Board Of Directors.

 

 

 

 


Larry Bates

CEO / Managing Director

Prior to his appointment at Nobel Upstream, Mr. Bates served as Vice President and Advisor to the President of OAO NK Rosneft where he oversaw international projects and business development. At Rosneft he negotiated upstream deals in partnership with ExxonMobil in the United States and Canada, Statoil in Russia and Norway, as well as refining JVs in Germany with BP and in China with CNPC. Mr. Bates also held leadership positions at BP, TNK-BP, Trinity Energy Ltd. and Baker Hughes.

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Mr. Bates served as Vice President and Shareholder Business Manager of BP Russia, leading BP's operations and business development efforts with Rosneft. He oversaw Sakhalin exploration activities and advanced BP's efforts to acquire exploration licenses in the Russian Arctic.

From 2005 – 2007, Mr. Bates served in TNK-BP as Performance Unit Leader and Director of TNK-BP's first greenfield major project. Mr. Bates was previously a founding Director of Trinity Energy Ltd., an oil & gas independent where he negotiated and executed Uzbekistan's first production sharing agreement, operated oil and gas fields in Uzbekistan and Russia and marketed refined petroleum products in the region. He has also worked in the oil services sector with Baker Hughes and EVI-Weatherford, where he implemented a variety of performance contracting projects in the FSU and South American markets.

Mr. Bates received his B.S. in Economics (Magna Cum Laude) from Texas A&M University in 1989.

 

 

Ambassador Matthew Bryza

Independent Non-Executive Director

Ambassador Bryza is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and Board Member of the Jamestown Foundation, both of which are based in Washington, D.C., USA. He was Director of the International Centre for Defence and Security in Tallinn, Estonia during 2012 to 2015.

His previous assignments during a diplomatic career of 23 years included Ambassador to Azerbaijan (2011-2012), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia (2005-2009), Director on the National Security Council Staff in the White House for Europe and Eurasia (2001-2005), Deputy Advisor to the President and Secretary of State on Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy (1998-2001), and Political Officer in the U.S. Missions to Russia (1995-1997) and Poland (1989-1991).

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Ambassador Bryza resides in Istanbul, Turkey, where he also serves on the Board of Turcas Petrol and as CEO of Lamor Turkey, a Finnish-Turkish environmental solutions company.

Ambassador Bryza received a bachelor's degree in international relations from Stanford University in 1986 and a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1988.

 

Independent exploration and production company engaged in oil and natural gas projects in Global and us

Francis Sommer

Independent Non-Executive Director

Francis Sommer serves as a non-executive director of Nobel Oil E&P (UK) Ltd, the holding company of the Nobel Upstream group of companies. He has broad experience in the global oil and gas industry where he has been a leader in field development technology and operations over the course of a nearly thirty-year career. He has optimized developments of major oil fields in North America, South America, Russia, the UK and Europe.

Mr. Sommer is a Partner at L1 Energy responsible for the technical evaluation of new business opportunities and of L1 Energy's existing portfolio. Previously, he was a Partner at Pamplona Capital Management where he was responsible for technical evaluation and strategy in support of investing $10 billion of private equity in the global oil and gas sector.

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Mr. Sommer worked for BP for twenty-seven years, most recently as Executive Vice President Technology and Senior Vice President of Technology and Operations at TNK-BP joint venture (2005-2013) and held Executive technical/managerial positions at BP in North America, South America and Europe (1986-2005). As one of five members of TNK-BP's Corporate Investment Committee (CIC), he was also responsible for all major investment decisions.

Mr. Sommer earned his MS in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, his BA in Physics from New York University, and is the author of numerous publications.

 


Imran Ahmadzada

Non-Executive Director

Imran Ahmadzada has extensive experience in energy, telecommunications, financial and industrial institutions.

Mr. Ahmadzada is the Member of the Board of Directors at Nobel Upstream.

He is the Group Chief Financial Officer of NEQSOL Holding and the Head of NEQSOL Holding Azerbaijan. As the Group CFO of NEQSOL Holding, he is in charge of all asset, portfolio and investment management of the holding.

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Imran Ahmadzada is also a Member of the Boards of Directors at various companies within the holding, namely Nobel Energy, Norm, the largest cement producer in the South Caucasus, and Vodafone Ukraine telecommunications company.

He joined the holding as a Chief Treasury Officer at Nobel Energy group of companies in 2013. Before joining the holding, Mr. Ahmadzada worked in different roles in the banking sector since 2004 in the fields of Treasury, Risk Management, Credit Underwriting, Portfolio Management. He also worked as an Adjunct Lecturer at various Universities.

Mr. Ahmadzada is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, having successfully completed the Program for Leadership Development (PLD) in 2020. He obtained an MBA in Financial Management degree in 2009 from Coburg University in Germany.

 


Vugar Samadli

Non-Executive Director

 Vugar Samadli is the CEO and the Member of the Board of Directors at Nobel Energy Group with over 18 years of international experience, knowledge and expertise in the oil and gas industry.

As part of his current tenure, Mr. Samadli is also a Board Member at Nobel Upstream.

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Mr. Samadli had held a number of senior management roles over the past nine years. In 2013, he assumed the role of General Director of Oil & Gas ProServ, a joint venture between SOCAR, Siemens and Target Petroleum. Before joining Nobel Energy Group in 2015, he worked as General Director of Global Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of Nobel Energy Group.

He has a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Turkey and Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from University of Florida. He holds a diploma in Project Management from George Washington University and studied executive MBA with SMITH Group.

In 2019, Vugar Samadli was awarded ‘The Taraggi Medal' by the President of the Azerbaijan Republic for his services in the development of the country's oil industry.

In 2023, Mr. Samadli obtained his PhD in Chemical-Mechanical Engineering from the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.