The Team

Roger Plank founded Apex and has served as CEO since inception in April 2016. Earlier he was President and Chief Corporate Officer (CCO) of Apache Corporation during his 32 years with the company. Roger was actively involved in building a significant and profitable upstream business with a balanced portfolio of assets and an international footprint spanning six different countries.

Roger currently serves on the Board of Directors of Newfield Exploration. Previously he served on the board of Parker Drilling where he was Lead Director. He also serves on the board of Houston’s Alley Theatre.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Colgate University in 1979 and his MBA from St. Thomas University in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minn. in 1982.

Tom Maher joined Apex in May 2016 as President and COO. Prior to joining Apex, he was the Region Vice President and General Manager, Apache Egypt Companies from 2013-May 2016. He held several other positions in his thirty-year career with Apache Corporation, including Region VP and General Manager of Apache Australia Energy, Exploration Manager of Apache Egypt, and Exploration Manager for Apache’s Mid-Continent Region of the U.S. His teams enjoyed success growing production and reserves in all three countries.

Tom holds a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Massachusetts, a master’s in geology from Miami University (Ohio), and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. He is an American Association of Petroleum Geologists Certified Petroleum Geologist.

Tom resides in Cairo where he has served as a director for both the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt and the Community Services Association and is on the Board of Aton Resources Inc.

Glenn Joyce was appointed Chief Administrative Officer in January 2017. He previously served as Director – HR and Administration when he joined Apex in April 2016. Prior to joining Apex International Energy, he spent over 17 years with Apache Corporation where his last position was Director Global Human Resources in which he managed the HR functions of the international regions in Apache (Australia, Argentina, UK, Egypt).

Previously, he worked for Amoco and was involved in international operations in many different countries.

Glenn has been instrumental in building infrastructure of foreign office locations, creating systems and establishing structure for the business operations in overseas locations.

Glenn received his bachelor’s in accounting from Texas A&M University.

Dave Pivnik joined Apex in October 2016 as Vice President Exploration and New Ventures and brings over 25 years of geotechnical and leadership experience, including 10 years spent in Egypt.

Prior to joining Apex, he served in many geo-technical and leadership positions around the world with Amoco, BP, Apache, and Oxy. He discovered and developed several significant new oil and gas fields while in Egypt and Australia. For Oxy, he managed a team of geotechnical subsurface specialists focused on petroleum systems and geomechanics in the Permian Basin. His experience and skill set spans new ventures, exploration and development. He has served as an Associate Editor for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists since 2004, and has also taught geology at the university level.

Dave holds a bachelor’s degree in geology from the State University of New York at Fredonia, a master’s in geology from the University of Rochester, and a PhD in geology from Dartmouth College.

Keith Dowling joined Apex in May 2016 as Vice President Business Development and Reservoir Engineering. Prior to joining Apex, he served as VP of Resource Development of Permian Resources, LLC, (formerly American Energy Partners), where he focused primarily on development planning and business development in the Wolfcamp shale of the Permian Basin.

Previously, Keith spent 13 years at Apache in various technical and management roles in three different international locations – one of those assignments was in Egypt as a Senior Engineer and Engineering Advisor where he focused on active field development, including Qasr field, Apache’s largest discovery in Egypt. Prior to joining Apache, Keith served as the Engineering Manager for the Seagull East Zeit JV with production in the Gulf of Suez.

He received his bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University. Prior to attending Texas A&M, Keith received his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Bradley University.

Sean Bolks joined Apex in April 2016 and was appointed Vice President Strategic Planning and Business Analysis in September 2016. He previously served as Associate VP – Strategic Planning and Business Analysis for Apex. Sean brings 20 years of broad experience in many segments of the energy business. Before Apex, he had served as Director of Risk Assessment and Special Projects at Apache Corporation. His responsibilities included chairing the Apache Corporate Risk Committee and overseeing the development of risk identification and mitigation processes. In addition, Sean concentrated on the valuation of assets and contractual structuring, particularly for Wheatstone and Kitimat LNG Projects, as well as for various acquisition and divestiture efforts.

Sean continues to teach as an adjunct professor at Rice University from time to time and has a position of Fellow by Courtesy.

He holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and held post-doctoral positions at Rice and Binghamton University. He received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.

Al Buron joined Apex in April 2016 as Vice President Production Operations and brings almost 25 years of experience with Apache Corporation and many more years of field operations leadership in other companies. Prior to Apex he was Apache’s Director of Worldwide Production Optimization and served as VP Construction and Production Operations, Offshore Gulf of Mexico, VP of Production, Canada and VP of Operations in Egypt for Apache.

Al received a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from Texas Tech University.

Frederico Ribeiro joined Apex in December 2016 as Director of Geology and has over 25 years of broad geoscience experience, including 5 years based in Egypt.

Prior to joining Apex, he was a global new ventures and exploration independent consultant. He has also served in several managerial and technical positions around the world with Apache Corporation, Enap-Sipetrol, BG Group, and Chariot Oil and Gas.

