Orca Exploration Group Inc. said Oct. 22 that its board of directors has appointed Nigel Friend as CEO of Orca effective November 1, 2018.

Friend has over 20 years’ experience in the international energy sector and has extensive experience of financing and developing integrated gas projects. He was a board director and CFO of Orca between 2004 and 2012 and led the financial and commercial activities for the company in the initial years when the markets for the gas were being established. In the 1990’s he led Enron Europe’s investment in an onshore gas field in the Thrace Basin in Turkey and oversaw the development of its downstream gas markets. More recently, he jointly founded a company that is developing new modular technologies that will facilitate the monetization of natural gas.

He has extensive corporate and project finance experience. At KPMG in London, he headed up a corporate finance department that project managed several significant corporate acquisitions and privatizations. At Pan Ocean Energy Corp., he coordinated the spinout of the company’s Tanzania natural gas business unit to shareholders and the listing of East Coast Energy. At Enron, he was responsible for several strategic investments in E&P and energy related companies.

Friend is a qualified chartered accountant and holds a BSc (Hons) in Industrial Economics from Nottingham University.

The board of directors conducted a global search process with the assistance of a recruitment firm and Friend has all the qualities sought for the CEO of Orca, the company said. Friend’s initial focus will be to review the strategic options for the company with a view to diversifying its asset base and increasing the liquidity in the trading of Orca’s shares.

Friend succeeds interim CEO Alan Knowles. The board unanimously thanks Knowles for his valuable contributions during his tenure as both a director and interim CEO of Orca.