Lekoil makes CFO, non-exec appointments

Nigeria and West Africa-focussed oil and gas exploration and production company Lekoil announced the appointment of Lisa Mitchell as its chief financial officer with immediate effect on Monday morning, following the resignation of Bruce Burrows who reportedly decided to pursue another opportunity to better fit family circumstances.

The AIM-traded firm said that, following a one month handover period, Burrows would be leaving at the end of October.

In addition, Lekoil announced the appointment of Tom Schmitt as its non-executive director, also with immediate effect.

The company’s board said Lisa Mitchell, aged 50, is a Certified Practising Accountant in Australia, who was most recently CFO and executive director of African low-cost airline Fastjet.

Prior to that, she was CFO at Ophir Energy, where she was responsible for contributing to the overall business strategy of Ophir; leading the finance function - including all financial, taxation, treasury and funding issues; IR, and providing financial support for all merger and acquisition activity.

Lekoil said Mitchell’s previous career included stints with Pan Pacific Petroleum, GCM Resources, CSL, and Mobil Oil Australia.

She reportedly holds a Bachelor of Economics - major in accounting - degree from La Trobe University, Melbourne and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Corporate Governance.

It said Tom Schmitt, aged 60, is currently president of Hunt Refining Company in Alabama.

Prior to that, he was senior vice president with Hunt Oil Company for Hunt's development in Kurdistan, Iraq.

Lekoil said Schmitt began his career as a petroleum engineer with the Atlantic Richfield Corporation working in production, drilling, operations/reservoir engineering, enhanced oil recovery research, strategic planning and acquisition evaluation.

In 1996, he left the oil industry for a career in finance and joined Alliance-Bernstein, becoming co-manager of its global research growth fund, a product that reportedly grew assets to more than $65bn.

Schmitt earned a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

“Lisa and Tom are both oil and gas industry professionals with significant experience,” said Lekoil chairman Samuel Adegboyega.

“Lisa's knowledge of investment and capital markets, together with Tom's mix of upstream, downstream and finance experience will benefit our board and company.

“I look forward to working with them.”