Team

Thomas “Tom” Maher joined Apex International Energy in May 2016 as President and COO. Prior to joining Apex, he held several senior leadership positions in his thirty-year career with a U.S. based independent exploration and production company with assignments in the USA, Australia and Egypt. 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 is a past Chairman and current Advisor to the Egypt Oil & Gas Committee and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Aton Resources. He previously served as a director for the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, Community Services Association in Egypt, and Cairo American College.

Dave Pivnik serves as Apex’s Vice President of Exploration and New Ventures and Deputy Exploration General Manager of Farah Petroleum Company.  He brings nearly 30 years of geotechnical and leadership experience, including 10 years spent in Egypt.

Prior to joining Apex in 2016, he served in many geo-technical and leadership positions around the world with both majors and independent exploration and production companies. He discovered and developed several significant new oil and gas fields while in Egypt and Australia, and has played key roles in exploration and development efforts in the North Sea, SE Asia, Rocky Mountains and west Texas.  Dave has also managed geotechnical subsurface teams, including specialists focused on petroleum systems and geomechanics. His experience and skill set spans exploration and development, and his new ventures experiences are geographically wide-ranging, including MENA, SE Asia, Europe and Oceania. He has authored and co-authored numerous geotechnical papers, serves as an Associate Editor for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and has 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.

Frederico “Fred” Ribeiro joined Apex in December 2016 as Director of Geology and has over 30 years of broad geoscience experience, including five 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 a variety of exploration and production companies (majors, independents and NOC).

Fred 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.

Keith Dowling joined Apex in May 2016, and was appointed Vice President Engineering – Egypt in August 2019. He previously served as Vice President Business Development and Reservoir Engineering for Apex.  Keith has over 35 years at other independent E&P companies in various technical and management roles in various basins around the world and in the US in both conventional and unconventional resources.  Keith has extensive experience in Egypt – both Western Desert and Gulf of Suez operations.

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.

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.His previous experience included several senior executive positions, including CFO and later President, over thirty plus years, for a large independent oil and gas 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 served on the Board of Directors of Newfield Exploration and 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.

Thomas “Tom” Maher joined Apex International Energy in May 2016 as President and COO. Prior to joining Apex, he held several senior leadership positions in his thirty-year career with a U.S. based independent exploration and production company with assignments in the USA, Australia and Egypt. 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 is a past Chairman and current Advisor to the Egypt Oil & Gas Committee and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Aton Resources. He previously served as a director for the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, Community Services Association in Egypt, and Cairo American College.

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.

Amr 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.