About Us

Directors and Senior Management

Todd Kozel

Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Mr Kozel co-founded the Company where he serves as the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In 1988 Mr Kozel founded Texas Keystone Inc., an independent oil and gas exploration, development and production company, headquartered in Pittsburgh, USA. Mr Kozel served as Texas Keystone’s President from 1995 to 2004 and has served as a director since 1988. Mr Kozel also co-founded Falcon Drilling Company LLC, an American independent drilling and oilfield services company, in 2001 and serves on its Board of Directors.

Ali A. Al-Qabandi

Business Development Director

Mr Al-Qabandi co-founded the Company where he has served as a director since 24 July 2007. He has held numerous executive positions and committee chairmanships for the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) which he joined in 1979. Most recently, Mr Al-Qabandi served as the Executive Assistant Managing Director of Planning and Finance for the KOC and a director of the Kuwait National Petroleum Company. Mr Al-Qabandi also served as Chairman of the Corporate Information Implementation Project, a board member of Kuwait Gulf Oil Company, a board member of United Oil Projects, Chairman of the KOC Profit Centre Committee and was a member of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, the Review of KOC Organisation Committee, the Cost Optimisation Steering Committee and Field Development Steering Committee.

John B. Gerstenlauer

Chief Operating Officer

Mr Gerstenlauer joined the Company from BASF's Wintershall Nederland Group, The Hague, where he was Managing Director. A US citizen, Mr Gerstenlauer holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Marine Biology, Civil Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Ocean Engineering. He has written numerous technical papers on Petrophysical topics and drilling techniques. Mr Gerstenlauer's oil & gas industry career began when he joined Shell Coastal Division, New Orleans, as a Petrophysical Engineer in 1979. Over subsequent years, he assumed increasingly senior production engineering and drilling engineering roles within various New Orleans-based Shell operating divisions including Coastal, Onshore and Offshore until joining Shell Oil subsidiary Pecten Cameroon Inc as Engineering Manager in 1985, where he was responsible for 50,000 bopd of operated offshore production, and a further 120,000 bopd of non-operated offshore production. Mr Gerstenlauer returned to Shell Offshore East and Coastal Divisions, New Orleans in 1989 as Production Superintendent before transferring to Shell Oil subsidiary Pecton do Brasil Ltd as Engineering Manager in 1990, and then in 1993 he was seconded to Canadian Occidental Yemen ("CanOxy Yemen") as Operations Manager. At CanOxy Yemen Mr Gerstenlauer managed the project from start-up to full production of 210,000 bopd. In 1996, Mr Gerstenlauer joined UMC Petroleum firstly as International Engineering Manager and then International Operations Manager focussed mainly on West African offshore projects. Following UMC's planned takeover by Ocean Energy in 1998, Mr Gerstenlauer joined Wintershall AG, Kassel, Germany as Project Manager then Consultant before becoming Managing Director of Wintershall Nederland Group, The Hague in 2003.

Ewen Ainsworth

Finance Director

Mr Ainsworth was appointed as Finance Director of Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. in January 2008. Mr. Ainsworth has over 20 years of experience in finance roles within the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining the Company, Mr Ainsworth was Finance Director of the London AIM-listed Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc. Mr Ainsworth has held increasingly senior finance positions within a number of oil and gas companies, including Conoco (U.K.) Ltd (London), Murco Petroleum Ltd (London), Texaco Ltd (London and Aberdeen) and CIECO Exploration & Production (UK) Ltd where he was responsible for all aspects of North Sea projects accounting and providing financial support for the Algeria and Azerbaijan operations. Mr. Ainsworth joined Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc in September 2004 where he provided support to the business across a wide brief, including preparation and submission of a successful licence application in Egypt, business development, compliance, legal and HR issues. A qualified accountant, Mr. Ainsworth gained ACMA accreditation in 1993. He has strong technical skills in managing public company finances and regulatory obligations as well as international transaction and funding experience.

Mehdi Varzi

Non-Executive Director

Mr Varzi was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. in January 2008. He graduated from the London School of Economics & Political Science with a Bachelor of Economics and holds an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. Mr Varzi began his career with the National Iranian Oil Company before joining the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1982 Mr Varzi joined stockbrokers Grieveson Grant & Co. Over his time with Grieveson Grant & Co, which subsequently became Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Mr Varzi held a number of positions, culminating in the position of Managing Director, Oil & Gas Research. In 2001, Mr Varzi established an independent global energy consultancy, Varzi Energy, which advises a number of leading international financial institutions on global oil and gas developments. Over the past 10 years, Mr Varzi has served as a Member of the International Advisory Panel of Nippon Oil, Non-Executive Director of Sonoran Energy, Director of Global Macro Energy Research and Middle Eastern Affairs at Trinity Funds and adviser to the chairman of Turcas Petrol. He is a regular speaker at international energy conferences.

