Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based VP’ operating in the Oil and Gas space. If you think a VP’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Gerard Penning
Executive Vice President Human Resources Downstream of Shell Oil Company
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About Shell Oil Company: Shell Oil Company is an oil and gas company that explores and produces energy products.
Diana Kennedy
Vice President & Strategy, Architecture and Planning of BP
Diana has been with BP for over 7 years, firstly leading the Strategy and Architecture function for the Enterprise Systems group, and latterly for the Upstream Business. In addition, Diana led the Information and Big Data Agenda for the BP until February 2017 when she was appointed Vice President, Strategy, Architecture and Planning for BP. Prior to BP, Diana was Head of Architecture for British Gas, part of the Centrica group, where she led the solutions team for the retail transformation of British Gas. Diana started her career in consulting, firstly with Boston Consulting Group and subsequently PwC, where she held senior design and architecture roles, predominantly in the financial services and insurance sector. Diana holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering, a post-graduate degree in Computer Science and an MBA. She has three young children and enjoys competing for Great Britain in Masters Athletics in her spare time.
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About BP: BP delivers heat, light and mobility products and services to people all around the world.
Chris Thomas
Vice President & Head of Strategy and Business Development and Group Company Secretary of Seven Energy
Chris has over 25 years’ experience in corporate finance generally and, for the last 17 years, in the exploration and production sector. Previously, Chris was a founding director and group company secretary of Melrose Resources, the former London Stock Exchange FTSE 250 listed international E&P company with interests in EMEA and the US. Chris is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
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About Seven Energy: Seven Energy is an indigenous Nigerian oil and gas exploration, development, production and distribution company.
David Bunch
Vice President Retail Sales and Operations & Chairman SDSA of Royal Dutch Shell
David has been with Shell for 17 years – in a number of marketing & sales roles. Prior to his appointment as Vice-President Marketing, David was General Manager Retail Lubricant Sales for the Americas within the Global Commercial organization.After graduating in Psychology and Economics, David completed an MBA at the London Business School and then began his career in Asia, moving to Europe and then the US – where prior to joining Shell he worked with Sony, in the PlayStation division; Japan Steel, in new product development; and Anderson Consulting, in the Retail practice.
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About Royal Dutch Shell: Royal Dutch Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemicals companies.
Andrew Walker
VP Strategy of Cheniere Energy Inc
Dr. Andrew Walker is the Vice President for Strategy and Communication for Cheniere. He is located in London and is responsible for the Strategy and Market Outlook of Cheniere. Until October 2015 he was Vice President for Global LNG – and prior to that Head of LNG Strategy – at BG Group where he worked for over 20 years before joining Cheniere. During his career in LNG he has been located in Singapore, Egypt, the USA and UK and has worked on numerous LNG projects including Atlantic LNG in Trinidad and Tobago, Egyptian LNG, and Dragon LNG in the UK.
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About Cheniere Energy Inc: LNG Terminals. Cheniere is among the leading companies in North America strategically pursuing the development of LNG terminals.
Jess Brown
Vice President and Chief Information Officer of RelaDyne
Jess Brown is responsible for RelaDyne’s Information Technology platform, including all IT services and support. Under Brown’s leadership RelaDyne has leveraged leading-edge technology to install a common computing platform throughout the organization and has integrated the new computing system into all of its business units to foster common operating procedures and capitalize on economies of scale. Other technology highlights include the deployment of a CRM system, a demand planning and forecasting system, and an industry leading B2B customer-facing website. Prior to joining RelaDyne, Brown spent nearly 24 years with Wolseley PLC, holding positions at group companies Ferguson Enterprises and Stock Building Supply and at Wolseley’s head office. Ferguson, located in Newport News, Va., is the nation’s leading plumbing, HVAC and building supply distributor. There, Brown held a variety of technical and business operations positions. He began his career at Ferguson in 1987 as an IT Support Analyst and was promoted into programming, analyst and IT management roles; he steadily rose through the ranks to Ferguson’s Director of IT. In 2004, Brown assumed international responsibility for all Wolseley companies’ software as Director of Software Applications. In addition to creating and deploying technology during his Wolseley group tenure, Brown held roles in business reengineering and optimization, programs to gather market intelligence and gauge customer service, and business restructuring for operational efficiency. During his tenure at Stock Building Supply, he was Director of Business Operations. In this role he developed common business processes to facilitate system utilization. Brown received a B.S. Degree in Management Information Systems from Christopher Newport University. He has completed executive development programs at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, and management development at the Gallup School of Management.
