|
Fred Hofheinz
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Mr.
Hofheinz, the former Mayor of the City of Houston 1974-1978, began his
business career with his late father, Roy Hofheinz, Sr., the founder of
the Houston Astrodome and the initial owner of the Houston Astros
baseball team. Mr. Hofheinz played a key role in the family real estate
development projects surrounding the Astrodome, including an amusement
park and four hotels. He was the senior officer of Ringling Brothers
Barnum and Bailey Circus, which was owned by the Hofheinz family. In
1971, Mr. Hofheinz co-founded a closed circuit television company, Top
Rank, which is now the leading professional boxing promotion firm in
the nation. He has served as President of the Texas Municipal League
and served on the boards of numerous other state and national
organizations for municipal government elected officials. In addition
to his law practice, Mr. Hofheinz also owned several direct interests
in oil and gas producing properties and co-founded and served as the
Chief Executive Officer of several oil and gas companies. He has also
dealt extensively with business interests, primarily oil and gas
related, in the People's Republic of China and in the Ukraine.
For
the past five years Mr. Hofheinz has been an investor and a practicing
attorney with the firm of Williams, Birnberg & Andersen in Houston,
Texas. While he has numerous investments in real estate, his principal
investment interest is in oil and gas. He has been actively engaged in
successful exploration and production ventures, both domestic and
international. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Texas
and takes an active interest in Houston̉s civic and charitable affairs.
He was admitted to the Texas bar in 1964, having received his
preparatory education at the University of Texas, (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.,
1960-1964); and his Legal education.
William A. Sawyer
Director, President, and CEO
Mr.
Sawyer is proven hands-on energy executive with over 30 years of
diversified experience in the energy industry with firms such as; ARCO,
Houston Oil & Minerals, Superior Oil (Mobil), and ERCO. He founded
the petroleum consulting firm of Exploitation Engineers, Inc. The firm
has served the oil and gas industry for more than 18 years. Clients
have included private investors, independent oil companies, banking
institutions, major energy and chemical companies, and the US
government. The firm has evaluated and managed large projects such as a
private trust, which included interests in several hundred producing
and non-producing oil and gas properties. This background as a
consultant has given Mr. Sawyer the superior technical and business
skills necessary to evaluate mineral interests and to prepare fair
market value appraisals of both minerals interests and sub-surface
storage interests. Mr. Sawyer has been an expert witness in federal
court, state court, and before several state agencies in Texas and
Oklahoma. Mr. Sawyer has testified as to the fair market value of
mineral interests and sub-surface storage interests on several
occasions.
Eric Wold
Managing Director, Equity Research Merriman Curhan Ford & Co.
Eric
Wold is a Managing Director, Equity Research at Merriman Curhan Ford
& Co., where he is responsible for covering the Restaurant and
Specialty Consumer sectors. He joined the firm in March 2002. For 2004,
Mr. Wold was ranked number 2 in the nation by both The Wall Street
Journal's «Best on the Street» and the Forbes/StarMine surveys for the
Restaurant industry.
Prior to joining Merriman Curhan Ford
& Co., Mr. Wold served as Director of Corporate Finance with
NightFire Software, a privately-held telecommunications software
company based in Oakland, California. In this capacity, he oversaw the
company's corporate finance activities, including a Series D equity
financing and multiple debt restructures. From 1997 through 2000, Mr.
Wold served as Vice President and Senior Research Analyst at First
Security Van Kasper, where he was responsible for the Restaurant and
Branded Consumer sectors. Prior to Van Kasper, Mr. Wold began his
career on the buy-side with Research Analyst positions with both
Polynous Capital Management (a hedge fund that he co- founded in 1996)
and GT Global Financial Services.
Mr. Wold received his
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1997 and a BS in
Finance from the University of California at Berkeley.
Peter K. Grunebaum
Mr.
Grunebaum is an independent investment banker with over 40 years of
experience in the energy sector with a specialty in Exploration &
Production. Mr. Grunebaum is a graduate of Lehigh University, and in
addition with being a board member of Lucas Energy, he is also on the
Board of the Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. [NYSE:PPD] and Stonemor
Partners LP. [NASDAQ: STON].
|
