Dale Bowering – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Bowering, a co-founder of Empresa Energy, is a 25 year veteran of the oil industry. He worked for 17 years with Exxon in various domestic and international exploration roles before leaving in 1998 to become President of Veritas Exploration Services. In 2001 He joined Ocean Energy as Vice President of Geoscience, and upon the purchase of Ocean Energy by Devon in 2003 he left to form an independent exploration venture. In 2004 he joined forces with Jeff Elkin to form Empresa. He is a member of SEG, AAPL and IPAA.

Jeff Elkin – President and Chief Operating Officer

Elkin, a co-founding officer of Empresa Energy, was previously Vice President of Reservoir Engineering at Greystone Petroleum, an Ark-La-Tex focused company that sold its properties to Chesapeake in 2004. Prior to that he has held various Reservoir Engineering and Business Development roles at Ocean Energy, Seagull Energy, and Amoco, building extensive experience in identifying opportunity in tight gas plays. Elkin brings to Empresa critical expertise in evaluating acquisition and divestment opportunities, oil and gas reserves analysis, production maintenance and field operations, and property exploitation planning. He is a member of SPE and a 1980 graduate of Texas A&M in Petroleum Engineering.

Sean Keenan – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Keenan has over 10 years of energy industry experience and was previously a partner at Plantation Petroleum, a Permian focused company that started and monetized 3 separate partnerships in the last 6 years.  At Plantation, Sean’s responsibilities included acquisition sourcing and due diligence, managing financial reporting and partner relationships, accounting and product marketing.  Sean holds a BS in Engineering and an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.

Lesli Bowering – Vice President and Counsel 

Ms. Bowering has been practicing law for over 12 years and has played a key role with Empresa since its inception. She manages all legal aspects of Empresa’s operations, including oversight of all outside counsel, negotiating acquistions and divestitures, operating and farmout agreements, gas purchase and gathering agreements, master service agreements,  drilling contracts, oil and gas leases and all oil and gas related litigation. Bowering enjoyed a successful career in business development for Fortune 500 companies Proctor and Gamble and Monsanto.  Subsequent to that she joined the commercial litigation team of Verner Liipfert, a DC based law firm employing top business and government leaders such as Senators George Mitchell, Bob Dole and Lloyd Bentsen, and Governor Ann Richards. Bowering also has in-depth experience in  real estate law and was involved in a number of related ventures before joining Empresa. She has a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, in Business Administration and a Juris Doctorate, cum laude.

John Dean – Vice President & Chief Geologist

John has over 28 years of E&P experience, including 26 continuous years of service with Devon Energy and, through mergers and acquisitions, its predecessor companies, Mesa Petroleum, Seagull Energy and Ocean Energy. Over the past 20 years, John has worked at various senior staff and geological management positions in those companies, accumulating broad experience in the Arklatex, Mid-Continent and Permian Basin regions. John spent significant time supporting acquisitions and business development opportunities impacting the growth of each organization.

Ricky Harris – Vice President Operations

Vice President Operations – Ricky has over 22 years industry experience in oil and gas drilling and production operations. He has held various senior level and management positions throughout his career and has extensive experience in both conventional and unconventional resources. Prior to joining the Empresa team Ricky worked for Coastal Management Corporation, Torch Operating Company, Ocean Energy, and most recently Devon Energy, where he was responsible for their East Texas and Northern Louisiana production operations. He graduated from the University of Alabama with a B.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering.

David C. Hooper – Vice President Business Development

David Hooper has 24 years of industry experience and began his career with American Exploration Company as the District Landman for the Western United States, working mainly on acquisitions and divestitures. David left American and began his career at International Paper Company in 1993 working for IP Petroleum Company.  In that role he was responsible for over 4 million acres of mineral and working interest assets in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama.  David also worked as a District Offshore Landman in Western GOM OCS Area and later worked for the Forest Resources Division of International Paper Company as the Manager of Strategic Planning. David was responsible for the oil and gas mineral and working interest assets; right of way assets and communication tower assets of International Paper Company until joining Empresa in May of 2008. David founded the American Association of Mineral Owners whose membership represents over 75 million acres in the United States.

Bobby Campbell – Vice President & Controller

Bobby has 30 years of oil and gas accounting experience. Prior to joining Empresa Energy he was Accounting Manager for Kerr McGee where he had been since leaving Devon after the Ocean \ Devon merger. Bobby had over 22 continuous years with Devon through mergers and acquisitions involving Mesa Petroleum, Seagull Energy and Ocean Energy and was most recently an Assistant Controller. He has been a member of the Council of Petroleum Accounting Societies (COPAS) for more than 15 years and is a graduate of Texas Tech University.

Leslie Hester – Vice President & Geo-Technology Support

Leslie brings 30 years of oil and gas experience to the company.  Prior to joining Empresa Energy in October, 2005 she spent 7 years as a Senior Geophysical Technician for Veritas DGC, providing critical mapping and data management support for its vast, multi-terabyte data library. She spent 16 years working in many different capacities for ExxonMobil, as well as Kerr McGee Oil & Gas, Southwest Bank of Texas and Phillips Environmental.  Leslie provides critical Technical Support to our team of Geophysicists, Geologists, Engineers, and Landmen managing the data that is essential to Empresa’s exploration effort.  Aside from her extensive background in Geographical Information Systems and the Geophysical and Geological disciplines of the Oil & Gas Industry, she brings expertise both in UNIX and PC platforms and a wide variety of software packages that are used in exploration analysis, including Geoframe, OpenWorks, Petra, SmartSection, and ESRI ArcView.

Deidra Dierks - Land Manager

Ms. Dierks joined Empresa Energy in 2007 and manages its Land Department, as well as providing support on legal matters associated with the acquisition, disposition and management of Empresa’s assets.  Prior to joining Empresa, Ms. Dierks was with The Finger Companies for 2 years and McCord Development, Inc for 8 years, and acted as Vice President for those commercial real estate firms.  In that role, she managed assets valued at over one billion dollars, and directed the purchase, disposition, and refinance of over $750,000,000 in commercial real estate transactions. Ms. Dierks also practiced law for six years with a focus in insurance coverage and defense litigation, bankruptcy, and commercial litigation.  Ms. Dierks received a B.A. in History and Literature from Northwestern University in 1984 and a J.D. from the University of Houston Law School in 1991.

Paul Koch - Division Order Manager

Paul has over 29 years of Land Administration experience, including twenty years with ExxonMobil and five years with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. Paul is a 1980 graduate with a BBA in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the Houston and National Associations of Division Order Analysts as well as the National Association of Lease and Title Analysts and its local Houston Chapter.

Jennifer Bombulie - Land Tech

Jennifer graduated Cum Laude from Texas A&M University in May, 2008 with a Bachelors of Science in Economics and a Business Minor. She spent two summers in college interning for USAA in San Antonio in Enterprise Business Operations doing Software Testing and Reporting and Analysis.