ENERGY PLAYERS

Greene's Energy Group LLC , a provider of integrated testing, rentals and specialty services, has named Terry Hatcher vice president of human resources. Hatcher has more than 25 years of human resource experience and specializes in mergers and acquisitions. He previously served in the same position for Stewart & Stevenson, Weatherford Global Compression Services, and AppleTree Markets Inc. He was also the director of human resources for the Oil & Gas Division of General Electric Co. Hatcher earned a bachelor's degree in human resources and a master's degree in psychology from Texas A&M University – Commerce. He also has a Senior Human Resource Professional certification.

Halliburton promotes Miller

Halliburton has promoted Jeff Miller, most recently the company's executive vice president and COO, to president and has also appointed him to the Halliburton board of directors, both effective Aug. 1. Miller has served as Halliburton's executive vice president and COO since 2012, working with the company's senior management team. He began his career at Halliburton in 1997 and has held various senior management roles in the company's global operations and business development. Miller holds a Bachelor of Science degree from McNeese State University, and has a Master of Business Administration degree from Texas A&M University.

Layne Christensen names president, CEO

Rene J. Robichaud has resigned as president and CEO of Layne Christensen, a global water management, construction, and drilling company. David A.B. Brown, Layne's non-executive chairman of the board, has been appointed to serve in the additional capacities of president and CEO. The board will engage an executive search firm to identify Robichaud's successor. Brown has been a director of Layne since 2003, and has served as non-executive chairman of the board since 2005. He served as chairman of the board of directors of Pride International Inc. from 2005 until Pride's acquisition by Ensco Plc in 2011, at which time he became a member of the board of directors of Ensco Plc. Brown has over 40 years of energy-related experience.

SDOGA names Martin executive director

The South Dakota Oil and Gas Association (SDOGA) has named Adam Martin executive director for the organization. Martin has over 20 years' experience in high-level management, business-to-business networking, major events planning, internal and external policy direction, governmental affairs, media relations, and working with the many levels of local, state and federal governmental agencies.

Lamoreaux joins ING's natural resources team

The Houston-based natural resources oil and gas group of ING Capital LLC, a corporate finance advisory and specialized lending services firm that is part of ING Group, has appointed Scott Lamoreaux as director. He will be responsible for helping with the continued build-out of ING's portfolio in the domestic upstream energy sector, reporting locally to Charles Hall, managing director and regionally to Richard Ennis, managing director in New York. Lamoreaux is an energy finance veteran with over 30 years in the energy industry, including operational as well as structured and project finance experience. He joins ING from the Project & Structured Finance Group of Siemens Financial Services Inc., where he led the firm's upstream and midstream finance business in Houston. Lamoreaux holds a BS from Kansas State University, an MS from Wichita State University in Kansas, and an MBA from the University of Houston in Texas.

Aquatic taps Charles as regional GM

Aquatic Engineering & Construction Ltd, an Acteon company, has appointed Martin Charles as regional general manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Charles will lead the company's market development and project delivery across the EMEA region from Aquatic's headquarters in Aberdeen, UK. He most recently serveed as the global services director with JDR Cable Systems Ltd.

Regions Bank hires Tate to lead energy, natural resources group

Regions Bank has hired Brian Tate to lead and expand the company's energy and natural resources group. He will serve as executive vice president and group head of energy and natural resources and executive managing director of Regions Securities LLC. Regions will grow its energy specialized practice group to provide financing, capital markets and strategic solutions to energy companies operating in the upstream, midstream, and downstream segments. Kelly Elmore, managing director focused on the exploration and production sector, will continue to play a leadership role in the Houston office. Tate joins Regions following a 24-year career as an energy specialist focused on corporate finance advisory and capital raising in the loan syndications, debt and equity capital markets for companies operating in the energy and power industries. For the past 18 years, Tate served as managing director in the energy and power investment banking group for Wells Fargo Securities. He received a bachelor's degree in economics and business from Virginia Military Institute and an MBA from New York University.

Baker Botts adds international arbitration lawyers

Baker Botts has added arbitration lawyers Edward Schorr and Andrew Behrman to its global International Arbitration practice. Both join the New York office. Schorr joined the firm as a partner and Behrman as a special counsel. Schorr has more than 25 years, and Behrman more than 15 years, of international litigation experience. Both lawyers handle claims before US courts and foreign tribunals in many sectors, including the energy and technology sectors. Schorr was a partner at Hogan Lovells prior to joining Baker Botts. He earned his law degree from Stanford Law School and his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Behrman was of counsel at Hogan's prior to joining Baker Botts. He earned his law degree from Cambridge University and an LLM from the University of Chicago Law School.

Meehan named 2016 president of SPE

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) has named D. Nathan Meehan, senior executive adviser at Baker Hughes, as 2016 president of the international professional society. Meehan, who is based in Houston, will take office as president-elect on October 29, 2014 at the close of SPE's Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. Prior to Baker Hughes, Meehan was president of CMG Petroleum Consulting, vice president of engineering for Occidental Oil & Gas; and general manager exploration and production at Union Pacific Resources. Meehan earned a BSc in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an MSc in petroleum engineering from the University of Oklahoma, and a PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University.

KERN co-founder assumes new role

Pentti Karkkainen, co-founder and general partner of KERN Partners Ltd. has assumed a new role within the firm. Pentti is transitioning from his active day to day role to a strategic and capital markets advisory role. In his new position as co-founder and senior strategy advisor, Pentti will step down from KERN's internal boards to join the firm's Independent advisory board. Pentti will also continue to represent KERN on the board of directors of a number of portfolio companies. KERN Partners is an energy sector private equity firm based in Calgary, Alberta. The firm was established in 2000 and currently has $1.1 billion under direct management and an additional $1.5 billion within its co-investment program.

