Board of Directors
John Towner (Executive Chairman)
John Towner has experience in the resources industry combined with knowledge and expertise in public company capital raising and finance. He is renowned for taking oil and gas industry assets from start to public listing as exemplified by companies such as Sydney Gas Ltd (director 1999-2000), Sunshine Gas Limited (2002-2003) and New Guinea Energy Ltd (2005-2008), all of which he founded and are successfully listed on the ASX.
Through his private company he acquired all the oil and gas assets of Amoco Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amoco Inc. On the strength of these assets he founded Sydney Gas Ltd, the first company to produce and retail gas in New South Wales from coal seams, despite both Amoco and the Australian Gas Light Company previously investing many hundreds of millions of dollars trying to achieve this goal.
John was also instrumental in the restructure of Anzon Investments to Anzon Energy Limited, a company that has successfully carried out oil exploration and production in South-East Asia. He was also involved in taking BioMD Limited, a tissue engineering company, from a private research and development entity to public listing in March 2004.
In 2005, John formed New Guinea Energy Ltd, focusing on oil and gas exploration and production in Papua New Guinea. New Guinea Energy listed on the ASX in December 2007.
During the past three years he has also served as a director of listed companies Ord River Resources Limited and New Guinea Energy Limited.
Robert (Rob) Lemmey (Non-Executive Director)
Rob Lemmey is an experienced business development manager with in depth knowledge of the Indonesian Oil and Gas industry. Rob has more than thirty five years experience in the Oil and Gas industry across nineteen countries. Rob joined Halliburton in 1977 as an Engineer and remained with the company for thirty two years until the end of 2009. During this time Rob worked for many Halliburton companies in numerous locations, progressing from Engineer to Superintendent and ultimately to management positions including, District, Regional Managing Director, Country Manager, Country Business Development Manager and Technical Manager.
Rob has worked in Indonesia for more than twelve years over the past thirty years. He has developed a deep understanding of Indonesian business structures and Indonesian Oil and Gas procurement regulations. Rob is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Western Australia Petroleum Club.
Steven Hamer (Non-Executive Director)
Steven Hamer has forty years’ of business experience working in both Australia and Indonesia. After completing a Bachelor of Science at Sydney University Steve spent ten years with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s lending departments including head office lending and Bill and overseas department.
After leaving the Commonwealth Bank, Steve pursued hotel ownership, home unit-townhouse development and mining activities. His activities in the mining industry and commodity trading continue today with particular involvement in energy and mining in Indonesia.
Steve’s work with a fast ferry concept highlighted to him the need for an affordable fuel for gas turbine engines. This led to two years spent on the demonstration of a clean coal process for use in gas turbines and extended to clean graphite and clean steel process. Steve was involved in each step of this process from the chemical laboratory work to overseeing the design and construction of the cleaning technology pilot plant.
Steve is a foundation shareholder in Lloyd Energy Storage Systems Ltd, a public unlisted entity, co-inventor on patent for graphite based thermal energy storage system currently being commercialised by the company. Steve has served as Executive Director – Marketing, responsible for delineating markets for the product in both the grid connected regular power generation and the intermittent renewable energy generation markets.
Steve is an Adviser to the Boards of PT Dinamika Cipta Sentosa and PT Prestige Global Petroleum in Indonesia and Director of Nickmere Pty Ltd, owner of Dianne copper mine in Queensland Australia.
Lewis Johnson (Non-Executive Director)
Lewis has almost forty years experience in all Australian and International investment sectors, involving institutional investment / funds management, development banking (corporate / project finance, private equity / venture capital), property, and stockbroking. He has been a member of numerous investment committees, advisory and corporate boards, and a director of several non-profit organisations. He is a graduated of the University of Melbourne (B.Comm) and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).
For more than twenty years he had direct investment management responsibility for a large successful balanced retirement fund and remains actively involved in stockbroking. He is currently an Advisor with Bell Potter Securities Limited - a Member Firm of the ASX - and a Director and Investment Manager of Bell Asset Management Ltd - members of the Bell Potter group. He is also active as a non executive director in the Property Industry.
He has been active and well known for many years in the resources market, with strong personal and professional connections particularly in the exploration and emerging producer sectors in both minerals and energy.
Alastair Morrison (Non-executive Director)
Alastair Morrison is global co-head and a founder Managing Director of Standard Chartered Private Equity. He joined Standard Chartered in April 2002, after 20 years at 3i Group, the leading European private equity house, where he was Director for 3i Asia Pacific. He co-founded 3is Asia-Pacific operations in 1997, having previously run an investment team in London focusing on buy-outs and expansion financing. Alastair has investment experience across a wide range of industries in Europe and Asia. He holds an M.A. degree in Economics and Philosophy and M.Phil degree in management studies from Oxford University. Alastair is a non-executive Director of Straits Resources Limited and Straits Metals Limited and holds a number of overseas directorships.
Rae Clark (Company Secretary)
Rae Clark is a Charted Accountant and Chartered Secretary with more than twelve years finance and accounting and corporate administration experience spanning both public practice and commerce. Rae holds a Bachelor of Business (with distinction) majoring in Accounting from the University of Technology, Sydney, a Graduate Diploma (ICAA) and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Corporate Governance. She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and Chartered Secretaries Australia.