Our Senior Team

R. Blair Thomas has more than 30 years' experience in the investment management business, with a focus on energy and energy-related infrastructure.

Blair is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EIG and chairs the firm's Investment and Executive Committees. EIG was formerly part of Trust Company of the West, where he was a group Managing Director and a member of the Board of Directors of TCW Asset Management Company.

Prior to joining EIG in 1998, he was a senior investment officer with the Inter-American Development Bank, a project finance attorney at the law firm of Brown and Wood in New York, and served in the administration of President George HW Bush as an advisor on energy and budget policy.

He serves as a member of the Board of Directors and the Investment Committee of FS/EIG Advisor, the investment advisor to FSEP, a non-traded business development company focused on the energy sector. He is the Chairman of Limetree Bay Ventures, and Prumo Logistica SA, both private companies. He is also the Chairman of Harbour Energy plc.

Blair holds a BA from the University of Virginia, a JD from New York Law School and an LLM from Georgetown University Law Centre.

Linda Cook is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Harbour Direct Holdings Limited and managing director and member of the Investment and Executive Committee of EIG Global Energy Partners (EIG), positions she has held since 2014.

From 2017, she served as the Non-Executive Director of Chrysaor Holdings Limited.

She retired from Royal Dutch Shell plc in 2010, at which time she was a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. During her 29 years with the company, she held positions including CEO of Shell Gas and Power (London); CEO of Shell Canada Limited (Calgary); Executive Vice President strategy and finance for Global Exploration and Production (The Hague); and various US exploration and production management, operational and engineering roles.

She received a BS in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Kansas and is a Trustee for the University's Endowment Association, a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and a Non-Executive Director on the Board of BNY Mellon.

Phil Kirk is President and Chief Executive Officer, Europe for Harbour Energy plc, previously having been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Chrysaor Group.

After qualifying as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young in 1991, he joined Hess in 1996 where he served a variety of roles including head of finance, North West Europe.

In 2002, Phil set up CH4 Energy with two ex-colleagues where he was joint Managing Director. CH4 acquired and operated the Markham field and associated satellites on the UK/Dutch median line. After selling CH4 to Venture Production in 2006, he founded and led Chrysaor from 2007.

Phil has been a member of the Board of Oil and Gas UK since 2013 and is co-chair of the Advisory Council. He is also a past company chair of the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) UK Exploration Board, one of six boards responsible for the industry's response to the OGA's maximising economic recovery (MER) UK strategy, and he is a Fellow of the Energy Institute.

Alexander Krane has over 20 years of experience from holding various accounting, controlling and executive roles in the energy industry.

Alexander started his career at KPMG, working in both Norway and the US from 1999 to 2006. After working as Group Controller for Norse Energy Corp., a junior exploration and production company with operations in Brazil and onshore US, he joined Aker ASA as corporate controller in 2010.

In 2012, Alexander joined Det norske oljeselskap ASA as Chief Financial Officer, responsible for all financial functions as well as strategy, business development and mergers and acquisitions. After the merger with BP Norway in 2016, he remained Chief Financial Officer of the merged entity, Aker BP ASA.

In 2019, Alexander left Aker BP ASA to become Investment Director at Aker ASA, responsible for Aker ASA's oil and gas investments.

He holds a Master of Science in Business from The University of Nordland and an MBA from The Norwegian School of Economics. Alexander is also a state authorised Public Accountant in Norway.

Simon spent 35 years in an executive career with Royal Dutch Shell plc, retiring as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and executive director in March 2017.

He has since developed a portfolio of non-executive and advisory roles, in both the public and private sector. He has a particular interest in strategy, financial performance, risk management and corporate governance. He became CFO and a member of the Board of Royal Dutch Shell plc on 1 May 2009.

In addition to responsibility for all financial activities of the company, he was responsible for strategy, planning and information technology, and acted as Regional Executive Director for Asia Pacific with specific oversight of new business development in China.

Simon is Chair of the Audit Committee at Rio Tinto, and Chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee at the Ministry of Defence. He is a member of the Investment and Development Committee of PetroChina. He joined the Board at Lloyds Banking Group in 2014 and chaired the Audit Committee for three years before resigning from the Board at the end of September 2020.

Simon was a member of the Main Committee of the 100 Group of UK FTSE CFOs and chair of the European Round Table CFO Taskforce and remains a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for European Reform, a UK-based think tank. He provides advisory services to a venture capital company through Oxford Sciences Innovation. He is a Fellow and member of the Advisory Panel of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, and a Trustee of the Cambridge China Development Trust.

