Board of Directors
NXT’s Board of Directors currently consists of five members, five of which are non-management, independent directors. The Board members have a diverse business background, and extensive experience with public companies, and with entities involved in oil and gas exploration and production.
Charles Selby
Mr. Selby holds a B. Sc. (Hons) in Chemical Engineering, a J.D. degree and is a registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Alberta. He previously practiced law for two large Canadian law firms, specializing in securities, international transactions in the energy business and corporate finance matters. Since leaving the practice of law, Mr. Selby was a Vice President of Pengrowth Corporation, the Administrator of Pengrowth Energy Trust, for almost 20 years. He also has served on the board and in management of a number of reporting issuers including Arakis Energy, which had operations in the Sudan, and other issuers in the oil and natural gas industry.
He is currently the president and a director of Wildcat Royalty Corporation and Caledonian Midstream Corporation, private entities which are involved in oil & gas production and the midstream oil and gas business primarily in the Province of Alberta. He is a director of Caledonian Global Corporation, an international company with royalty interests Vietnam and Chairman and CEO of Montana Exploration Corp. (formerly AltaCanada Energy Corp.) an oil and gas company.
Mr. Selby is the Lead Director of NXT. He is also Chair of NXT’s Compensation Committee and a member of the Audit, Disclosure, and Strategic Planning Committees.
Mr. Selby also served as the Company’s Interim Chief Financial Officer from December, 2017 to January, 2018.
John Tilson
Mr. Tilson is retired, and after obtaining MBA and CFA designations, had a distinguished career as an analyst, portfolio manager, and advisor in the US investment and financial industry with such firms as Sutro & Company and EF Hutton & Company. Mr. Tilson joined Roger Engemann and Associates in 1983 when assets under management were roughly US$160 million. During his tenure there, the Pasadena Group of Mutual Funds was started, with Pasadena Capital Corporation formed as the holding company for the mutual funds and investment management business. After working as an analyst and portfolio manager, John later became Executive Vice President & Managing Director of Pasadena Capital Corporation. Assets under management had grown to over US$5 billion by the time the firm was sold to Phoenix Companies in 1997. Mr. Tilson later retired in 2005.
From 2006 to 2012, Mr. Tilson was a member of the Board of Trustees, including three years serving as VP and Chairman of the long-range planning committee, for Lotusland, a Santa Barbara non-profit organization established by Madame Ganna Walska.
Mr. Tilson is the Chair of the Board’s Strategic Planning Committee, and a member of the Compensation, Governance and Audit Committees.
Thomas E. Valentine
Mr. Valentine is a Partner with Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, where he has practiced law, both as a Barrister and a Solicitor, since his call to the Bar in 1987. He is a member of the firm’s Energy and Infrastructure Practice Group and is involved in energy and energy related matters throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the CIS, Asia and South America.
Mr. Valentine is a member of the Board of Directors of Touchstone Exploration Inc., and formerly was a director of two other Canadian public companies, Calvalley Petroleum Inc. (to May 2015) and Veraz Petroleum Ltd.
Mr. Valentine holds a BA from the University of British Columbia, a LLB from Dalhousie University, and a LL.M. from the London School of Economics.
Mr. Valentine is the Chair of the Governance Committee and a member of the Compensation Committee.
Bruce G. Wilcox
Mr. Wilcox has had a long career as an investment company CEO, analyst and portfolio manager. He spent most of his career with Cumberland Associates, LLC, a New York equity fund, from 1986 through retirement in 2010, progressing from analyst / portfolio manager to partner, and Chairman of the Management Committee. Mr. Wilcox specialized in Cumberland’s investments in the energy industry (E&P and service companies), with an emphasis on value and long-term holdings. During his tenure, the fund’s assets under management ranged from US$0.7 to $1.5 billion.
From 1984 to 1986, Mr. Wilcox was with Central National-Gottesman, Inc. as an analyst and portfolio manager on a team responsible for a $500 million listed equity portfolio.
Mr. Wilcox is presently CEO of E Street Management, LLC which manages a long/short equity fund of funds. He is also one of the managing members of Xiling Fund III, LLC, part of a series of private equity funds (US$100+ million) which specialize in investing in museum quality Chinese art and collectibles.
