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“The Western Plains team is particularly skilled at acquiring heavy oil assets...”

 






  • David Forrest, President
  • Stephen Johnston, Director
    and Chief Financial Officer
  • Leigh Stewart, Director
  • Menno Weibe, Director
 

Experienced Management.



David Forrest, President

Mr. Forrest has over 15 years experience in developing heavy oil plays located around Lloydminster and Maidstone, Saskatchewan. Mr. Forrest founded IC Energy Ltd., a private oil and gas exploration and production company, building production to approximately 750 BOE per day, with P&NG leases aggregating 5,440 acres, before selling to Arsenal Energy Inc. on March 31, 2005, for a purchase price of $10 million.

Mr. Forrest is also a founder and President of Brahma Resources Ltd., a private heavy oil producer, with operations in the Lloydminster and Maidstone areas of Saskatchewan, and a co-founder of Gotham Resources Inc., which was acquired by Saha Petroleum on March 14, 2008.



Stephen Johnston, BSc., LLB, MBA, Director & Chief Financial Officer

 

Stephen has over 14 years experience as a fund manager from both the private equity and debt markets perspectives. Stephen was the head of the private equity team at Societe Generale Asset Management - Emerging Markets UK. In this capacity he was responsible for closed-end funds covering the Baltics, Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East with US$285 million (almost C$ 500 million at the time) under management.

Stephen also worked as a banker for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on the Telecommunications and Media Team, providing debt and equity financing to companies based in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He was a principal of a £12 million early stage technology fund based in London, UK, and investing in European based start-ups. Stephen also worked for AT Kearney, based in London, UK, a global consulting firm, as a strategy consultant implementing trading risk management systems for Swedish investment banking clients with a focus on analyzing commercial real estate loan portfolios to quantify the accuracy of default risk metrics. Stephen began his career in the Calgary office of Milner Fenerty, Barristers & Solicitors, as a corporate lawyer.

Since returning to Calgary in 2003 Stephen has been a founder of several businesses including a national media company and Agcapita Farmland Investment Partnership, an agriculture private equity fund investing in farmland. Agcapita is the third in a family of private equity funds which has grown to almost $100 million in assets under management. Stephen has a BSc. (Honours in Biology) (1987) and a LLB from the University of Alberta (1990) and a MBA (1994) from the London Business School.

 

 

Leigh Stewart, B. Sc. (Geol), LLB, Director

 

Mr. Stewart has been an associate lawyer with Gowlings Lafleur Henderson LLP since May 2006. Prior thereto, Mr. Stewart was a partner at Robinson Stewart, Barristers & Solicitors, from December 2003 to April 2006. Mr. Stewart also practiced as an associate lawyer at a corporate securities law firm from 1993 to 2000, and as a sole practitioner from 2000 to 2002. In 2002 to the spring of 2003, Mr. Stewart was seconded to a law firm in Kuwait City providing advice in connection with industrial construction projects and general international business matters.

Mr. Stewart serves as corporate secretary and/or director to a number of public issuers, including oil and gas companies. Mr. Stewart obtained his Bachelor of Science Degree (Geology) from the University of Alberta (1984) and his Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Western Ontario (1990). Mr. Stewart was admitted to the bar in the Province of Alberta in 1991.

 

 

Menno Weibe, MBA, B. Sc. (Geol), Director

Menno Wiebe has 36 years of energy industry experience as a geologist, manager and executive in international exploration and development projects in Latin America, Asia and the North Sea. He was, until recently, based in Bogota as Vice President of Exploration for Solana Petroleum Exploration (Colombia) Limited, a very active exploration and production company in Colombia.

Mr. Wiebe currently serves as a Non-Executive Director of PetroLatina Energy Plc (AIM:PELE), a petroleum exploration and production company focused on Latin America. He also previously served as a director of Avalon Oil and Gas, an officer and director of Deep Well Oil and Gas and as the CEO and a director of Pertacal Energy Inc., of Calgary, Canada. Mr Wiebe was the Vice President and General Manager of Hall-Houston Oil Company in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 8 years and General Manager of Husky Oil Limited in Jakarta, Indonesia for 4 years.

In addition, as the owner of Jacobean Resources, a private consultancy firm, he has conducted exploration and development evaluations in Yemen, Paraguay, onshore UK and Colombia. He held senior geologist positions with Bow Valley Industries (Indonesia), Occidental Petroleum (Libya, Scotland, USA, India and Australia) and Hudsons Bay Oil and Gas (CONOCO) in Canada. His educational background includes a BSc (Honours) in Geology from the University of Manitoba, Canada and an MBA from the University of Warwick, England.