Tag Archives: CFO

Centerpoint appoints new CFO

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Centerpoint Energy (market cap $18 billion) has appointed Chris Foster as its new CFO, effective May 5. He replaces Jason Wells, who was promoted to COO in January.

Mr. Foster joins from PG&E, a publicly-traded electric utility company (market cap $32 billion) that serves central and northern California, where he had been CFO since March 2021. He joined PG&E back in 2011. Mr. Wells was the CFO at PG&E before Mr. Foster.

Mr. Foster will receive a base salary of $700,000 and an equity award worth $3.9 million which will vest on his first and second anniversaries of the grant date. He will also receive relocation assistance to move to Houston.

To replace Mr. Foster, PG&E appointed Carolyn Burke as CFO. She has Houston connections, having been the CFO at Chevron Phillips Chemical Company from February 2019 to September 2022. Chevron Phillips is a jointly owned by Chevron and Phillips 66 and has its head office in The Woodlands.  She has been working as consultant to PG&E since January.

For many years, Ms. Burke worked at Dynergy and also had a spell at NRG Energy. She will have a base salary of $725,000, a signing bonus of $400,000 and $400,000 in restricted stock units.

SEC filing – Centerpoint CFO

Tellurian CFO steps down

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Kian Granmayeh, CFO of Tellurian, has resigned, effective March 10, 2023. Khaled Sharafeldin, the company’s Chief Accounting Officer, will serve as interim CFO.

[Update – One hour after the Tellurian announcement, another Houston company, Carriage Services, announced that it had hired Mr. Granmayeh as its CFO].

Mr. Granmayeh has been the CFO for 3 years. He began at Tellurian as a consultant to the CFO in January 2019 and was appointed as Director of Special Projects in July 2019 and Director of Investor Relations as month later. Prior to joining Tellurian, he worked at Apache.

Mr. Granmayeh will receive severance payments of $525,000, equivalent of one year’s salary. This will be paid over 12 months. He will forfeit all outstanding equity awards and long-term cash-based awards, except for 174,942 restricted stock units issued in January 2022. At that time they were valued at $3.38 each (or $591,304). The current share price is $1.49.

No details were given on what bonus, if any, Mr. Granmayeh received this year for 2022 performance. That will be disclosed in the annual proxy, to be filed next month.

Mr. Sharafeldin has served as the Chief Accounting Officer since January 2017. Prior to that, he worked at Cheniere as its Director of Internal Audit (correction – he was VP of Internal Audit)

Mr Souki’s margin calls

Since I wrote about the non-exec drama last month, the company has disclosed that CEO, Charif Souki, has had to sell more than 15.5 million shares (60% of his holding in Tellurian) to cover a 2017 real estate loan.  This isn’t the first time Mr. Souki has had to sell shares to cover a margin call. In fact, shortly before Mr. Granmayeh’s initial appointment in 2020, he had to sell 18 million shares. Presumably, the loan is related to a ranch in Aspen that Mr. Souki owns. It covers 800 acres and 8 houses. It was originally put up for sale for $220 million in May 2020.

Currently, Tellurian is trying to build an LNG export plant in Driftwood, Louisiana. In September 2022, Shell canceled an agreement to buy 3 million metric tons a year. At the same time, Tellurian canceled a similar-sized deal with Vitol.

Gunvor Contract

That leaves just one deal with Gunvor Singapore. That original deal included clauses that Tellurian had to have issued an unconditional notice to proceed to Bechtel, the EPC contractor for the facility by December 31, 2022 and that Tellurian had to have secured the necessary financing by the same date. That date has been extended twice, in one month increments to February 28, 2023. Gunvor and Tellurian can jointly agree on a new date. If there is no agreement, either party can terminate the deal. There has been no word on the current status.

SEC filing – Tellurian CFO

CFO at Amplify Energy resigns

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Luca Pacioli – the father of accounting

Jason McGlynn has resigned as CFO of Amplify Energy, effective March 17, 2023. He had been the CFO for just over two years, following the promotion of Martin Willsher from CFO to CEO. The company made no mention of its plans for a replacement.