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About RelaDyne: RelaDyne is a supplier of comprehensive equipment reliability products and value added services.
Jonathan Banyard
SVP Europe, Africa & Middle East of Polarcus
Jonathan Banyard has over 20 years’ experience working in the energy industry, with a focus on the Seismic Data Library business. Prior to joining Polarcus, Jonathan worked for Arcis Seismic Solutions Corp, a subsidiary of TGS, where he held several Management positions. In addition to his most recent role as Managing Director, Jonathan was also a Multi-Client Seismic Data Library Manager and Director of Sales & Project Management within the same company. He has also held senior Sales and Marketing roles within the seismic industry, including CGG. Jonathan joins the Polarcus team as SVP Europe, Africa and Middle East.
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About Polarcus: Polarcus is an innovative marine geophysical company.
Jonathan Carpenter
Vice President, New Energy Services of Petrofac
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About Petrofac: Petrofac is a provider of oilfield services to the international oil and gas industry. It is registered in Jersey, with its main corporate
Michael Mondanos
VP Environment & Infrastructure of Silixa
Michael joined Silixa as a Business Development Manager for industrial monitoring applications in 2011. Prior to joining the company, he worked a number of years in the field as a Senior Engineer and Project Manager. Michael holds a master’s degree in Communications & Radio Engineering from King’s College and a PhD in optical fibre instrumentation from Imperial College, University of London. Michael is responsible for expanding upon Silixa’s position as a leading provider of distributed sensing technology into larger scale projects serving the downstream oil & gas and pipeline sectors while continuing to grow Silixa’s presence outside the energy sector. He has authored several international publications and is a widely acknowledged expert within the energy industry.
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About Silixa: Silixa is a provider of fiber-powered data solutions for the natural resources and mining sector.
Rosemary Johnson Sabine
Vice President Exploration of Tethys Petroleum
Mrs Johnson Sabine joined Tethys Petroleum as Vice President Exploration in 2007. She leads exploration on Tethys Petroleum acreage in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Georgia and also on possible new ventures. This includes geological and geophysical studies especially seismic acquisition and locating exploration wells as part of a carefully risked and balanced programme. Mrs Johnson Sabine started her career in geophysics and has worked for many years leading teams in exploration and new business for both major and independent oil and gas companies. This includes nearly 10 years with Chevron/Texaco, 7 with Monument Oil & Gas and 7 with Amerada Hess. She has spent the last 10 years focused on Central Asia. Mrs Johnson Sabine is a member of SEG, a past President in EAGE and a past Chairman of PESGB, holds an OBE for services to the UK Oil and Gas industry, and has a BSc in Geology from the University of London.
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About Tethys Petroleum: Tethys is focused on oil and gas exploration and production activities in Central Asia and the Caspian Region.
Gary Osborne
VP Engineering of Pyreos
Gary joined Pyreos in 2015 and is responsible for product development and customer support. His career started in R&D at UK computer pioneers Apricot. At digital TV specialists Pace he was Engineering Manager and later moved to M&A, Product Management covering EMEA and Asia-Pac, and Business Development. He has also held senior roles with US tech giant EchoStar, being responsible for key innovative products in new markets.
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About Pyreos: Pyreos develops and supplies a specialised infra-red sensor platform.
Ramchander S.
Vice President of Global Marketing of Castrol
Ramchander A.S. is a Vice President of Global Marketing at Castrol.
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About Castrol: Castrol is a worldwide leader in high performance lubricants for the automotive, industrial, marine and aerospace industries.
Tom Reuner
Senior Vice President of HFS Research
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About HFS Research: It is our mission to provide visionary insight into the major innovations impacting business operations
