Luca Benedetto elevated to Zenith Energy CFO

International oil and gas production company Zenith Energy announced the appointment of Luca Benedetto to the position of chief financial officer - a non-board position, replacing Alan Hume - on Friday.

The dual-listed TSX and LSE firm said Benedetto is an Italian national, trained in Italy as a registered accountant with further education in IFRS accounting and consolidation at IPSOA Milan.

He has more than 25 years of accounting, auditing and financial administration experience, the board said, having begun his professional career as an accountant and computer programmer responsible for financial software development and worked for the Italian division of IBM as an internal auditor and accountant, as well as providing staff training in those aforementioned fields.

Benedetto also served for seven years as a financial and administrative officer in an unnamed well-established Italian company specialising in the construction of fuel and water storage tanks.

Among other tasks, his responsibilities there reportedly included maintaining and developing relationships with many international and Italian oil majors such as Exxon, Shell, IP, AGIP, API, and ERG.

He joined the Zenith Energy group in 2013 as chief financial officer of the company's Italian subsidiary, Canoel Italia, and had since progressed to also hold the position of group Ffnancial controller.

“In this capacity he has been directly involved in the monitoring of business performance, cash flow management, budgetary oversight, accounts team supervision, accounts preparation and strategic planning,” Zenith’s board said in its statement.

“Since January 2016 Mr Benedetto has also been responsible for the compiling and reviewing of the quarterly consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of the company.”

Whilst at Zenith, the board said Benedetto's “most important achievement” had been the preparation of all the financial information included in Zenith's prospectus published in January 2017.

He followed the process extensively, it reported, collating the “many accounting and financial presentations” necessary for the document to be approved.

The appointment of Mr. Benedetto to the position of chief financial officer remained subject to the review and approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

“I am pleased to announce Mr Luca Benedetto's appointment as CFO of the company,” said CFO José Ramón López-Portillo.

“Mr Benedetto has excelled in his accounting and financial management responsibilities within Zenith's Italian operations and has played a particularly important role in the preparation of the extensive financial documentation necessary for its successful listing on the UK Official List.

“The board of directors is confident that he will be a valuable asset as the company works towards achieving its growth objectives.”