Tom Soulsby
Executive Chairman

Tom has 23 years’ experience of the oil and gas and resources sector spanning investment banking, corporate business development and management/leadership roles.

A graduate of Swinburne and Monash Universities, he initially worked as an accountant, starting his career at KPMG and Western Mining. Tom then moved to Potter Warburg (now UBS) in Melbourne as an energy and resources equity research analyst. He subsequently joined ANZ in Melbourne, before being posted to Jakarta and ultimately Singapore as director of corporate finance and merchant banking. As a Director at Indonesian-listed Energi Mega Persada (EMP) from 2003 to 2008, he was responsible for the acquisition of assets which added 525 MMboe to EMP’s 2P reserves – a key growth driver for the company.

Tom was instrumental in securing backing for Lion’s major shareholder, Risco, prior to its incorporation in 2010, as well as growing the company and its capabilities in his role of Chief Executive Officer. Under Tom’s leadership, Risco has participated in and funded over US$400m in successful transactions since 2010 including strategic stakes in Tap Oil and Lion Energy Ltd. He has led the significant valuation creation, and subsequent monetisation of Risco’s investments in Southeast Asia spanning Indonesia, Australia, Thailand and Philippines.

Tom is transforming Lion into a more carbon neutral green energy supplier and distributor and is a special board advisor to Hydrogen Queensland.

Damien Servant
Executive Director

Mr Servant has more than 20 years of experience in business development, energy portfolio management, finance, M&A and capital markets with various leading financial institutions in the region, and served as Chief Financial Officer of Risco Energy from 2014. Damien helped lead investments into Tap Oil Ltd and Lion Energy. Damien has been a key driver of value creation for Risco, and is now focusing his attention on Lion Energy.

At Lion, Damien has been important for Lion’s strong financial position and is a key driver for Lion’s foray into green hydrogen. He has more than 15 years experience in energy including fundraising and corporate finance with BNP Paribas, Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas and Standard Bank.

Russell Brimage
Non Executive Director

Russell has over 40 years’ experience in the upstream oil and gas industry, ranging from public listed oil & gas companies to the service industry – both onshore and offshore.

Prior to Lion Energy, Russell was Managing Director of Oilserv Australia, an oil field service company which he founded in 1982. The company became a dominant service contractor in Australia providing contract field operations, testing and wire-line services, facility design and construction, drilling and work-over services.

In the public company arena, Russell has demonstrated capability in capacity as CEO to secure and develop producing assets in both Indonesia and the state and federal shallow waters of the US Gulf Coast, often via industry counter-cyclical transactions, to transform companies from zero revenue to positive cash flow and profitability, with successful outcomes. As chief executive officer of Entek Energy Limited, he was an early mover in identifying shale opportunities in the US with the farm-in to approximately 60,000 acres in the Niobrara shale play in the states of Colorado and Wyoming in August 2009.

Chris Newton
Non Executive Director

Chris is director of business development and operations for Risco Energy Investments. In a career spanning 42 years in oil and gas he has covered the spectrum of exploration, development and production, developing core strengths in petroleum economics, strategic planning, business development and ultimately, top management. Chris worked alongside Tom Soulsby to be a founder of Risco Energy where Risco participated in and funded over US$400m in successful transactions since 2010. Chris co-led the significant valuation creation including investments into Lion Energy and Tap Oil Ltd (where he is still Chairman and CEO), and the monetisation of Risco’s first South East Asian oil and gas conventional and unconventional portfolio.

A 1978 Geology graduate from Durham University, England, Chris also holds a Grad Dip in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia (SIA). He has spent more than 25 years in South East Asia in various industry capacities including Managing Director of Fletcher Challenge in Brunei, a stint as Managing Director of Shell Deepwater Borneo, President of Santos – Indonesia and CEO of Jakarta-listed oil and gas company, EMP. Along with Mr Soulsby, he was a co-founder director of Risco Energy in July 2010.

Chris was an active Director of the Indonesian Petroleum Association (IPA) between 2003 to 2008, including serving as President from 2004 to 2007. He remains an advisor to the IPA Board and is also the oil and gas advisor to the Jakarta based Castle Asia Group.

Zane Lewis
Non Executive Director

Mr Lewis has over 25 years of corporate advisory and finance experience. He is a principal and founder of corporate advisory firm SmallCap Corporate, which provides in corporate advice to more than 30 ASX Listed companies and is managing director of Golden Triangle Capital which connects listed entities with a community of professional and sophisticated investors, providing funding for all stages in strategic development.

Most recently Zane facilitated the transformation of Odessa Minerals Limited (ASX:ODE) into an Australian focussed diamond exploration company, the IPO of mining services company Aquirian Limited (ASX:AQN) and was instrumental in the transformation of Vital Metals Ltd (ASX:VML) into a rare earths business.

Mr Lewis is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and is the Chairman of Odessa Minerals Limited (ASX:ODE) and a non executive Director of Kairos Minerals Limited (ASX:KAI) and Kingsland Global Limited (ASX:KLO).

Arron Canicais
Company Secretary

Arron is a Chartered Accountant with 12 years experience in audit and assurance and financial officer roles. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Notre Dame Australia and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia.

Arron worked at Bentleys Audit and Corporate, a West Perth audit firm, for 5 years which specialized in the audits of junior exploration entities in WA. He has had significant exposure to the reporting and financial requirements of exploration entities and post-audit has been the financial officer and company secretary of other resource exploration entities in West Perth.

Kim Morrison
Exploration Manager

Kim is a geologist by background with 30 years worldwide exploration and operations experience with Woodside, Shell, Marathon and recently small cap companies. Kim brings hands on technical expertise with 12 years Indonesian experience.

Amrullah Hasyim
Advisor

Amrullah has over 30 years experience in the oil and gas industry. His background encompasses extensive operations, technology and business development experience in both onshore and offshore operations.

Amrullah worked with international service company Halliburton Energy Services for over 25 years. He has undertaken a number of international assignments including USA, Abu Dhabi and Dubai United Arab Emirates.

He graduated from UPN Veteran Yogyakarta majoring in Petroleum Engineering and has a Master of Business Administration from Institute Management Newport Indonesia, Jakarta. He has been a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineering (SPE), USA since 1992.

Andrew L Dicks
H₂ Advisor

Andrew provides the Board with a wealth of knowledge on hydrogen energy systems from a career spent in both industry and academia. He began his career in the corporate R&D labs of the UK gas industry contributing to the development of coal gasification, catalytic gas processes and high temperature fuel cell systems. In the 1990s he led several UK and pan-European fuel cell technology development. He also chaired the technical program committee for a major PEM fuel cell research project in Canada that was supported by BG plc and Ballard Power Systems. For his technical contributions to the development of fuel cells in 1991 he was awarded the HE Jones (London) Medal by the Institution of Gas Engineers.

Andrew took up a research fellowship at the University of Queensland in 2002 and since then has played a key role in promoting clean energy systems – as a Director of the Australian Institute of Energy, Director of the CSIRO National Hydrogen Materials Alliance, founder of the Australian Association for Hydrogen Energy and, most recently, founder of the Australian Hydrogen Research Network. Andrew has provided technical advice and training for hydrogen start-up companies, he is a member of Standards Australia hydrogen working groups and is an Adjunct Principal Research Fellow at Griffith University. Andrew holds BSc and PhD degrees from Loughborough University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemist and Chartered Chemist.