Mr. Wilcox obtained a BA (Honors), in Modern Chinese from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management in Phoenix.
Mr. Wilcox is a member of several Boards, including the Teachers College of Colombia University (2003 to date, including acting as the Chair of the Investment Committee), the University of California Santa Barbara Foundation (2003 to date, including as former Chair of the Board, Investment and Finance Committees), and is a Trustee (2001 to date) of the Manhattan Institute For Policy Research, a leading urban, state, and national policy institution, which works on matters such as energy policy.
Mr. Wilcox is the chair of the Board’s Audit Committee and a member of the Disclosure, Governance and Strategic Planning Committees.
Gerry Sheehan
Mr. Sheehan has worked continuously in international oil and gas exploration, development, and production for over 38 years. He has broad technical and business development experience in Africa, South Asia and Europe. Mr. Sheehan began his career in 1982 as a Geophysicist with Britoil plc. (formerly, the British National Oil Corporation) where he evaluated acreage in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland and Norway. In 1986, Mr. Sheehan transferred to Houston as a technical auditor, and was later seconded to the Global Basin Evaluation Team, focusing on Africa and Asia.
In 1987, Mr. Sheehan joined Tullow Oil plc. (“Tullow”) as part of the founding technical team. Tullow was successful in Senegal, a World Bank sponsored gas to power project. New acreage was secured in the UK, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen, with follow-on successful exploration and field development projects. From 1992 to 1998, Mr. Sheehan held the position of Chief Geophysicist at Tullow during which time the company enjoyed successes in South Asia culminating in the discovery and development of the 1 TCF-sized Bangora gas field in Bangladesh, operated by Tullow on behalf of Texaco and Chevron Corporation. His project team also deployed on the successful re-development of the offshore Espoir field in Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa, with partners Canadian Natural Resources Limited and Addax Petroleum Corporation. From 1998 to 2006, he held the post of International Exploration Manager with Tullow, which encompassed a business development responsibility. This was a time of rapid growth and expansion at Tullow with new assets acquired in West Africa, North Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and South Asia. In 2004, Mr. Sheehan led the technical due-diligence team of Tullow on the corporate acquisition of Energy Africa plc. The enlarged company rapidly expanded its footprint in Africa with notable oil exploration successes in Ghana and Uganda, both countries now seen as significant oil provinces. Mr. Sheehan headed the technical team and was instrumental in securing the Jubilee offshore lease that led to the most significant discovery in Tullow’s history; Ghana’s world-class Jubilee field discovered in 2007 with recoverable reserves estimated to be more than 370 million barrels, with an upside potential of 1.8 billion barrels.
Currently Mr. Sheehan is the Head of Exploration of New Horizon Oil & Gas Limited (“T5 Oil & Gas”), a private London-based oil and gas company co-founded by Mr. Sheehan in 2014. T5 Oil & Gas is a license partner in a portfolio of assets in Gabon, comprising offshore oil production and a suite of un-developed oil and gas fields, both offshore and onshore, now being advanced to development. Mr. Sheehan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology and a Master of Science in Applied Geophysics, both obtained from the National University of Ireland. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society (FGS, elected 2009) and is an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG, 1986) and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG, 1996).
Theodore Patsellis
Mr. Patsellis is a Greek attorney admitted to the Athens Bar Association in 1996, a Greek Ministry of Justice certified Mediator, and the Owner of a Law firm since 2013. He holds a Bachelor Degree from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens – Law Faculty and an LL.M. degree from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. Having worked for many years with Ernst & Young, Hill International Inc. and other renowned law firms, Mr. Patsellis has acquired extensive experience working in diversified environments and a variety of business cultures. With a strong German background and the experience of having lived and worked in Germany, Greece, Serbia and Romania as a lawyer and tax professional, he was able to lead a team of professionals involved in large business transactions in the South-East European region. His expertise comprises M&A, Corporate, Transaction Law, Local and International taxation, Corporate Governance and Compliance. His industry knowledge ranges from the Telecommunications and Energy sectors to the Retail, Hospitality and Consumer Products, Pharmaceuticals, and Real Estate. He is currently sitting on the Board of Directors of PANA Holdings in Mauritius and Vivid Living Co. S.A. in Greece.
Mr. Patsellis is a member of the Audit, and the Strategic Planning Committees.