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Board of Directors | Officers

Alan Gaines, age 52, has served as Chairman of our Board of Directors since May 2001 and as our Chief Executive Officer from May 2001 to April 17, 2007. From April 2005 until August 2007, Mr. Gaines served as Vice Chairman of Baseline Oil & Gas Corp. (OTC: BOGA.OB), an independent, publicly traded oil and gas company, and from April 2005 until September 2007, he served as Chief Executive Officer of ABC Funding, Inc. (OTC: AFDG.OB), a publicly-traded company with no current operations and nominal assets. Mr. Gaines currently serves on the Board of Directors of both Baseline and ABC. Mr. Gaines has over 25 years of experience as an energy investment and merchant banker. In 1983, he co-founded Gaines, Berland Inc., an investment bank and brokerage firm, specializing in global energy markets, with particular emphasis given to small to medium capitalization companies involved in exploration and production, pipelines, refining and marketing, and oilfield services. Mr. Gaines holds a B.B.A. in Finance from Baruch College, and an M.B.A. in Finance (with distinction) from Zarb School, Hofstra University School of Graduate Management.

James A. Watt, age 58, became a Director of our Company on April 16, 2007 and our President and Chief Executive Officer on April 17, 2007. Mr. Watt served as the Chief Executive Officer of Remington Oil and Gas Corporation since February 1998 and the Chairman of Remington since May 2003, until Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. (NYSE: HLX) acquired Remington in July 2006. From 1993 through 1997, Mr. Watt served as Vice President—Exploration of Seagull E&P, Inc., and from 1991-1993, he served as Vice President—exploration and exploitation of Nerco Oil and Gas. From August 2006 through March 2007, Mr. Watt served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Maverick Oil & Gas, Inc. (OTC: MVOG.OB). Mr. Watt currently serves on the Board of Directors of Pacific Energy Resources Ltd (TSE: PFE) and Helix. Mr. Watt received a B.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Steven Barrenechea, age 49, has served as a Director since May 2001. From April 2005 to January 2006, Mr. Barrenechea served as a Director of Baseline Oil & Gas Corp. Since April 2005, Mr. Barrenechea has served as a Director, and since September 2007 has served as the Chief Executive Officer of, ABC Funding, Inc. From 1993 to December 2004, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Coast to Coast Catering LLC, a catering service. Mr. Barrenechea is a member of the Board of Directors of the Creative Coalition, The Milford (Connecticut) Red Cross, and The Child Guidance Center of Fairfield County. Mr. Barrenechea holds a B.B.A. from New York University.

Alan D. Bell, age 62, joined our Board of Directors on April 16, 2007. Previously, Mr. Bell worked in various capacities at Ernst & Young LLP from 1973 until his retirement in June 2006, at which time he was the Director of Ernst & Young’s Energy Practice in the Southwest United States. Mr. Bell worked in the Dallas office of Ernst & Young from 1973 to 1977 where he performed oil and gas company audits and again, from 1981 to 2006, where he continued his involvement in the energy industry. From 1977 to 1981, he worked in the Paris office of Ernst & Young on the post merger of client Elf Aquitaine from its two predecessor companies. Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Bell was a production engineer with Chevron Oil Company in the Gulf of Mexico from 1969 to 1972. Mr. Bell currently serves on the Board of Directors of Toreador Resources Corporation (NASDAQ: TRGL), where he serves as the Chairman of the Audit Committee. Mr. Bell received a degree in Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1969 and received an M.B.A. from Tulane University in 1973. He is a current member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Mr. Bell is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, Institute of Certified Management Accountants, Association of Insolvency Accountants and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
   
Richard M. Cohen, age 57, has served as a Director since December 2003. From December 2003 to March 2005, he served as our Chief Financial Officer. Since 1996, Mr. Cohen has been the President of Richard M. Cohen Consultants, a private financial services consulting company that assists both public and private companies with their corporate governance and corporate finance needs. In 1999, Mr. Cohen was the President of National Auto Credit, a publicly traded sub-prime auto finance company. From 1992-1995, Mr. Cohen was the President of General Media Inc., a publicly reporting international diversified publishing and communications company. Mr. Cohen currently serves on the Board of Directors for each of Universal Travel Group (OTC: UTVG), Rodman & Renshaw Capital Group Inc. (OTC: RODM) and Helix BioMedix Inc. (OTC: HXBM), the latter of which public company he also currently serves as a member of the compensation committee. Mr. Cohen is a Certified Public Accountant and worked at Arthur Andersen & Co. from 1975 to 1977. He received a B.S. (“With Honors”) from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School) and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

William Greenwood, age 69, joined our Board of Directors on April 16, 2007. Since 1995, Mr. Greenwood has performed consulting work in the transportation industry and served on numerous nonprofit and corporate Board of Directors, including Ameritruck, Trancisco, Mark VII, Transport Dynamics, Inc. and Remington Oil and Gas. Prior to that he was Chief Operating Officer and a Director at Burlington Northern Railroad from 1990 to 1994. He has been a member of the business school advisory Board of Directors at several universities and is currently a member at Marquette and Texas Christian University, where he also served as an adjunct professor in 2004 and 2005. He graduated from Marquette University with a B.S. in Business.

Steven Sisselman, age 49, has served as a Director since May 2004. From January 1996 to December 2005, Mr. Sisselman served as Vice-President of business development with Itera International Energy Corp., a subsidiary of the Itera Group operating in the United States natural gas, real estate and commodity business. From January 2006 to the present, he has served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of both Itera International Energy Corp, as well as its parent company, Itera USA, Inc. From 1992-1994, Mr. Sisselman was Vice-President of Dalon Inc., a petroleum trading company, responsible for trading crude oil and petroleum products from the former Soviet Union. For the 12 years prior to 1992, Mr. Sisselman was employed by Charter Oil Company, UBS AG, and Astra Oil working in various financial and trading positions both in the United States and London, England. He graduated from University of Florida in 1980 with a B.S. in Business Administration with a major in Finance.