Simon was born in the UK in 1961 and joined Shell after graduating in Mathematics from Churchill College, University of Cambridge in 1982, initially working as an engineer at Stanlow refinery in the UK.

Anne Marie Cannon has over 40 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and investment banking with considerable executive and non-executive board experience with publicly listed companies in the energy sector.

Anne Marie commenced her career in 1980 with Shell UK Exploration & Production working in finance before moving into investment banking with J Henry Schroder Wagg as a director in the oil and gas group in 1989. She subsequently joined the board of Hardy Oil & Gas in 1995 as an executive director with responsibility for business development and international growth and combined Hardy with British Borneo in 1998.

From 2000 to 2014 Anne Marie was the Senior Advisor in the natural resources group at Morgan Stanley focused on international upstream mergers and acquisitions, and since 2019 has been a Senior Advisor to the strategic advisory business at PJT Partners. She has served on the board of Aker BP since 2013 and is the deputy chairman and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Prior to the combination with Chrysaor, she served on the board of Premier Oil since 2014 and was the Senior Independent Director and a member of the Audit and Risk, Remuneration and Nomination Committees. In addition, since 2014 she has been a Non-Executive Director on the board of STV Group and is Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee.

She is also a Non-Executive Director on the board of Aker Energy AS since 2018 and serves on the Audit and Risk Committee. She has previously served as a Non-Executive director on the board of Aker ASA from 2011 to 2019.

Anne Marie holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) Degree from Glasgow University and is a Fellow of the Energy Institute.

G. Steven Farris served as Chairman and Chief Executive officer of Apache Corporation, an oil and natural gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea, Egypt, and Australia.

He was named Chairman of Apache in January 2009, upon the retirement of company founder Raymond Plank. He was promoted to President in 1994 and Chief Executive Officer in May 2002. Steve joined Apache in June 1988 as Vice President of Domestic Exploration and Production and was promoted to Senior Vice President in May 1991.

Prior to joining Apache, he was Vice President, finance and business development, of Terra Resources, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy.

Before working at Terra, he was Executive Vice President of Robert W. Berry, Inc., an independent exploration and production company. Steve began his career with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells as a certified public accountant, earning his certified public accountant (CPA) licence in 1972.

He is the former Chairman of America’s Natural Gas Alliance, the American Chairman of the US-Egypt Business Council, a member of the Business Roundtable, a member of the Executive Committee of the MD Anderson Cancer Centre Board of Visitors, and a member of the Fund for Teachers Board of Directors.

He holds bachelor’s degrees in history and accounting from Oklahoma State University. Steve was a Non-Executive Director of Chrysaor Holdings Limited from 2017 and has been a member of the Board of Directors of Harbour Direct Holdings Limited since 2015.

Alan Ferguson has over 20 years of executive experience in the mining and automotive industries. Alan worked at Inchcape for 22 years and was Group Finance Director from 1999 until 2005.

He then served as Group Finance Director of the BOC Group from 2005 to 2006, and Chief Financial Officer of Lonmin from 2007 to 2010.

Alan has been a Non-Executive Director of Johannesburg and New York listed AngloGold Ashanti since 2018, where he chairs the Audit Committee and is a Non-Executive Director of AIM listed Marshall Motor Holdings since 2015, where he is the Senior Independent Director and chairs the Audit Committee.

Alan has also previously served as a Non-Executive Director on the boards of Croda International from 2011 to 2020, where he was the Senior Independent Director and chaired the Audit Committee; Weir Group from 2011 to 2018, where he chaired the Audit Committee; Johnson Matthey from 2011 to 2020, where he was the Senior Independent Director and chaired the Audit Committee; and London Mining from 2013 to 2014, where he chaired the Audit Committee.

Alan is a Chartered Accountant and sits on the Business Policy Panel of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, as well as serving as a Director of the Audit Committee Chairs’ Independent Forum. Alan holds a BSc in accountancy and business economics from Southampton University. Alan is Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Andy has over 40 years’ experience in the global oil and gas industry gained during his long association with BP.

He retired from BP at the end of 2020, having spent the last 10 years as Executive Vice President serving on both the BP Group Executive Team and as Chief Operating Officer of Upstream. He was responsible for Upstream strategy, portfolio and leading the regional business leaders.

Prior to joining BP’s Executive Team, Andy held several positions leading BP’s businesses: in the onshore North America, in Trinidad and Tobago and in Azerbaijan. He has also held various commercial, operational and engineering roles in a wide range of regions including the North Sea, Venezuela, Mexico and Indonesia. He also served as chair of the BP Foundation.