[According to LinkedIn, Mr. McGlynn is now the CFO at Monarch Bioenergy. The company is a PE-backed joint venture between Smithfield Foods and Roeslein Alternative Energy that converts methane emissions from hog manure into natural gas].

Amplify Energy was formed in 2019 from the all-stock merger of Tulsa-based Midstates Petroleum and what was Memorial Production Partners. It has its head office in downtown Houston. Mr. McGlynn joined Midstates in 2013 as its VP of Strategic Planning, Investor Relations and Treasury.

Although the business mainly focuses on mature assets, mainly in Oklahoma and East Texas/North Louisiana, it has been in the news in the past couple of years for a pipeline it operated in offshore California that ruptured in October 2021.

The rupture occurred four miles offshore from Newport Beach and caused 588 barrels of oil to leak. A Coast Guard investigation concluded that two ships, the MSC Danit and COSCO Beijing, had sheltered in San Pedro Bay, ahead of a January 2021 storm. The winds and the waves from the storm caused the ships’ anchors to drag across the seafloor and damage the pipeline.

Last week, the companies that operated the ships, agreed to pay Amplify $96.5 million to settle all claims. During 2022, the company settled claims against it by;

  • the Federal Government ($7.1 million fine and reimbursement of $5.8 million of costs)
  • State of California ($4.9 million fine)
  • a Class action lawsuit ($50 million settlement)

In total, Amplify estimates that it has incurred total costs of $120 million to $140 million, though it has received $87 million (through September 2022) from its insurance carriers. In addition the company has also received $46 million insurance proceeds related to the approved loss of production income.

The company is now in the process of repairing the pipeline. Before it can resume operations, it has to comply with requirements of the corrective action order of The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which is part of the US Department of Transportation.

SEC filing – McGlynn resignation

 

Battalion Oil appoints new CFO

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Battalion Oil has appointed Kristen McWatters as its new CFO, effective January 26, 2023. She replaces Kevin Andrews, who has agreed to stay on until April 13 in an advisory role. Mr. Andrews had been the CFO since August 2020.

The company is based in NW Houston and has working interests in approximately 40,000 net acres in the Delaware Basin. Its market capitalization is currently $193 million.



The company was formerly known as Halcon Resources. It went into bankruptcy in August 2019. The company emerged in October 2019, having eliminated over $750 million of debt. In return, the debt holders got 91% of the newly reorganized equity. It changed its name to Battalion in January 2020.

Ms. McWatters was previously the CFO at Goodrich Petroleum, a similar E&P company to Battalion. Goodrich went into Chapter 11 in 2016, she joined as Assistant Controller in 2017. The company regained its listing in April 2017 and Ms. McWatters became CFO in December 2020. She left after Goodrich was taken private by Encap Investments in a $480 million deal.

For the past few months, Ms. McWatters has been interim Chief Accounting Officer at Perella Weinberg Partners, a publicly-traded investment bank. Perella, through its subsidiary, TPH, happened to advise Goodrich on its sale transaction.

Ms. McWatters will receive a base salary of $300,000. No severance arrangements were disclosed for Mr. Andrews in the filing announcing Ms. McWatters’ appointment. According to the last proxy, Mr. Andrews is entitled to a payment of $500,000 if his employment is terminated without cause.

SEC filing 8-K Battalion CFO

 

 

 

 

Black Stone Minerals CFO to depart

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Jeff Wood, the President and CFO of Black Stone Minerals (BSM), is leaving the company at the end of February. Evan Kiefer, currently VP, Finance and Investor Relations, will become interim CFO upon Mr. Wood’s departure.

BSM has its head office in downtown Houston and is one of the largest owners and managers of oil and gas mineral rights in the USA. It has a market capitalization of $3.5 billion.

