Management
Charle Gamba
President & CEO
Mr. Gamba is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Canacol, a role he has held since he founded the Corporation in 2008. Mr. Gamba has 30 years of international oil and gas experience, and has previously worked for Imperial Oil, Canadian Occidental Oil and Gas, Occidental Petroleum, and Alberta Energy Company in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, West Africa, Canada, and Latin America.
He has served on the board of directors of several publicly listed and private oil and gas companies where he held positions on the ESG, audit, reserves, HSE and compensation committees. Mr. Gamba currently sits on the board of the Asociación Colombiana de Petroleo and Naturgas, two industry groups that form upstream, midstream and downstream policy for the oil and gas industry in Colombia.
Mr. Gamba holds a B.Sc., an M.Sc., and a Ph.D. in Geology.
Jason Bednar
CFO
Mr. Bednar is a Chartered Professional Accountant with more than 25 years of direct professional experience in the financial and regulatory management of oil and gas companies listed on the TSX, TSX Venture Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Australia Stock Exchange.
In 2008, he was a founding director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Canacol and in 2015 he resigned from this position to become Canacol’s CFO. Mr. Bednar has been the CFO of several international oil and gas exploration and production companies, most notably the founding CFO of Pan Orient Energy Corp., a Southeast Asian exploration company. He has previously sat on the board of directors of several internationally focused exploration and production companies.
Mr. Bednar holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan.
Ravi Sharma
COO
Mr. Sharma has more than 30 years of oil and natural gas experience in the Americas, the Middle East, Russia, Australasia, and Africa. He has held senior management roles at major exploration and production companies worldwide.
Mr. Sharma was Head of Production & Operations with Afren Plc., Global Petroleum Engineering Manager for BHP Billiton Petroleum and Worldwide Chief Reservoir Engineer for Occidental Oil & Gas Company. He is also currently a director of Arrow Exploration Corp.
Mr. Sharma holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta.
William Satterfield
SVP Exploration
Mr. Satterfield joined Canacol from Sanchez Oil and Gas Corporation where he served as Senior Vice President of New Ventures and Geosciences.
Previously he worked for Occidental Petroleum for 22 years in the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia in various geotechnical roles culminating as Exploration Manager in Bogota, Colombia.
Mr. Satterfield has a B.Sc. and an MA in Geology from the University of Texas in Austin.
Anthony Zaidi
VP Business Development & General Counsel
Mr. Zaidi is a lawyer and businessman with significant experience in corporate finance and in the mining and energy sector in Colombia. Prior to joining Canacol, Mr. Zaidi was the President and General Counsel of Carrao Energy Ltd., a private oil and gas exploration company he co-founded and co-managed until its acquisition by Canacol in November 2011.
Prior to Carrao, he had been an officer or director of several private and public companies, including Integral Oil Services, Pacific Rubiales Energy, Petromagdalena Energy, Medoro Resources and others, as well as a securities lawyer at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.
Mr. Zaidi is also currently a director of Arrow Exploration Corp. Mr. Zaidi holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Toronto as well as a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) degree from McGill University.
Tracy Whitmore
VP Tax & Corporate Affairs
Ms. Whitmore joined Canacol in 2013 as Director of Taxation and was appointed Vice President of Tax and Corporate Affairs in April 2019. Ms. Whitmore has over 25 years of experience in international tax planning, consulting, corporate governance, and ESG.
Prior to joining Canacol, she worked for Hemisphere GPS, a U.S. based technology company and at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Senior Manager in the International Tax Services Group helping clients with cross-border reorganizations, offshore financing and international acquisitions mainly in the energy industry.
Ms. Whitmore is a Chartered Professional Accountant and holds an Honours in Business Administration degree from the Ivey Business School.
Carolina Orozco
VP Investor Relations & Communications
Ms. Orozco joined Canacol in 2010. She has over 18 years of experience in both investor relations and banking.
Prior to joining Canacol, she worked at Citibank in corporate banking covering the infrastructure and pharmaceutical sector, and in wealth management as a financial and investment advisor where she leveraged her learnings at Tolhurst Noall, an equity research and brokerage firm based in Australia.
Ms. Orozco holds a B.Sc. in Applied Finance from McQuarie University and a Certificate in ESG Investing from the CFA Institute.
Aurora Juan
Vice President of Development
Ms. Juan joined Canacol in 2010. She has over 25 years experience in the energy industry in Canada, Colombia, Ecuador and France.
Prior to joining Canacol she held senior reservoir engineering roles at Vermilion Energy, Acclaim Energy, EnCana and PanCanadian Petroleum.
Ms. Juan is a Professional Engineer in the Province of Alberta and holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering with a Petroleum Minor from the University of Calgary.
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