Andy received a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham.

Margareth Øvrum has nearly 40 years of experience in the energy industry.

Margareth worked for Equinor and its predecessor companies from 1982 until January 2021 and held multiple business unit and central management positions within the company. She was the first female and youngest platform manager of one of the company's oldest fields in the North Sea (Gullfaks) and sat on the company's corporate Executive Committee for 16 years.

Since 2004, Margareth has been an Executive Vice President at Equinor and has experience in HSE, technology, renewables, major projects, procurement and drilling, amongst others.

In 2018, Margareth moved to Brazil to preside over Equinor's operations in the country. She has served as a Non-Executive Director at TechnipFMC since October 2020, where she also sits on the Environmental Social and Governance Committee. She has also served as a Non-Executive Director of FMC Corporation since 2016, where she is a member of the Sustainability Committee and the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee

She has previously served as a Non-Executive Director on the boards of Alfa Laval, Atlas Copco, Ratos and Siemens Norway. She has also been a board member of various non-profit organisations, including the Norwegian Research Council, the University of Bergen and Chairman at Helse Bergen Hospital Group.

Margareth graduated with a Master of Science in Technical Physics from the Norwegian Technical University in 1981. Margareth is Chairman of the Health, Safety, Environment and Security Committee.

Anne Stevens has over 30 years of experience in manufacturing and management, becoming the first female Vice President Executive of Ford Motor Company and the first female Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Carpenter Technology.

Anne started her career in 1980 at the Exxon Chemical Company, where she served in multiple engineering and manufacturing positions before joining the Ford Motor Company in 1990 as a marketing specialist. She became Vice President of North America Vehicle Operations in 2000 and Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Americas in 2005. She was the recipient of various awards including the Shingo Prize for Leadership and the Eli Whitney Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, resulting in her being honoured by the Automotive Hall of Fame.

Anne served as Chairman, President and CEO of Carpenter Technology from 2006 until 2009. In 2018 she was appointed as CEO of GKN Aerospace on an interim basis to prevent a hostile takeover. Anne has also previously served as Chairman, CEO and Principal of SA IT from 2011 to 2014, as a Non-Executive Director on the board of XL Group from 2014 to 2018 (where she chaired the operations and technology committee and served on the risk and finance and audit committees) and Lockheed Martin from 2002 until 2017 (where she chaired the management development and compensation committee and served on the audit, ethics and sustainability and nominations committees).

She has been a Non-Executive Director at Anglo American since 2012 (where she chairs the remuneration committee and serves on the audit and nomination committees).

Anne received a BS in Materials and Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University in 1980 and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004.

Linda Cook is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Harbour Direct Holdings Limited and Managing Director and member of the Investment and Executive Committee of EIG Global Energy Partners (EIG), positions she has held since 2014.

From 2017, she served as the Non-Executive Director of Chrysaor Holdings Limited.

She retired from Royal Dutch Shell plc in 2010, at which time she was a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. During her 29 years with the company, she held positions including CEO of Shell Gas and Power (London); CEO of Shell Canada Limited (Calgary); Executive Vice President strategy and finance for Global Exploration and Production (The Hague); and various US exploration and production management, operational and engineering roles.

She received a BS in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Kansas and is a Trustee for the University's Endowment Association, a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and a Non-Executive Director on the Board of BNY Mellon.

Phil Kirk is President and Chief Executive Officer, Europe for Harbour Energy plc, previously having been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Chrysaor Group.

After qualifying as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young in 1991, he joined Hess in 1996 where he served a variety of roles including head of finance, North West Europe.

In 2002, Phil set up CH4 Energy with two ex-colleagues where he was joint Managing Director. CH4 acquired and operated the Markham field and associated satellites on the UK/Dutch median line. After selling CH4 to Venture Production in 2006, he founded and led Chrysaor from 2007.

Phil has been a member of the Board of Oil and Gas UK since 2013 and is co-chair of the Advisory Council. He is also a past company chair of the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) UK Exploration Board, one of six boards responsible for the industry's response to the OGA's maximising economic recovery (MER) UK strategy, and he is a Fellow of the Energy Institute.

Alexander Krane has over 20 years of experience from holding various accounting, controlling and executive roles in the energy industry.

Alexander started his career at KPMG, working in both Norway and the US from 1999 to 2006. After working as Group Controller for Norse Energy Corp., a junior exploration and production company with operations in Brazil and onshore US, he joined Aker ASA as corporate controller in 2010.

In 2012, Alexander joined Det norske oljeselskap ASA as Chief Financial Officer, responsible for all financial functions as well as strategy, business development and mergers and acquisitions. After the merger with BP Norway in 2016, he remained Chief Financial Officer of the merged entity, Aker BP ASA.