Mr. Wood joined the company in 2016 and added the additional duties of President two years later. It is not clear why Mr. Wood is leaving. The company has been performing well. It tends to hedge a big percentage of its production. That makes sense as it is primarily held as a yield stock, but does come in for occasional criticism for leaving money on the table when oil and gas prices rise rapidly, like they did earlier in 2022.

The 8-K filed with the SEC states that the company and Mr. Wood will be negotiating a severance agreement. That’s interesting because Mr. Wood already has a severance agreement in place. That would pay him 1x base salary ($358,000), plus target annual bonus (100%) plus pro-rata bonus for the year of termination. Restricted stock would also vest under the current agreement.

Mr. Kiefer joined the company in October 2013 as an analyst and was promoted to VP two years ago.

SEC 8-K filing – CFO departure

Weatherford appoints new CFO after long search

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Weatherford International has appointed Arun Mita as its new CFO. He replaces Keith Jennings, who left in July 2022.

Mr. Mita joins from Mitsubishi Power Americas where he has been CFO since 2014. Before that, he spent 14 years at Siemens in the US and Germany. He started his career at Price Waterhouse in India before moving to the US with KPMG. He will relocate from Orlando.

Mr. Mita will receive a base salary of $525,000 and a cash sign-on bonus of $410,000. He will also receive long-term incentives worth $1.7 million. 40% will vest over 3 years, the rest will vest after 3 years, subject to the achievement of performance metrics.

It should be noted that Mr. Jennings joined in September 2020 with a similar package (including sign-on bonus and relocation assistance) before leaving with a severance of over $1 million (1x base plus target annual bonus plus pro-rated target bonus). Mr. Jennings started six weeks before Girish Saligram joined as CEO.

The business has improved its performance in the past year as the oilfield sector has recovered. In the third quarter, revenues and adjusted EBITDA were up about 20% year-on-year. That allowed the business to flip from net losses before taxes to net profits.  In that time, net debt is virtually unchanged at around $1.2 billion, but the leverage ratio has dropped from 3.3 times a year ago to 1.8 times at September 2022.

Unlike certain competitors, Weatherford has not pulled out of Russia and generates 6%-7% of its revenues in Russia. In its Q1 filing for the first quarter of 2022, the company disclosed that its net assets in Russia were $106 million. That jumped to $168 million at the end of Q2. In Q3, the company did not disclose the amount of net assets in Russia.

SEC filing – 8-K Weatherford CFO Jan 2023

 

Flotek appoints new CFO

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Flotek Industries, a specialty chemicals company, has appointed Bond Clement as its new CFO. He replaces Mike Borton, who left in May 2022.

Seham Carson, the Corporate Controller, had been interim CFO since Mr. Borton left. She is expected to remain with the company in a senior financial role.

Flotek has been losing money at an EBITDA level since 2016. Its share price is $1.13 and is has a market cap of $82 million. Earlier this year, Flotek agreed to supply ProFrac Holdings high volume, low margin chemicals in return for convertible notes.  Revenues in Q3 2022 were $46 million, over three times larger than Q3 2021. Profac now owns 51% of Flotek.

Mr. Clement joins from Donovan Marine, a privately-held distributor of recreational marine products where he had been CFO since September 2021. Prior to that, he spent 17 years at PetroQuest Energy, an E&P company. He was CFO for 12 years.

PetroQuest was publicly-traded until 2018. High debt forced the company into bankruptcy in November of that year. It emerged from bankruptcy three months later, having shed $292 million in debt.

Mr. Clement will receive a base salary of $400,000 and a sign-on bonus of $50,000. He will also get $50,000 to relocate from Lafayette, LA to Houston.

SEC 8-K filing – Flotek CFO appointment

Sysco CFO resigns to take the same role at Cardinal Health

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Aaron Alt, the CFO of Sysco, the food distributor, has resigned to become the CFO of Cardinal Health, based in Dublin, Ohio.

Mr. Alt had been the CFO at Sysco (market cap $40 billion) for just over two years. Prior to that, he was CFO at Dallas-based Sally Beauty Holdings and also worked for Target and Sara Lee Corporation. He holds an M.B.A. from J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.