Lord Truscott

Non-Executive Director

Lord Truscott of St James's was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. in May 2008. Lord Truscott was appointed as a member of the House of Lords in 2004. Between 2006 and 2007, he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy at the Department of Trade and Industry ("DTI") and the DTI Government Spokesperson in the House of Lords. He represented Hertfordshire in the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999. Lord Truscott is currently Parliamentary British Council Ambassador, Russian Federation and republics of the former Soviet Union ("FSU"). He has extensive contacts in Russia and the FSU, and is widely regarded as a world expert and author on the region. He was until recently a member of the House of Lords European Union Select Committee, Sub Committee C (Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Policy). Following his doctorate from Oxford University, he has written extensively on foreign, energy and security policy, including a Royal United Services Institute report on political risk management in the energy and defence sectors. He has participated in an Industry and Parliament Trust placement including with ConocoPhillips and KPMG, to assess different commercial approaches to risk management. He was subsequently elected a Fellow of the Industry and Parliament Trust. He was visiting Research Fellow with the Institute for Public Policy Research from 1999 to 2000 and is currently an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.

Lord Guthrie

Non-Executive Director

General the Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, GCB LVO OBE DL, was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. in October 2011. Lord Charles Ronald Llewelyn Guthrie served in the British Army from 1957 to 2001. From 1997 to 2001 he was Chief of the Defence Staff and the Principal Military Adviser to two Prime Ministers and three Secretaries of State for Defence. He was, for ten years, Colonel Commandant of the Intelligence Corps and is currently Colonel of The Life Guards, Gold Stick to The Queen and was Colonel Commandant of the SAS from 2001 to 2010. He was Director of NM Rothschild & Sons Limited from 2001 to 2011 and is currently a Director of Sciens Capital (US), Colt Defense (US), Petropavlosk plc. He is a Council Member of The International Institute of Strategic Studies; a Visiting Professor and Honorary Fellow of King's College London University and Chairman of the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. He is President of The Army Benevolent Fund; Action Research; Federation of London Youth Clubs and a Governor of The Charterhouse, Clerkenwell. He is a Board Member of the Moscow School of Political Studies.

Mark Hanson

Non-Executive Director

Mark Anthony Crump Hanson was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. in November 2011. He is a qualified barrister and solicitor and was Chief Executive Officer of Global Banking Corporation in Bahrain from 2006 to 2008. Mr Hanson has extensive regulatory and corporate governance experience having served as a director on several boards and having advised a number of clients in the Middle and Far East during his 34 year career. His previous experience includes the listing in Hong Kong and New York of Shanghai Petrochemical Company, the first mainland upstream Chinese oil company to list outside of the People’s Republic of China, and oil and gas projects in Saudi Arabia. Mr Hanson served as Chief Executive of Bain Securities Limited, Managing Director of Peregrine Capital Limited, Deputy CEO at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and COO of Crosby Financial Holdings. In addition, he was responsible for the establishment of ABN AMRO’s investment banking and equity capital market operations in Saudi Arabia.

Tony Peart

Legal and Commercial Director

Tony Peart joined the Company in 2008 and has over 29 years of legal, commercial and management experience in the oil and gas industry. From 2006 to 2008 he was Legal and Commercial Director of African Arabian Petroleum Limited, an Emirati-owned oil company holding exploration and production interests in North and West Africa. From 2000 to 2005 he was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Petrokazakhstan Inc. which was acquired by the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). He was previously Managing Director of Bula Resources plc and MMS Petroleum plc and has held senior management positions at Lasmo plc, Ultramar Exploration Limited and Veba Oil and Gas Limited. He is an Attorney, holds a Masters degree in General Management from the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School and has completed the Programme for Management Development at the Harvard Business School.

Chris Garrett

Vice President Operations

Mr Garrett joined the Company in 2004 as Managing Director of the UK entity and Operations Manager for Algeria. Mr Garrett’s background is in geology and geophysics. He spent 12 years overseas working in the USA and the Middle East. He brings to the Company over 29 years of oilfield experience gained with Core Laboratories and Western Geophysical and latterly with Baker Hughes and Randall & Dewey where he assumed a number of roles ranging from international exploration and operations management through to property and prospect evaluation.

Adnan Samarrai

Country Manager - Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Mr. Samarrai holds a BSc degree in geology and has been an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists since 1972. He has over 45 years of experience in the oil and gas industry in Iraq including wide experience in petroleum geology and drilling technology. He joined the Iraq Petroleum Co. (IPC) in the early 1960s before joining the Iraq National Oil Company (“INOC”) in 1972 where he held the position of Chief Exploration Geologist until his retirement in 1998. Since his retirement from INOC Mr Samarrai has worked as Consulting Geologist to both BG International and Exploration Consultant Ltd (ECL) before joining Gulf Keystone firstly as a consultant and subsequently as the Country Manager for Kurdistan, Iraq in November 2006.

Mohamed Messaoudi

Country Manager - Algeria

Mr Messaoudi is a petroleum geologist with 27 years of experience in the oil and gas industry in Algeria. Mr Messaoudi joined Sonatrach, the Algerian National Oil Enterprise in 1979, becoming Chief Geologist for the Hassi Messaoud Basin in 1996 and then the Regional Exploration Manager of the North Algeria Area / Onshore and Offshore Basins. Prior to Mr Messaoudi’s retirement from Sonatrach, he held the position of Regional Exploration Manager for the South East Algeria Region, Algeria’s most important hydrocarbon area containing the Hassi Messaoud, Berkine, Illizi and Oued Mya basins.