Management Team

Richard Schmitt (President and CEO)
Mr. Schmitt holds a B.Sc. in Geological Sciences from the University of Aston in Birmingham, England. He has over 32 years of diverse international experience in the upstream oil and gas industry with expertise in exploration, exploitation, operations and new ventures. A significant part of his career has been spent managing and developing projects in Yemen, culminating in 5 years as Occidental's President and General Manager in that country. Richard was President and CEO of Africa Oil Corp. from October 2006 to October 2009, when he joined Black Marlin.

William Evaroa (Chief Financial Officer)
Mr. William Evaroa was appointed Chief Financial Officer in June 2010. Mr. Evaroa is a chartered accountant who brings to the company 25 years of oil and gas industry experience, gained while working in a number of international locations. His experience includes setting up operations, systems implementation, policies and procedures and international reporting. It includes 7 years with Nexen beginning with in country Finance Manager for Vietnam, then transferring to Indonesia before being posted to the Calgary head office where he managed the reporting of Nexen's international division, it's annual budget and implementation of Sarbanes Oxley. More recently Mr. Evaroa was a key member of Tanganyika Oil's Syria based operation at times heading up Finance, HR, IT and Admin. , before the company was acquired by Sinopec.

Barrington Rogers (COO - Black Marlin)
Barry Rogers is Black Marlin Energy's COO, having been Exploration Manager from January 2008 where he had specific responsibility for New Ventures and the Indian Ocean. Before joining Black Marlin he was Project Manager for Madagascar Oil (2005-2007), Exploration Manager with PEMI in Turkey (2001 -2004), Perenco in Turkey (1998 - 2001) and Ansan Wikfs in Yemen (1997). From 1990 to 1996 Mr. Rogers worked for Enterprise Oil, first in London with responsibility for the Europe and Africa exploration portfolio and then in Cambodia (as General Manager from 1991-1995) and Malaysia. Mr Rogers joined Enterprise Oil after 14 years with BP where he had regional responsibility for exploration ventures in Africa and the Middle East, with postings to Oman, Egypt, the UK, Thailand and the United States. Mr. Rogers graduated with a BSc in Geology and Geography from the University of London in 1972 and is a Fellow of the Geological Society.

Mike Watson (COO - UPSL)
Mr. Watson is the COO and has over 16 years of experience in the seismic exploration industry. A graduate in Electronic Engineering, he started his career with Geophysical Services Incorporation (GSI) in the 3D multi streamer offshore data acquisition, then A&B Geoscience (Canada) and SeaBird Exploration (Norway). Mr. Watson is a British citizen and resides in Dubai.

Terence Nilsen (Senior Geophysicist)
Mr. Nilsen joined Black Marlin in January 2009 as Chief Explorationist. Before joining Black Marlin, Mr. Nilsen served as Technical Director for Key Petroleum Ltd from 2007 to 2008 where he was involved in the Company's early Tanzanian exploration success and new licence acquisition. Mr. Nilsen has also worked for Arc Energy Ltd (2006-2007), Hardman Resources Ltd (2000-2005, where he became Exploration Supervisor and Hardman's JV Technical Representative during successful oil and gas drilling campaigns in Mauritania) and Santos Ltd (1997 to 2000, where he contributed towards successful Australian onshore gas exploration and appraisal drilling undertaken by the Company). Earlier in his career Mr. Nilsen worked for Cultus Petroleum NL and Stirling Resources NL. Mr. Nilsen graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours in Geology.

Eddie Harney (HSE Manager)
Mr. Harney was appointed as BMEL's HSE Manager in August of 2008. Mr. Harney, an Irish citizen and a graduate in Electronics from the Sligo Institute of Technology in Ireland, brings with him over 18 years of experience in the industry having previously worked offshore for WesternGeco (formerly Western Geophysical) in several roles culminating in a five year period as Party Chief on a number of multi-streamer vessels (1990-2002). Eddie has also worked off shore as Party Chief for Seabird Exploration and more recently for Seabird in the role of Operations Manager (2004-2008).