President and CEO, Mr. Steve Mason, is pleased to announce Artumas Group Inc. has retained Mr. Doug Purcell as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO) effective May 1, 2007. Mr. Purcell replaces Mr. Ian Horswill who has loyally served the Company since 2003.
Mr. Doug Purcell has over 25 years of operations, business development, and M&A experience within the energy industry, and has held senior executive management and business development positions for multinational corporations in Canada, with extensive travel and work experience in Africa and the Middle East. Complementing Mr. Purcell's strong operations background is extensive experience in Corporate Strategy and Planning as well as business processes and controls.
Mr. Purcell has spent the last five years engaged in a variety of international consulting engagements, following his tenure as Vice President Business Development and Director of Acquisitions, Divestitures and Planning with AEC International in Calgary, Canada. From 1992 to 1999, Mr. Purcell was engaged in a series of progressively senior operations and business development roles with Canadian Occidental Ltd. (now Nexen Inc.), including considerable time spent in Nigeria and Yemen.
A Chemical Engineer by training, Mr. Purcell spent the first decade of his career engaged in engineering, supervisory and management roles on drill ships, semi-submersible and jack-up rigs operating in the Beaufort Sea, North Atlantic (Sable Island and Hibernia areas) and Tasman Sea, before returning to university to earn his MBA form the University of Western Ontario.
Mr. Purcell's experience and understanding of the energy business and his proven management and operations skills will be invaluable in coordinating and organizing Artumas' continued movement into full operations in Tanzania. At the same time, Mr. Purcell will bring valuable technical leadership to the continued search for hydrocarbon resources in Tanzania and Mozambique.
President and CEO, Steve Mason expresses his deepest appreciation, on behalf of all at Artumas Group, to Mr. Ian Horswill for his dedicated commitment and his significant contribution to the positioning and success of the Company in East Africa. The executive team at Artumas Group wishes Mr. Horswill the greatest of success in his future endeavours.
