Mr. Porter has been a member of the Gastar Board of Directors and has served as Chief Executive Officer and President since February 2004. He assumed the additional role of Chairman of the Board of Directors in mid-2006. He has approximately 15 years of natural gas and oil exploration and production experience and five years of banking and investment experience specializing in the natural gas and oil industry. From 1990 to 1994, Mr. Porter held positions of increasing responsibility in the commercial and merchant banking fields. From 1994 to 2000, Mr. Porter served as an Executive Vice President of a publicly traded exploration and production company. Mr. Porter holds a bachelor of science degree in Petroleum Land Management from Louisiana State University and a MBA from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mr. Gerlich joined the Gastar team in May 2005 as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Gastar Mr. Gerlich was Senior Vice-President Accounting and Finance for Calpine Natural Gas L.P., formerly known as Sheridan Energy, Inc. Mr. Gerlich joined Sheridan Energy, Inc. in July 1994 as CFO. Prior to joining Sheridan, Mr. Gerlich held various accounting and finance positions over a 10 year period with Trinity Resources, Ltd with his last position being Executive Vice-President and CFO. Mr. Gerlich was also with a big four accounting firm, where the focus of his practice was with energy related clients. Mr. Gerlich, a Certified Public Accountant, graduated with honors from Texas A&M University in 1978 with a degree in Accounting.
R. David Rhodes joined Gastar in March 2006, as Vice President of Completion and Production. For the previous three years, Mr. Rhodes was a consultant to Gastar. Mr. Rhodes has over 20 years petroleum engineering experience, focused primarily in the supervision and management of completion and production operations. Prior to joining Gastar, he managed Oil & Gas Operations and Consulting, Inc., an independent consulting firm he established in May, 2001 through which he worked as a petroleum engineering consultant for numerous oil and gas operators including Gastar. From 1984 to 2001, Mr. Rhodes held various engineering and management/supervisory positions at Marathon Oil Company (formerly Texas Oil & Gas Company). His last position was Operations Manager for East Texas and Northern Louisiana. Mr. Rhodes holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana Tech University.
Dr. Gene Beck
Vice President of Drilling
Dr. Beck has over twenty-five years of diversified experience in the oil and gas business. He has held positions with a major operator as a drilling engineer and drilling supervisor and as an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at the New Mexico School of Mines. Prior to joining Gastar in April 2002 as Vice President of Operations, Dr. Beck was vice president of the turnkey drilling division of Nabors Drilling USA LP. Dr. Beck holds a B.S. degree in Geology Master of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering and Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Petroleum Engineering all from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
Henry J. Hansen
Vice President of Land
Henry J. Hansen, joined Gastar in September 2005, as Vice President of Land. Prior to joining Gastar, Mr. Hansen was Rocky Mountain Land Manager with El Paso Corporation from 1999 until January, 2003. He returned to El Paso Corporation in June of 2004, where he was a senior landman until joining Gastar in September 2005. Mr. Hansen graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, Texas with a Bachelor of Business Administration.
Sara-Lane Sirey LLB
Corporate Secretary
Ms. Sirey obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Saskatchewan, she served as an attorney at, and became a partner of (1999) the law firm of Armstrong Perkins Hudson LLP (formerly Ogilvie and Company) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Focusing on corporate/securities law, Ms. Sirey acted for issuers, in all industry segments, in Canada, the United States and Internationally, in respect of corporate reorganizations, commercial transactions and initial public offerings of junior emerging companies as well as equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions and commercial transactions of senior established companies. Currently, in addition to being general counsel for select companies, Ms. Sirey serves as a member of management of a number of private and public companies.
John Rooney
Chairman of the Board
John R. Rooney, 52, has been named by the Nomination Committee to stand for election to the Board of Directors at the Annual Meeting. Mr. Rooney has served as Chief Executive Officer and a director of Tusk Energy Corp. from December 2006 until April 2008, when Tusk was sold to TIAA-Cref, a large US pension fund. He has also served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Zenas Energy Corp. from August 2005 to January 2007, as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Blizzard Energy Inc. from December 2002 to July 2005, as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and then President and Chief Executive Officer of Equatorial Energy Inc. from May 1999 to June 2002, as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Calgary Louisiana Energy LLC from July 1997 to May 1999, as an originator and organizer of a private drilling fund from May 1997 to March 1999, as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Tidal Resources Inc. from June 1993 to January 1997, and as an accountant and other positions for Ernst & Young and Clarkson Gordon from January 1980 to December 1992. Mr. Rooney is currently a director of Caza Oil & Gas, Inc., a public natural gas and oil exploration and production company, Export Development Canada, a crown corporation, and numerous private entities. Mr. Rooney is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario (Bachelor of Arts - Economics) and is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Business Valuator.
Bob Penner
Director
Mr. Penner is a retired senior partner with KPMG whose career of advising public and private clients on tax and accounting matters has spanned almost 40 years. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Corridor Resources Ltd, Storm Cat Energy Corporation, Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd. and Terra Energy Corp. as well as serving on the Board or as Executor/Trustee for several private companies and family trusts.
John M. Selser Sr.
Director
Mr. Selser is a private investor, instructor of finance at Louisiana State University and former partner of a long/short equity hedge fund. In addition he has over 20 years of exploration and production industry experience both as a petroleum engineer and as an energy equity analyst. Mr. Selser holds a Bachelor of Science in both Civil Engineering and Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University and a Masters of Business Administration from Tulane University.
Randolph C. Coley
Director
On January 13, 2010, the Company's Board of Directors appointed Randolph C. Coley as a director and a member of Audit, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees of the Board. Prior to his retirement in 2008, Mr. Coley was a partner in the Houston, Texas office of the law firm, King & Spalding LLP, where his practice, which began with King & Spalding LLP in 1996, was concentrated in the areas of corporate and securities law. Currently retired, he serves as a director of Deltic Timber Corporation, a publicly-traded natural resources company focused on the ownership and management of timberland, a position he has held since 1999, and is a member of its audit committee. Previously, he served as Executive Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking for Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. Mr. Coley earned his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and graduated with a law degree from Vanderbilt School of law.