Michael Howard
Chairman
David Biggs
Managing Director
Dennis Donald
Non-executive Director
Duncan MacNiven
Non-executive Director
Lo Van Wachem
Non-executive Director
Ken Williams
Non-executive Director
The Rt. Hon. Lord Howard of Lympne CH KC was the Member of Parliament for Folkestone and Hythe from 1983 to 2010 during which time he served in the Cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major as Secretary of State for Employment and the Environment and Home Secretary. He was Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2003-2005.
He retired from the House of Commons in 2010, was made a Life Peer in that year and a Companion of Honour in 2011. Since then, he has devoted himself to charitable and business activities serving on a number of corporate boards and as Chair of Hospice UK from 2010 to 2018. Lord Howard has chaired, advised and served on the Board of several companies including those involved in energy and mineral exploration and the production of natural gas.
David Biggs has over 30 years' experience in the energy industry and has worked at a senior level in multiple countries for a multinational in the areas of acreage and resource capture, business development, joint venture relations and management, project approvals, capital management, debt and equity raising, energy marketing and asset management. He has been the managing director of two medium sized listed energy companies, with responsibility for all aspects of their businesses, including exploration, development and production. He also has extensive listed company non-executive director experience.
After an early career as an energy industry lawyer, Duncan MacNiven has spent the last 15 years as co-founder, director and owner of an international gas and energy business grown from an idea in 2007 to a full listing on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2019. He has worked across all non-technical aspects of the business including regulatory and approvals, HSE, stakeholder engagement and land access, private and public fund raising, joint ventures and exploration operations management. He has experience as a public company director and in the energy services sector as co-founder, owner and director of two engineering consultancy companies.
Ken is an experienced Independent Director, Deputy Chair and Chair of ASX listed companies. He has over thirty years' experience in corporate finance, and over twenty years' experience as a resource company Independent Director including nine years in the energy sector. He is currently Independent Chair of Barton Gold Holdings Limited (ASX:BGD), an Independent non-executive Director of Archer Materials Limited (ASX:AXE) and Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee, and is Deputy Chancellor of the University of Adelaide and Chair of the University Finance Committee. Ken has an Honours Degree in Economics (University of Western Australia) and a Master of Applied Finance (Macquarie University) which led to a career in financial risk management, including senior treasury and finance executive roles at Qantas, Normandy Mining and Newmont.
Beginning his career on the drill floor Dennis worked his way through the drilling and well services ranks in Shell UK. He was latterly instrumental in the introduction of new drilling technology into the Brent Fields, including the first platform Coiled Tubing Drilling project. He left Shell in 1998 having anticipated a growing need in the energy sector for advanced drilling engineering capabilities and wishing to follow his entrepreneurial nature.
He set up a specialist drilling consultancy, Leading Edge Advantage with MacNiven in 1998, growing it into a global brand within 10 years.
In 2007, the pair sold Leading Edge, investing the proceeds into a new venture, Warrego Energy, securing Exploration Permit (EP) 469 in the Perth Basin, Western Australia and a full listing on the ASX in 2019. Donald led Warrego to a $440M AUD value in 2022 attracting a number of takeover bids from a number of Australian majors including Beach Energy, Mineral Resources and Hancock, led by billionaire Gina Rinehart.
Lo van Wachem has over 35 years international experience managing due diligence, acquisition and delivery of upstream energy field developments. He has spent the past 10 years managing a consultancy providing asset evaluation and due diligence services across the wells, facilities, operations, and decommissioning space for billion dollar plus acquisitions.Other services provided included seamless services to Operators for the integration of subsurface, wells, drilling, facilities, HSE, cost, planning, regulatory, pre-operations and commercial activities to deliver field developments.