Key Management
Company
Jan Ostby
An oil and gas entrepreneur with a track record spanning 30 years establishing successful international O&G businesses. Established Finder in 2004 and was the Managing Director until January 2016.
Jan OstbyJan is the Founder of Finder, having been a Director of Finder since 2005, and Managing Director until January 2016. He is an oil and gas entrepreneur with over 30 years of track record in establishing several successful oil and gas services businesses in Europe, Russia, South America and the Asia Pacific region.
Founder
Jan previously held senior management positions at Geoteam AS, in Norway, Sevoteam in USSR/Russia, PGS Nopec Australia Pty Ltd and was one of the founding partners in Seismic Australia (later known as Fugro Multi Client Services Pty Ltd).
An engineer by degree, geophysicist by trade and an entrepreneur, Jan has been instrumental in Australian oil and gas exploration since 1992. From initially reprocessing seismic data in 1996 that led to the discovery of Australia's biggest gas field, lo/Jansz to creating his own private oil and gas company that has made four hydrocarbon discoveries and become a leading explorer in the North West Shelf.
Aaron Bond
Petroleum geoscientist with over 16 years' experience, including Majors. A proven oil and gas explorer instrumental in the discovery of Phoenix South, Roc, Kitan and offshore Angola oil fields.
Aaron BondAaron has over 16 years' experience as a proven oil and gas explorer in both technical and leadership roles. Previously he worked with the Italian supermajor Eni for 9 years in the Australian exploration team which discovered the Kitan Oil Field and in Italy with the deepwater Angola team with numerous oil discoveries that have now formed the West and East hub developments.
Exploration Manager
Aaron moved back to Australia and joined Finder in 2011 where he was a lead geoscientist, mapping, de-risking and farming out of the Phoenix South and Roc prospects that lead to major oil and gas discoveries in a new play situated in the Bedout Sub-basin. He has managed Finder's acreage portfolio over the last 3 years and led the recent farmout of three permits to Sapura in late 2018.
His qualifications include a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and he is a member of the AAPG, PESA and he also holds a position on the APPEA Exploration Sub-committee.
Jop Van Hattum
Petroleum Engineer & project manager with 22+ years diversified experience in both major oil & gas companies and regulatory bodies.
Jop Van Hattum
Operations & HSEQ Manager
Jop has over 25 years’ experience in the upstream oil and gas industry with the last 13 years spent in senior leadership roles across independent and ASX listed oil and gas companies as well a senior position with the public service in charge of regulatory compliance.
He has extensive experience in production operations and field development projects having worked in the Dutch, UK and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea, North and West Africa, Brunei and the Philippines in southeast Asia and in Victoria, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. His experience spans the full petroleum life cycle from frontier exploration through to development and production.
Jop holds post-graduate qualifications in petroleum engineering from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and business administration and commercial law from the University of Melbourne. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Australia and a member of SPE and AIPN.
Anthony Benino
Over 25 years' experience as an accounting and finance professional. Has held CFO and Company Secretary positions at a number of ASX listed companies and was a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their risk management division.
Anthony Benino
CFO/Company Secretary
Anthony has over 28 years experience as an accounting, finance and risk management professional.
Throughout his career Anthony has delivered financial and operating management systems and processes to drive operational performance and deliver shareholder value.
Anthony commenced his career as a Chartered Accountant and worked with PWC in Perth and London providing professional advisory services across a range of industries including financial services, mining, insurance and telecommunications.
He has held roles as CFO and Company Secretary at a number of ASX listed and private companies including Sanford Securities, Home Building Society, Bell Direct and Migme and is a founding director of Aspire Capital Partners.
Anthony was the CEO of privately owned Intercon Millar Logistics overseeing a company transformation resulting in the business sale to an ASX 200 logistics company on behalf of the owners.
Damon Neaves
Damon has over 15 years' experience in leadership roles as an Oil & Gas executive in both private and ASX-listed companies. Significant transactional experience in the energy sector in M&A, new ventures and farmouts.
Damon NeavesDamon has over 15 years' experience in leadership roles as an oil and gas executive responsible for overall company performance and growth in both private and ASX-listed companies.
Managing Director/CEO
Damon has extensive experience in international oil and gas projects in the African and Asia Pacific regions, including Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, Ghana, Morocco, Gabon and Madagascar. Damon's experience spans the full cycle of the oil and gas business from new ventures, exploration, development and production.
Damon brings an active approach to business development with significant transactional experience in the energy sector in mergers and acquisitions, new ventures and farmouts as project management experience in commercialising oil and gas in the North West Shelf.
Ryan Taylor-Walshe
Geoscientist with 24 years experience in geophysical technologies and leadership, including 5 years as Director of Schlumberger Australia. Managed Theia-1 petroleum exploration well.
Ryan Taylor-WalsheGeoscientist with 24 years experience in geophysical technologies and leadership, including 5 years as Director of Schlumberger Australia.
Onshore & BD Manager
Michael D'Adamo
An integral part of the Finder Team with 8+ years' experience in seismic interpretation, quantitative interpretation and prospect generation.
Jop Van Hattum
Operations & HSEQ Manager
Petroleum Engineer & project manager with 22+ years diversified experience in both major oil & gas companies and regulatory bodies.
