignments in Africa. In 1987 he joined Mobil Oil working in the North Sea in a variety of operations, engineering and managerial positions. In 1997 he joined Enterprise Oil working in planning, corporate and business development roles leading to the position of Vice President of Business Development in the United States. In 2002 he joined Waterous & Co, an acquisition and divestments advisory firm, as VP Engineering in London. In 2004 he was appointed an executive director of Elixir Petroleum Ltd, a North Sea exploration company. Angus holds a masters degree in petroleum engineering from Heriot Watt University and an MBA from Aberdeen University

Edward Grace: Finance Director (d.o.b 1965)
Edward Grace joined Emerald Board in August 2003, bringing expertise in international corporate finance and experience in management consulting. Having had a successful career in investment banking, where, most recently, he served as Director of Investment Banking with Lehman Brothers, Edward worked with international clients across a number of industrial sectors, raising equity and debt finance and providing M&A advisory. Prior to investment banking, as a management consultant with Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting, Edward was engaged in projects with some of the largest energy companies in the UK. Edward holds an MBA degree from London Business School.

Non-Executive Directors

Keith Henry (d.o.b 1945)
Keith Henry has over 33 years of international business experience in the development, ownership, design and construction of major facilities worldwide. He was with Brown & Root Limited for 23 years, the last five as Chief Executive responsible for the Europe, Africa and FSU regions. From 1995 to 1999 he was Chief Executive of National Power Plc, and then Chief Executive of Kvaerner Engineering and Construction Ltd until the end of 2003. He served as Chairman of Burren Energy plc and also serves as a non-executive director and adviser to a number of companies in the engineering, services and energy sectors. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering

Fred Ponsonby (d.o.b. 1958)
Fred Ponsonby is an oil industry professional who has also pursued a parallel career in British and European politics. A petroleum engineer by profession, Fred started his career with Charterhouse Petroleum and has most recently worked for LASMO as a senior petroleum engineer and Phibro Energy, a subsidiary of Salomon Brothers, as Technical Manager with responsibility for international E&P projects. He has held a number of company directorships and is currently a non-executive director of Fairfield Energy.

Merfyn Roberts (d.o.b 1950)
Merfyn Roberts holds a BSc in geology and an MSc in geochemistry. He began his career as a geologist working in the UK and North Africa. In 1977 he joined Thomson McLintock & Co and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1980. Since 1982 he has been an investment manager/director specialising in the resource sectors. In 1990 he joined Minorco SA to manage Minorco’s in-house equity funds and left in 1996 to become a director of Dragon Natural Resources Limited which was acquired by a Canadian group in 2000. He then set up and managed his own private investment fund. Mr Roberts recently joined New City Investment Managers Limited to manage a number of resource based investment trusts and acts as a non-executive director to a number of natural resource companies.

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