Toscana Energy Income Corporation (“Toscana” or the “Corporation“) (TSX: TEI) announces that Mr. Joseph S. Durante, the Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer, has stepped down from managing day-to-day operations and will take on a new role as Executive Director effective August 27, 2019 (the “Effective Date“).
Replacing Mr. Durante as of the Effective Date will be Mr. Ryan Heath. For over 20 years Mr. Heath has enjoyed successfully building junior oil and gas companies in the WCSB. Most recently, he was VP Land & Negotiations at Paredes Energy Corporation. Mr. Heath has been instrumental in the growth and development of a number of junior E&P companies including Striker Exploration Corp., Hyperion Exploration Corp. and Severo Energy Corp. Throughout his earlier career he held roles of increased Land Management responsibility with Paramount Energy Trust and NCE Petrofund Corp. Mr. Heath holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Petroleum Land Management from the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business and is an active member of the CAPL.
Joining Mr. Heath will be Mr. Mark Hadley as VP of Exploration and Mr. Ian Schafer as VP of Business Development as of the Effective Date.
Mr. Hadley has 32 years of diverse and successful experience as an oil and gas exploration geologist. He most recently was a founder and VP Exploration at Paredes Energy. He was the VP Exploration of Kicking Horse Energy from 2014 through to its acquisition in December 2015 by ORLEN Upstream Canada. Mr. Hadley was VP Exploration of Contact Exploration from 2011 to 2014 and Manager of Geology at Fairborne Energy from 2002 to 2011. Previous to that he has had roles at Range Petroleum, Suncor Energy, PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. and Husky Energy. Mr. Hadley holds a M.Sc in Geology from the University of Alberta, and an H.BSc in Geology, from the University of Western Ontario. He is an active member of APEGA.
Mr. Schafer has over 18 years of diverse oil and gas engineering and operational experience. Most recently, he was a founder and the Vice President of Engineering at Paredes Energy Corporation and prior to that, Mapan Energy Ltd., a publicly traded natural gas company acquired by Tourmaline Oil Corp. in August 2015. Throughout his career, Mr. Schafer has held roles of increased responsibility with various-sized public and private growth companies. Mr. Schafer holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Petroleum, and a M.Eng. in Petroleum Engineering with a specialization in Reservoir Characterization. He is an active member of APEGA and SPE.
This transition in personnel will allow for the reallocation of resources in order to generate new growth opportunities. While the sector continues to have headwinds, Toscana believes that the addition of these successful and experienced individuals will position the Corporation to compete and grow in this current challenging environment.
