The founding CEO of Po Valley Energy Michael Masterman has stepped down to take up a position at an unnamed major mining company.
The founding CEO of Po Valley Energy Michael Masterman has stepped down to take up a position at an unnamed major mining company.
Mr Masterman will stay on at Po Valley as non-executive deputy chairman.
Mr Masterman was CEO since founding Po Valley in 2002, overseeing its successful Initial Public Offering and Australian Securities Exchange listing in 2004.
He has been replaced by Giovanni Catalano.
Mr Catalano joined Po Valley in July as the deputy chief executive officer and chief operating officer.
See company statement below:
Po Valley Energy Limited (ASX: "PVE") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Giovanni Catalano as Chief Executive Officer effective 11 October 2010. Mr Catalano succeeds Mr Michael Masterman, the founding CEO of the company who will move to a non-executive role as Deputy Chairman.
Mr Catalano - who joined the Po Valley team in July this year as Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer - holds a masters degree in geology and has 32 years in the upstream oil and gas industry.
Prior to joining Po Valley, Mr Catalano was CEO of Mediterranean Oil & Gas plc in the UK and Italy. Prior to that, he was with Woodside Energy Pty Ltd, Perth, Western Australia as Business Development Manager - Far East, and later North Africa. Before his Woodside positions, Mr Catalano was posted worldwide with AGIP and LASMO International. He is member of SEAPEX and AAPG.
Mr Masterman has been CEO since founding Po Valley in 2002, overseeing its successful IPO and ASX listing in 2004. During this time, Po Valley has progressed from an exploration company, through development to a gas production company with two fields currently in operation.
Commenting on the handover, the Company's Chairman, Mr Graham Bradley, said:- "With Po Valley joining the ranks of gas producers, we are pleased to appoint Mr Catalano as CEO. His strong technical background and previous experience as Chief Executive of an Italian oil and gas company will provide us with continuing strong leadership in the next phase of the company's growth as a gas producer".
"Our outgoing CEO, Michael Masterman, has successfully built the company from scratch to be a strong independent European gas producer and we thank him for his untiring leadership over the past eight years," Mr Bradley said.
"Mr Masterman is leaving his executive role at Po Valley to take up a position at a major mining company and remains a major shareholder and a valued non-executive director on the Board of Po Valley Energy".
Mr Catalano's remuneration package consists of a fixed remuneration of EUR180,000, short term incentives of up to 50% of base salary payable on achievement of agreed annual performance objectives and retains his existing retention bonus which is being paid through the issue of shares and cash in four tranches between June 2010 and December 2011.
