October 11, 2010
Po Valley Energy Limited (ASX: “PVE”) is pleased to announce the
appointment of Mr Giovanni Catalano as Chief Executive Officer effective
11 October 2010. Mr Catalano succeeds Mr Michael Masterman, the
founding CEO of the company who will move to a non-executive role as
Deputy Chairman.
Mr Catalano - who joined the Po Valley team in July this year as Deputy
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer - holds a masters
degree in geology and has 32 years in the upstream oil and gas industry.
Prior to joining Po Valley, Mr Catalano was CEO of Mediterranean Oil
& Gas plc in the UK and Italy. Prior to that, he was with Woodside
Energy Pty Ltd, Perth, Western Australia as Business Development Manager
- Far East, and later North Africa. Before his Woodside positions, Mr
Catalano was posted worldwide with AGIP and LASMO International. He is
member of SEAPEX and AAPG.
Mr Masterman has been CEO since founding Po Valley in 2002, overseeing
its successful IPO and ASX listing in 2004. During this time, Po Valley
has progressed from an exploration company, through development to a gas
production company with two fields currently in operation.
Commenting on the handover, the Company’s Chairman, Mr Graham Bradley,
said:- “With Po Valley joining the ranks of gas producers, we are
pleased to appoint Mr Catalano as CEO. His strong technical background
and previous experience as Chief Executive of an Italian oil and gas
company will provide us with continuing strong leadership in the next
phase of the company’s growth as a gas producer”.
“Our outgoing CEO, Michael Masterman, has successfully built the company
from scratch to be a strong independent European gas producer and we
thank him for his untiring leadership over the past eight years,” Mr
Bradley said.
“Mr Masterman is leaving his executive role at Po Valley to take up a
position at a major mining company and remains a major shareholder and a
valued non-executive director on the Board of Po Valley Energy”.
Mr Catalano’s remuneration package consists of a fixed remuneration of
EUR180,000, short term incentives of up to 50% of base salary payable on
achievement of agreed annual performance objectives and retains his
existing retention bonus which is being paid through the issue of shares
and cash in four tranches between June 2010 and December 2011.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Michael Masterman
Po Valley Energy
0417 851 303
Kevin Skinner
Field Public Relations
(08) 8234 9555 / 0414 822 631
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