TSXV Trading Symbol: MVN
OTC Trading Symbol: MDLNF
CALGARY, Sept. 23, 2014 /CNW/ - Madalena Energy Inc.
(TSX-V: MVN) and (OTC: MDLNF) (the "Company" or "Madalena") is
pleased to announce that Messrs. Douglas E.
Brooks and Steven Sharpe, two
new independent directors have joined the Madalena board of
directors (the "Board"). "This is an exciting time for
Madalena following our recent transformational transaction and our
transition to a more balanced business strategy", said Raymond Smith, Chairman of the Board. "We are
very pleased that Douglas and Steven have agreed to join the Board
and feel that Madalena and its shareholders will benefit greatly
from the education, experience and skills that these two highly
qualified individuals possess." The following is a brief
biography of each of these new independent directors.
Douglas
Brooks
Mr. Brooks is an executive with 32 years'
experience in the oil and natural gas exploration and producing
industry in positions of increasing responsibility, including
eleven years at the executive level and seven years as a company
President and CEO. In 2012 Mr. Brooks joined Aurora Oil &
Gas Ltd. as CEO and member of the board of directors.
Aurora was an ASX and TSX listed public company and was one of
Australia's largest oil and gas
companies prior to it being purchased by Baytex Energy Corp. for
$2.6 billion in June, 2014. Under Mr.
Brooks' leadership Aurora implemented a new strategy to transform
it from a non-operated production company into an operating focused
company to unlock greater shareholder value by leveraging its
existing significant technical and commercial expertise in the
Eagle Ford formation of south Texas. The strategy resulted in
accretive growth through targeted acquisitions of under developed
nearby Eagle Ford assets and selective exploration efforts
resulting in Aurora operating nearly 30% of its production and 45%
of its leasehold interests, including one new core exploration area
at the time of the purchase by Baytex. Mr. Brooks has previously
also worked as President and CEO of two private equity sponsored
companies from 2006 to 2011. Prior thereto, Mr. Brooks held
various positions at Marathon Oil Company from 1982-2006, including
an executive position to grow the company in select areas within
its corporate strategy. His positions at Marathon also
included Director, Worldwide M&A and Business Development,
North America and South America. Resource play projects worked
by Mr. Brooks include the U.S. include the Eagle Ford and
Austin Chalk in south Texas; the Niobrara and Mowry in central Wyoming; the Bakken in North Dakota; Williams Fork in northwest
Colorado; early work in coal bed
methane in Wyoming and oil sand
projects in Canada. Besides
his resource play involvement, his experience includes domestic and
international conventional plays in Canada, North
Africa and West Africa and
China. Mr. Brooks is based
in Houston. He obtained his
Bachelor of Science, Business Management at the University of Wyoming, Casper, and his Master of
Business Administration (finance) at Our Lady
of the Lake University.
Steven
Sharpe
Mr. Sharpe is currently Managing Director of The
EmBeSa Corporation, a private consultancy dealing primarily with
corporate restructuring and business strategy. Most recently, Mr.
Sharpe was Chairman and Interim CEO of Longview Oil Corp (TSX)
until its acquisition by Surge Energy Inc. in June of this year. He
was for many years Chairman of Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. (TSX,
NYSE), and was a director and Chair of the Special Committee of the
Board of Renegade Petroleum Ltd. (TSX-V). Until March, 2013, Mr.
Sharpe was CEO and a member of the Board of C.A. Bancorp Inc.
(TSX).
Steven graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in
1977; he spent his legal career at Torys and then Davies, Ward
& Beck until 1998. During that time, much of his time was spent
advising banks, multinational corporations and boards of directors
on strategic, conflictual and governance issues. He co-headed the
work-out and restructuring group at Davies, and participated in a
variety of national and international situations. From 1998 until
2001, Mr. Sharpe was the Executive Vice President of the
Kroll-O'Gara Company (NASDAQ) in New
York. He was responsible for strategic planning, business
development and the building of a mergers and acquisitions group.
During his tenure, the M&A group completed more than 10
acquisitions of scale, spread out over North America, the U.K., South America and the People's Republic of China. In 2002, Mr.
Sharpe and Gordon Cheesbrough
founded Blair Franklin Capital Partners Inc., a Toronto-based investment bank. Steven was
co-Managing Partner of Blair
Franklin from 2002 to 2007, and then Senior Advisor to the
firm. Subsequently, he was Chairman and CEO of Prime Restaurants
Royalty Income Fund which became Prime Restaurants Inc. (TSX) where
he was Chairman until its sale to Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.
in 2011.
Grant of Options
Madalena is also pleased to announce that the
Board has approved the grant of options to purchase 350,000 common
shares of the Company to each of Messrs. Brooks and Sharpe at an
exercise price per share equal to the closing price of Madalena's
common shares on September 24, 2014
pursuant to the stock option plan of the Company.
About Madalena - International and
Domestic Assets
Madalena is an independent, Canadian-based,
international and domestic upstream oil and gas company whose main
business activities include exploration, development and production
of crude oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas.
Internationally, Madalena holds 14 large land
blocks within five provinces in Argentina where it is focused on the
delineation of large petroleum in-place shale and unconventional
resources in the Vaca Muerta and Agrio shales, in addition to
multiple tight sand plays. The Company is also implementing
horizontal drilling and completions technology to develop high
impact conventional and resource plays.
Domestically, Madalena's core area of operations
is located in the Greater Paddle River area of west-central
Alberta where the Company holds
approximately 200 gross (150 net) sections of land (approximately
78% average W.I.) encompassing light oil and liquids-rich gas
resource plays. Madalena's primary domestic focus is to exploit its
large inventory of horizontal drilling locations on its Ostracod
oil and other oil and liquids-rich gas resource plays.
Madalena trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under
the symbol MVN and on the OTC under the symbol MDLNF. Basic
corporate information, recent news releases and regularly updated
corporate presentations are available on the Company's website at
www.madalenaenergy.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its
Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the
policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for
the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
SOURCE Madalena Energy Inc.