At Cardinal (market cap $20 billion), Mr Alt will receive a base salary of $825,000. That’s a small increase on his base at Sysco ($791,000). He will also receive a cash sign-on bonus of $1 million and a lump sum payment of $250,000 for his intended relocation. Mr. Alt will also be eligible for annual long-term stock incentives with a target value of $3.5 million. That’s about a $1 million higher than his annual target at Sysco.

In August, the Cardinal CEO Mike Kaufmann resigned, to be replaced by CFO Jason Hollar. The following week, activist shareholder Elliott Management took a large stake in the business. Cardinal has sinced agreed to appoint an Elliott representative to the board and appoint four other new independent directors.

Cardinal has under-performed its competitors in the past few years and, according to the Wall Street Journal, Elliott will likely push for the sale of the medical supplies business.

Sysco appointed Neil Russell, Senior VP of Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer, as its interim CFO. The company has commenced a search for Mr. Alt’s successor.

SEC filing – 8-K Cardinal Health CFO

Magnolia Oil & Gas promotes from within for CFO role

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Magnolia Oil & Gas has promoted Christopher Stavros from CFO to CEO.  Brian Corales becomes the CFO, having previously been VP, Investor Relations. The promotion for Mr. Stavros was announced on September 21, two days before founder and CEO, Stephen Chazen, died.

Magnolia has its head office in Greenway Plaza and operates wells in South Texas around Giddings and in Karnes County. It has a market capitalization of $5.6 billion.

The company began as a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) formed by Mr. Chazen (ex-CEO of Occidental Petroleum). Mr. Stavros worked with Mr. Chazen at Oxy for 12 years, eventually becoming the CFO, before leaving in 2017.  The SPAC acquired the South Texas properties from Enervest, a PE firm, in 2018 for $2.7 billion and Mr. Stavros became CFO of Magnolia at that point.

Enervest remains the largest shareholder in Magnolia at 18%. Mr. Chazen owned 3% at the time of his death.

Mr. Corales joined Magnolia in November 2018. Prior to that, he had spent many years in investment banking including Johnson Rice & Co and Scotia Howard Weil. He will receive a base salary of $367,500.

SEC filing – 8-K Magnolia CFO appointment

Baker Hughes appoints new CFO

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Nancy Buese has been appointed CFO of Baker Hughes. She replaces Brian Worrell, who will stay on with the company as an advisor through Q2 2023.

The company has revenues of $21 billion and a market capitalization of $25 billion.



Baker Hughes recently announced a reorganization that would reduce its four reporting segments into two. Oilfield Services and Oilfield Equipment were combined into one while Turbomachinery & Energy Technology and Digital Solutions were combined into the other. The company expects to save $150 million as a result.

Ms. Buese was the CFO of Newmont Corporation, a Denver-based gold miner, from October 2016 until last month. Prior to that, she was the CFO at MarkWest Energy Partners for 10 years, a midstream company. When it was acquired by MPLX, a publicly-traded MLP owned by Marathon, she became the CFO of MPLX.

Ms. Buese will receive a base salary of $900,000. She will also receive a cash sign-on bonus of $2 million and an award of restricted stock units worth $5 million, that will vest over 3 years. In 2023, she will also be eligible for long-term incentive awards with a current annual target of $3.5 million.

Mr. Worrell has been the CFO of Baker Hughes since it was combined with GE’s oil and gas division in 2017 (it became independent of GE in 2019). Prior to that, he served as CFO of GE Oil and Gas between 2014 and 2017. He began with GE in 1992 and is based in London.

No details of any severance arrangements with Mr. Worrell were disclosed.

[UPDATE 12-02-22. The company filed an updated 8-K. Mr. Worrell will get a severance of $2.6 million (18 months’ base salary) plus $1.25 million average bonus. He also gets a consulting contract that pays $100,000 a month. That will last for up to 18 months, though the company can terminate after six months].

SEC filing – Baker Hughes CFO