Paula Kane
Valuable experience with 20+ years' knowledge across a variety of oil and gas assistant roles.
Paula Kane
Permit Administrator
Valuable experience with 20+ years' knowledge across a variety of oil and gas assistant roles.
Company
Jan Ostby
An oil and gas entrepreneur with a track record spanning 30 years establishing successful international O&G businesses. Established Finder in 2004 and was the Managing Director until January 2016.
Jan OstbyJan is the Founder of Finder, having been a Director of Finder since 2005, and Managing Director until January 2016. He is an oil and gas entrepreneur with over 30 years of track record in establishing several successful oil and gas services businesses in Europe, Russia, South America and the Asia Pacific region.
Founder
Jan previously held senior management positions at Geoteam AS, in Norway, Sevoteam in USSR/Russia, PGS Nopec Australia Pty Ltd and was one of the founding partners in Seismic Australia (later known as Fugro Multi Client Services Pty Ltd).
An engineer by degree, geophysicist by trade and an entrepreneur, Jan has been instrumental in Australian oil and gas exploration since 1992. From initially reprocessing seismic data in 1996 that led to the discovery of Australia's biggest gas field, lo/Jansz to creating his own private oil and gas company that has made four hydrocarbon discoveries and become a leading explorer in the North West Shelf.
Damon Neaves
Damon has over 15 years' experience in leadership roles as an Oil & Gas executive in both private and ASX-listed companies. Significant transactional experience in the energy sector in M&A, new ventures and farmouts.
Damon NeavesDamon has over 15 years' experience in leadership roles as an oil and gas executive responsible for overall company performance and growth in both private and ASX-listed companies.
Managing Director/CEO
Damon has extensive experience in international oil and gas projects in the African and Asia Pacific regions, including Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, Ghana, Morocco, Gabon and Madagascar. Damon's experience spans the full cycle of the oil and gas business from new ventures, exploration, development and production.
Damon brings an active approach to business development with significant transactional experience in the energy sector in mergers and acquisitions, new ventures and farmouts as project management experience in commercialising oil and gas in the North West Shelf.
Shane Westlake
Petroleum geophysicist with over 16 years' experience in the energy sector. Joined Finder in 2007 and has led the management team in building Finder’s portfolio and overseen significant value-accretive transactions, including farmouts with majors and independents.
Shane Westlake
Executive Director
A petroleum geophysicist with 16 years' experience in executive management roles in the energy sector. Shane joined Finder in 2007 and led the management team in building Finder's high quality acreage position and overseen significant value accretive transactions, including farmouts with majors and independents.
He is an experienced and seasoned oil and gas explorer across multiple disciplines, including new ventures, prospect maturation and drilling, with extensive experience working in Australia and around the globe on projects in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific.
Shane is the author and co-author of a number of technical papers, an expert in his field of work and a proven prospect generator with a track record of finding oil and gas and executing commercial deals.
Anthony Benino
Over 25 years' experience as an accounting and finance professional. Has held CFO and Company Secretary positions at a number of ASX listed companies and was a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their risk management division.
Anthony Benino
CFO/Company Secretary
28 years' experience as an accounting and finance professional.
Throughout his career Anthony has delivered financial and operating management systems and processes to drive operational performance and deliver shareholder value.
Anthony commenced his career as a Chartered Accountant and worked with PWC in Perth and London providing professional advisory services across a range of industries including financial services, mining, insurance and telecommunications.
Since 2000 Anthony has performed a number of senior executive roles in private and public companies.Aaron Bond
Petroleum geoscientist with over 16 years' experience, including Majors. A proven oil and gas explorer instrumental in the discovery of Phoenix South, Roc, Kitan and offshore Angola oil fields.
Aaron BondAaron has over 16 years' experience as a proven oil and gas explorer in both technical and leadership roles. Previously he worked with the Italian supermajor Eni for 9 years in the Australian exploration team which discovered the Kitan Oil Field and in Italy with the deepwater Angola team with numerous oil discoveries that have now formed the West and East hub developments.
Exploration Manager
Aaron moved back to Australia and joined Finder in 2011 where he was a lead geoscientist, mapping, de-risking and farming out of the Phoenix South and Roc prospects that lead to major oil and gas discoveries in a new play situated in the Bedout Sub-basin. He has managed Finder's acreage portfolio over the last 3 years and led the recent farmout of three permits to Sapura in late 2018.
His qualifications include a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and he is a member of the AAPG, PESA and he also holds a position on the APPEA Exploration Sub-committee.
Dariusz Jablonski
Leading industry geologist with over 30 years' experience. 20 years with Woodside before joining Finder and author of a number of publications covering Australian North West Shelf and Papua New Guinea.
Dariusz JablonskiReceived a BSc in Geology from the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT) in 1985. He joined Woodside Offshore Petroleum where he worked as a basin analyst on acreage assessment, risk analysis, play map generation and building geological data bases that covered the Westralian Superbasin, Perth Basin, South Australia, Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea.
Principal Geoscientist
Between 2006 - 2016 he was the Exploration Manager of Finder Exploration responsible for both conventional and unconventional exploration acreage in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea, Jamaica and Canada. As exploration manager of Finder Exploration his latest successful wells were the oil discovery at Phoenix South-1, gas discovery at Roc-1 and the successful unconventional well test at Theia-1.
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