Durrant appointed CEO of Premier Oil

Premier Oil plc has appointed Tony Durrant as CEO. Durrant joined Premier in June 2005 and has served as finance director since that time. Prior to Premier, Durant worked at Lehman Brothers, latterly as managing director and head of the European natural resources group.

Standard Chartered taps Vrontamitis as Head of Trade

Standard Chartered has appointed Michael Vrontamitis as head of trade, product management. He will be responsible for delivering the Bank's Trade Finance capabilities in Documentary Trade, Receivables Services and Supply Chain Finance. Vrontamitis has been with Standard Chartered for 19 years. Prior to this appointment, he was head of product, greater China and Northeast Asia where he oversaw transaction banking product management covering trade finance, cash management and securities services. Vrontamitis will be based in Hong Kong.

Ultra makes executive transition

Ultra Petroleum Corp. reports that its board of directors is promoting Garland R. Shaw to senior vice president and CFO, effective Aug. 1, and that Marshall "Mark" D. Smith, the current senior vice president and CFO, is resigning to accept a new position at a larger company. Since joining Ultra Petroleum in 2006 as corporate controller, Shaw has earned roles with increasing leadership and responsibility, including his promotion to the executive leadership team as vice president and controller in 2013. He has over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, including accounting, financial analysis, and economic evaluation for large multi-national energy companies. Shaw earned an undergraduate degree in accounting from Oklahoma State University, and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Dallas. He is a certified public accountant in the state of Texas.

MacKintosh named INTECSEA president

Neil Mackintosh has been appointed president of INTECSEA following the retirement of Uri Nooteboom. Mackintosh joined INTECSEA July 8, based in Houston. Mackintosh joins INTECSEA from Genesis Subsea (Technip) where he most recently served as senior vice president. Prior to Technip, he held multiple commercial, technical and operational leadership roles with McDermott, Flow Control, and Cameron. Mackintosh has over three decades of experience in the subsea and offshore sectors. He is a graduate of Newcastle University in the UK.

Gulfsands appoints new directors

Gulfsands Petroleum plc, the oil and gas production, exploration and development company with activities in Syria, Morocco, Tunisia, Colombia and the US, has made board changes. David Cowan has stepped down as a non-executive director and Peter Ian Conway has been appointed executive director: technical and operations. Cowan had been a non-executive director since 2006. He will continue to provide certain legal services to the company, including assistance with the management and administration of the company's non-UK subsidiaries. Conway is a petroleum engineer with more than 25 years of experience in the oil and gas exploration and production sector, including substantial roles with ExxonMobil International, Maersk, and BP both in the UK and internationally. He has been appointed to the board after having initially joined the company in 2009.

Woll named SVP, chief commercial officer of Diamond Offshore

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. has appointed Ronald Woll as senior vice president and chief commercial officer. Based in Houston, Woll will have oversight of company marketing and contract acquisition activities. Woll has an extensive background in the oil-field services arena in a career covering business development, manufacturing, supply chain, and business process re-engineering. Prior to joining Diamond Offshore, Woll served as senior vice president, supply chain at Halliburton, and he has previously worked for Bertelsmann, PricewaterhouseCoopers and General Electric. He graduated Summa Cum Laude in Industrial Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo and later obtained a Master's Degree in Engineering Management at the same college.

Harkand hires Hill as new group general counsel

Harkand, an international subsea inspection, repair, maintenance and light construction company, has appointed Jacqueline Hill as the group general counsel. Hill brings more than 15 years of experience in corporate law, most recently in energy marketing and trading in the UK. In her previous role as general counsel at Gazprom Marketing & Trading Ltd., Hill also provided support to the board and led a team of more than 30 legal and compliance staff to establish bases in the UK, North America, Singapore, France, Italy, and Belgium. Additionally, she was senior legal counsel at EDF Trading Ltd., and worked for private practices in London and in Melbourne, Australia.

American Capital expands investment team

American Capital Energy & Infrastructure has expanded its North America investment team with two new members: Ben Bonnet and David Elizondo, both vice presidents. The North America investment team, led by managing director Bo Wholey, sources, underwrites, and manages equity investments in the North American energy industry with a particular focus on the midstream energy sector. Prior to joining American Capital Energy & Infrastructure, Bonnet was a vice president at Alinda Capital Partners where he led and managed energy infrastructure investments in the US. Before joining Alinda, he was an associate at Natural Gas Partners. Before joining American Capital Energy & Infrastructure, Elizondo was a vice president at Access Capital Advisers, a global infrastructure investment manager, where he led and managed energy and infrastructure investments in the US and Mexico. Prior to joining Access, Elizondo was an associate at Highstar Capital.

MEMP appoints Stillwell as VP, finance

Memorial Production Partners LP has appointed Robert L. Stillwell Jr. as vice president of finance of the general partner of MEMP. In his role, Stillwell will serve as MEMP's principal financial officer. He is assuming the role formerly held by Andrew J. Cozby, who continues in his position as vice president and CFO of Memorial Resource Development Corp., an affiliate of MEMP. Stillwell joined the general partner of MEMP as treasurer in 2012 shortly after its initial public offering. Prior to MEMP, Stillwell was an investment banker at Citigroup in the Global Energy Group. He also worked in investment banking with UBS and Scotia Waterous. He holds a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Texas at Austin and a master's degree from Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business.