Board of Directors

Philip Jackson

Non-executive Chairman

Chris Hopkinson

Chief Executive Officer

Frances Ward

Chief Financial Officer

Kate Coppinger

Non-executive Director

Doug Fleming

Non-executive Director

Philip Jackson

Non-executive Chairman

Philip Jackson has over 35 years’ experience in investments and corporate finance in energy and infrastructure projects.

He was the founder and former Chief Executive of J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s $860 million Asian Infrastructure and Related Resources Opportunity Fund and until March 2020 he was a partner of Kerogen Capital Partners Limited. Since March 2021 he is a senior advisor to and has been asked to join the board of Arctic Green Energy Corporation (one of the world’s leading geothermal district heating businesses, primarily in Asia). He is also chairman of OneWater Group Limited which provides utility water treatment technologies around the world. He started his career with the energy team at Ashurst LLP before moving to its client Trafalgar House plc, then one of the UK’s leading independent oil and gas companies.

Philip is a Fellow of the Energy Institute. He graduated with an MA in law from the University of Cambridge and qualified as a solicitor of the Supreme Court in England.

Chris Hopkinson

Chief Executive Officer

Chris began his career with Shell International, followed by technical and management roles with Yukos and Lukoil Overseas, before becoming Chief Executive Officer of Imperial Energy Group up until its acquisition by ONGC in 2009. He was then Vice-President Western Siberia for TNKBP, Senior Vice-President North Africa for BG Group, Chief Executive Officer of International Petroleum Limited, and Chief Operating Officer for JSC National Company KazMunayGas.

Chris is currently Non-executive Chairman of Enwell Energy, an AIM-quoted oil and gas exploration and production group, and a Non-executive Director of Nostrum Oil and Gas plc. He is also the founder of Astra Resources Management.

Chris holds a BSc Honours degree in Applied Physics from St Andrews University.

Frances Ward

Chief Financial Officer

Frances is a qualified accountant with over 15 years’ senior management experience within the international oil and gas sector.

Her previous experience includes 11 years at Nexen Energy (now part of CNOOC) in various senior finance roles in their London and Calgary offices.

Frances joined Star Energy in 2017 as Group Financial Controller, then assuming overall responsibility for the finance function as Finance Director in July 2020 and was appointed as CFO in September 2022.

Kate Coppinger

Non-executive Director

Kate is currently Non-executive Director at Serica Energy plc, an AIM listed, independent UK natural gas producer, and Plant Healthcare plc.

Kate initially worked for CIBC World Markets as a research analyst before joining Harrison Lovegrove in 2000 where she moved into transaction execution. Following the acquisition of Harrison Lovegrove by Standard Chartered Bank in September 2007, Kate continued in oil and gas M&A transactions. In 2014, she was appointed Managing Director, Oil & Gas Corporate Finance, where she was responsible for origination and execution of transactions for European clients, a position she held until leaving Standard Chartered Bank in 2020.

Doug Fleming

Non-executive Director

Doug was Chief Financial Officer at private equity backed Siccar Point Energy, an E&P company with assets in the UK sector of the North Sea.

Doug was part of the team that founded the business in 2014. Siccar Point Energy went from start-up in 2014 to production of c.9,000 boepd in 2021 before being sold to Ithaca Energy in 2022 for a consideration of up to $1.46 billion. Prior to Siccar Point Energy, Doug held senior roles at Centrica Energy E&P and Venture Production plc.

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