Board & Management

Rick has a 40-year track record of success in the oil and gas industry. Rick is co-founder and Chairman of Origin Creek Energy LLC (“OCE”). OCE makes $2-$20 million foundational investments in the domestic US energy sector.  The firm’s capital is provided by its partners and two affiliated family offices.

Prior to OCE, Rick was CEO of Suez North America LNG and then served as CEO of Suez Global LNG (“Suez LNG”). During his tenure, Suez LNG grew from an initial US$680 million acquisition of Cabot LNG (where Rick previously served as President), into the world’s third largest liquefied natural gas business, one active across the entire global natural gas chain from upstream production through to distribution to end-users. Before his time at Cabot, Rick was President of Mountaineer Gas, the largest natural gas distribution company in West Virginia (which also held a sizable upstream portfolio). During his career, Rick has had significant success managing multi-billion dollar organisations and developments, and has been involved in a number of profitable corporate exits.

Colin is the CEO of Zephyr Energy, having previously served as the Company’s Executive Chairman. Colin began his career in energy finance in 1998, and previously worked in New York, London, Washington DC and San Francisco. Over the course of his investment banking and investment management career, he has had significant experience executing recapitalizations and turnarounds at natural resource companies.

Prior to Zephyr, Colin served as CEO of Origin Creek Energy, a special situations investor in the onshore US oil and gas sector. Prior to that, Colin was Managing Partner of the Wellford Energy Group and former CEO of Wellford Capital Markets, a FINRA-registered broker dealer boutique which specialized in the energy markets. Colin also served as Senior Vice President of Energy Investment Banking at FBR Group in San Francisco and was head of the energy investment banking group at FBR International Limited in London.

Colin is passionate about land and watershed conservation, and has been involved with restoration and preservation efforts in both Colorado and Maryland. He holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a B.A. from Colby College, was a Hansard Scholar at the London School of Economics and is an alumnus of the National Outdoor School of Leadership (NOLS). At present, he also serves as a Trustee and Chairman of the Investment Committee at The Key School, a non-profit PK-12 independent school in Maryland.

Chris is an experienced Finance Director with extensive corporate finance experience within both public and private companies in the natural resources sector.

Chris qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers after which he held a number of senior finance positions at Cable and Wireless PLC.

Prior to joining Zephyr, Chris was, amongst other things, Finance Director of AIM listed Aurum Mining PLC, and was involved in the wholesale restructuring of the Company into Shearwater Group PLC, the AIM listed cybersecurity and risk management company.

Gordon Stein is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy and was the CFO and an Executive Director of Columbus Energy Resources plc, an AIM-traded oil & gas company with operations in Trinidad and Suriname, until it merged with another public company in early August 2020.

Mr Stein was previously CFO of AIM-traded Madagascar Oil Limited from June 2013 to October 2016 and has also been CFO of Cadogan Petroleum plc which is an independent oil and gas exploration, development and production company with onshore gas and condensate assets in Ukraine. Preceding this, was CFO at Vanguard Energy Limited and Regal Petroleum plc. He has also held senior financial and operational management positions in Fairfield Energy Limited, Acorn Oil and Gas Limited, LASMO PLC, Monument Oil & Gas plc, Centrica plc and BG pc. Mr Stein has over 26 years’ experience in the upstream oil and gas sector in the UK and internationally, including Ukraine, Trinidad, Tunisia, Venezuela, Madagascar, Algeria and Turkmenistan.

Tom is a chartered Chemical Engineer with 25 years’ experience in the energy sector spanning executive management of private and public E&P companies, private equity investment and advising early stage companies.

Tom led two public E&P companies between 2008-2016 – Bridge Energy ASA and Iona Energy Inc. – providing him with a broad range of North Sea experience including cross border mergers, IPOs, acquisitions & disposals, the Nordic bond market, debt restructuring and investor relations in London, Oslo and Toronto. Previously, Tom joined the oil and gas investment team of 3i in 2003 where he led the origination and assessment of E&P opportunities in the North Sea and internationally. Tom is also CEO of Solo Oil plc.