Frederico holds a bachelor’s degree in geological engineering from the School of Mines of the Federal University of Ouro Preto (EM-UFOP), Minas Gerais, Brazil, a master of science’s degree in remote sensing from the National Institute of Spatial Research (INPE), São Paulo, Brazil and a doctorate in structural geology and tectonics from EM-UFOP in cooperation with the Royal Holloway University of London. He is a member and a certified petroleum geologist of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Mike LeBlanc joined Apex in January 2017 as Controller and was the former Deputy Chief Financial Officer for Sinochem Petroleum, USA where he established the financial reporting systems for the company after its establishment in 2014.Previously, Mike was the Manager of Finance for the Americas for Woodside Energy (USA), Inc. where he was responsible for all financial areas in the United States and Brazil. Woodside was primarily focused on the Gulf of Mexico deep water.

He received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from The University of New Orleans and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant.

Dalal Hanno joined Apex in June 2016 as Regional HR and Administration Manger – Cairo and prior to Apex, she served at Apache Egypt and was the Manager for Public Relations and Deputy Human Resources Manager. Her responsibilities included promoting corporate values and the company image to enable business success. This helped staff the region with the right person in the right position. She also managed HR functions related to policy, payroll, mentoring, etc. and represented the company in business activities with other companies in the industry and the national oil company regarding HR and Administration. Dalal was instrumental in guiding the company and helping bridge the cultural differences in a multi-national company.

Prior to her time at Apache, Dalal worked for Elf Aquitaine Egypte, Flopetrol and Phoenix Resources Company of Egypt.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in French literature from Ain Shams University and a Diploma in Human Resources Management from the American University in Cairo.

Roger Plank founded Apex and has served as CEO since inception in April 2016. Earlier he was President and Chief Corporate Officer (CCO) of Apache Corporation during his 32 years with the company. Roger was actively involved in building a significant and profitable upstream business with a balanced portfolio of assets and an international footprint spanning six different countries.

Roger currently serves on the Board of Directors of Newfield Exploration. Previously he served on the board of Parker Drilling where he was Lead Director. He also serves on the board of Houston’s Alley Theatre.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Colgate University in 1979 and his MBA from St. Thomas University in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minn. in 1982.

Tom Maher joined Apex in May 2016 as President and COO. Prior to joining Apex, he was the Region Vice President and General Manager, Apache Egypt Companies from 2013-May 2016. He held several other positions in his thirty-year career with Apache Corporation, including Region VP and General Manager of Apache Australia Energy, Exploration Manager of Apache Egypt, and Exploration Manager for Apache’s Mid-Continent Region of the U.S. His teams enjoyed success growing production and reserves in all three countries.

Tom holds a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Massachusetts, a master’s in geology from Miami University (Ohio), and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. He is an American Association of Petroleum Geologists Certified Petroleum Geologist.

Tom resides in Cairo where he has served as a director for both the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt and the Community Services Association and is on the Board of Aton Resources Inc.

Peder Bratt joined Warburg Pincus in 2008 and focuses on energy investments. Previously, he worked at McKinsey & Company in Norway. He is a Director of Delonex Energy and Sand Hill Petroleum.

Peder received a B.B.A. from the Norwegian School of Economics and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Rod Eichler was previously Executive Vice President and Executive Advisor to the Chief Executive Officer of Apache Corporation having spent over 20 years with the company.

He served as Apache’s country manager in Egypt for 10 years. This included the discovery of Apache’s largest ever conventional field (Qasr field) and doubling the Company’s gross operated production in Egypt to over 330,000 boed in less than five years. As Apache’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Rod was responsible for all worldwide operations including five North American and four international business units.

Rod received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geological engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. He is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, a certified professional geologist, and a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas.

Rod has served as a director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt and the U.S.-Egypt Business Council.

Somit Varma joined Warburg Pincus in 2011 and focuses on energy investments. Previously, he was Global Head of the Natural Resources Group at the International Finance Corporation with a focus on emerging markets. Somit has spent over 18 years investing in the energy and natural resources sector in emerging markets including Latin America, Africa and Asia. He is a Director of Anemka Resources, Casa Exploration, Delonex Energy, and Zenith Energy.

Somit received an M.B.A. from Boston University and attended the Executive Development Program at Harvard Business School.

Diab is a Managing Partner at Cailon Capital, a private investment vehicle and an Advisory Director at Morgan Stanley International. He was previously a Managing Director and Co-Head of Investment Banking for the Middle East and North Africa at Morgan Stanley based in Cairo and Dubai.

Amr began his career at Morgan Stanley Investment Banking in New York in 1992. During his tenure he was part of the president’s office working on strategic transactions for Morgan Stanley.

He moved to London with Morgan Stanley Investment Banking before leaving in 2000 becoming a founding partner in Bessent Capital, Walter Capital and Cheiron Capital. He rejoined Morgan Stanley in 2007.

Throughout Amr’s career, he has been involved in several major transactions in the US, Europe and Middle East, specifically in Egypt.

Amr is a Fulbright Scholar and received his bachelor’s in Economics from the American University in Cairo (AUC) and his master’s degrees from Columbia and London Business School.