In 2019, Alexander left Aker BP ASA to become Investment Director at Aker ASA, responsible for Aker ASA's oil and gas investments.

He holds a Master of Science in Business from The University of Nordland and an MBA from The Norwegian School of Economics. Alexander is also a state authorised Public Accountant in Norway.

Glenn Brown is head of Subsurface and Portfolio for Harbour Energy plc. Glenn joined Chrysaor in April 2020 where was responsible for the subsurface function and value creation through resource maturation.

Prior to this, he held the position of Operations Coordination Manager with the UK regulator, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) for three years with a focus on promoting resource development, wells and projects performance in the UK Continental Shelf.

Before joining the OGA, Glenn was Vice President and Head of Subsurface for Maersk Oil in Copenhagen. Here he was responsible for the leadership of the subsurface discipline and corporate reserve reporting. He also led the introduction of a project maturation process within the company.

He is a petroleum engineer by background and has spent the majority of his career gaining a broad exposure, including exploration and new business to mature field operations and development projects in the UK and abroad.

He has held positions in the supply chain sector and with Exxon-Mobil and Amoco in both operational and subsurface roles with increasing scope, leadership and complexity.

Stuart Cooper is head of Corporate Strategy, Commercial and Business Development for Harbour Energy plc.

He has worked in upstream oil and gas for over 25 years, focusing on business development, commercial activities and mergers and acquisitions. This has taken him all over the world from Scotland to Venezuela, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Canada, with companies including Total, Petro-Canada/Suncor, TAQA and DONG/INEOS.

Stuart started his career as a corporate lawyer before moving into industry with Ford. He has also held advisory roles with CIBC and Kirk Lovegrove.

He has held leadership roles at senior and executive level and brings considerable experience in building and re-structuring global oil and gas portfolios. He has a wide international network and an extensive transaction and negotiations history.

Howard Landes is the general counsel for Harbour Energy plc, where he oversees the legal, company secretarial and compliance functions.

He joined Chrysaor as general counsel in early 2017, following more than 10 years at BG Group where he led a team of lawyers responsible for the group’s corporate and mergers and acquisition matters globally.

Howard trained and qualified at the international law firm, Clifford Chance.

Gill Riggs is the Chief Human Resources Officer for Harbour Energy plc.

She joined the company on 1 April 2021.  Prior to joining Harbour, Gill was the Vice President Human Resources, Global Upstream for Chevron based in the US.

During her twenty year career with Chevron, Gill held increasing roles of responsibility in human resources including Regional HR Manager, Middle East and East Africa (UAE), Regional HR Manager, Africa & Middle East (South Africa), General Manager HR, Gas & Midstream (US) General Manager HR, Technology & Services (US) and General Manager HR, Upstream Asia Pacific (Singapore).

Stuart Wheaton is head of International Business at Harbour Energy plc. He has over 30 years of industry experience focused on field development planning, project delivery, operations and upstream leadership.

His career started in Exxon as a reservoir engineer in the North Sea. Later roles at Exxon, and then at independents Lasmo, Cairn Energy and Tullow Oil, have provided wide-ranging experiences in both onshore and offshore environments. Countries and regions worked in include Australia, Venezuela, India, Ghana and East Africa, as well as the North Sea.

He joined Premier Oil in May 2015 initially as the UK Business Unit manager in Aberdeen. His final role was as Chief Operating Officer with responsibilities across the Company’s portfolio. During this period, major events included completion of the Catcher Project in the North Sea, the integration of E.On's UK assets into the UK business, and the BIGP Project start-up in Indonesia.

Andrew Osborne is Head of Special Projects for Harbour Energy plc.

Andrew joined Chrysaor in 2012 as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to Chrysaor he had over 20 years Capital Markets experience in Investment Banking, latterly as a Managing Director responsible for Merrill Lynch’s Natural Resources Equity Capital Markets and Broking business. He has worked on a significant number of oil and gas transactions for both public and private companies.

He has acted as an advisor to most members of the UK E&P Independent sector and has a depth of experience in advising early stage exploration and production (E&P) companies, going on to create significant returns for shareholders. He has extensive knowledge and experience of energy debt and equity capital markets.

Andrew led the financing for both Chrysaor’s $3.8bn acquisition of a material portfolio of UK assets from Shell and the $2.675bn acquisition of ConocoPhillips UK upstream business and latterly put in place the $4.5bn Senior Reserve Based Loan facility to finance the merger with Premier Oil.