Premier Oil has announced the proposed appointment of three additional independent, non-executive directors (NEDs) to its board.
Alan Ferguson, Margareth Øvrum and Andy Hopwood will be appointed with effect from completion of the merger with Chrysaor, except Ms Øvrum whose appointment will be effective on the later of 1 April 2021 and completion of the transaction.
Mr Ferguson has more 20 years of executive experience in the mining and automotive industries in financial director roles. His experience covers posts with Inchcape, The BOC Group and Lonmin. He was also a NED at Croda International, Weir Group, Johnson Matthey, and London Mining, and has been a NED of AngloGold Ashanti since 2018 and Marshall Motor Holdings since 2015.
He is a chartered accountant and holds a BSc in accountancy and business economics from Southampton University. Mr Ferguson will serve as chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee from completion of the merger.
Margareth Øvrum has nearly 40 years’ experience in the energy industry. She worked for Equinor and its predecessor companies from 1982 to January 2021, and was the first female and youngest platform managers of one of the company’s oldest fields in the North Sea (Gullfaks). Ms Øvrum was on the company’s corporate executive committee for 16 years. Since 2004, she has been an executive vice president at Equinor and in 2018 presided over the company’s operations in Brazil.
Ms Øvrum has served as a NED at TechnipFMC since October 2020, and FMC Corporation since 2016, and was previously NED at Alfa Laval, Atlas Copco, Ratos and Siemens Norway. She graduated with a Master of Science in Technical Physics from the Norwegian Technical University in 1981. Ms Øvrum will serve as chairman of the Health, Safety, Environment and Security Committee from the later of 1 April 2021 and completion of the merger.
Andy Hopwood retired at the end of 2020 from BP after more than 40 years’ experience in the global oil and gas industry. He spent the last 10 years as executive vice president serving on both the BP group executive team and as chief operating officer of upstream.
Prior to joining BP’s executive team, Mr Hopwood held several positions leading BP’s businesses including onshore North America, in Trinidad & Tobago and in Azerbaijan. He also held commercial, operational and engineering roles in a wide range of geographies including in the North Sea, Venezuela, Mexico and Indonesia. Mr Hopwood has a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham.