Mr. Taylor has over 47 years experience in the oil and gas sector and has served as a Director for four publicly held oil and gas companies. Mr. Taylor served as Executive Vice President of Occidental Oil and Gas where he was responsible for the operations in 27 countries and 650,000 barrels of oil per day of production. Also while at Occidental, he was involved in the development of the 1.3 billion barrel Caño Limón discovery in the Colombian Llanos, including construction of a major trans-Andean pipeline and marine export terminal and he managed Canadian Occidental worldwide activities as Chief Operating Officer, including the discovery and development of the one-billion barrel Masila fields in Yemen and construction of a pipeline and marine export terminal. Most recently he served on the Board of Willbros Group, Inc., a worldwide engineering and pipeline construction company. In addition, Mr. Taylor was the co-founder of Solana Petroleum, a Canadian publicly traded company that had exploration activities in Colombia.
Mr. Zúñiga Pflücker has spent the last 25 years in the international oil and gas business, ranging from exploitation of marginal oil and gas fields to frontier exploration projects throughout Latin America. His technical background and long standing roots in Peru have been instrumental in helping BPZ Energy establish itself as a leading independent Exploration & Production company in the region. He became President and Director of BPZ upon consummation of the Merger with Navidec, Inc. in September 2004 and in May 2005 he assumed the additional title of Chief Executive Officer. He also served as President of BPZ & Associates, Inc., a technical consulting firm, from 1989 until its Merger with Navidec. Mr. Zúñiga Pflücker began his career with Occidental Petroleum Corporation. He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland as well as an M.S. in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University.
Stephen C. Beasley has over 30 years of diverse management experience in the energy and chemical industries. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Eaton Group Inc., an executive solutions and strategic investment firm. Until recently, he served as President of El Paso Corporation's Eastern Pipeline Group and was a member of El Paso Corporation's nine-member Corporate Executive Committee. In his role, Mr. Beasley was Chairman and President of Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company and ANR Pipeline Company two of the largest and most complex natural gas transmission systems in the United States, which collectively transport nearly 15% of all of the natural gas consumed in the US. He also served on the Board of Directors for two of El Paso Corporation's joint venture companies Great Lakes Transmission and Gasoductos de Chihuahua; and served on the Boards of Directors for the Southern Gas Association (SGA) and the Northeast Gas Association (NGA). Mr. Beasley serves as Chairman of the Company's Compensation Committee and member of the Audit Committee.
Mr. Brand has extensive experience in the oil and gas business, starting his career as a geologist with Phillips Petroleum Company. Subsequently, he served in various roles of increasing responsibility within Phillips Petroleum Company and its successor, ConocoPhillips, including serving as President of its Canada and Australasia businesses. He retired from ConocoPhillips as Senior Vice President Technology (R&D). Since 2011, Mr. Brand has served as Senior Executive Advisor and member of the Advisory Board of Welltec A/S, a privately held Danish corporation that develops and provides well technology and related services for the oil and gas industry. He is also Senior Advisor to Clean Range Ventures, a cleantech venture targeting transformative opportunities in the areas of virtual utilities, resource management, advanced transportation, and low carbon energy. Mr. Brand is a member of the Board of Directors of SM Energy, a member of the Accenture Global Energy Board and a member of the Board of Directors of Australian American Chamber of Commerce. He received his B.A. in geology from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and also received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geology from Purdue University. Mr. Brand serves on the Company's Compensation Committee
Ms. Eagan's experience includes 30 years with Royal Dutch Shell and Shell Oil Company in the U.S., The Netherlands, and London. During this period, she served in various roles including Vice President, Finance for Global Gas and Power at Royal Dutch Shell, Vice President Finance and Commercial, Americas Region and Chief Financial Officer, Shell Oil Company. After retiring from Shell in 2005, Ms. Eagan was employed by Delta Hydrocarbons B.V. as Chief Financial Officer until 2009. Ms. Eagan joined the board of directors of Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) in January 2012, and is chair of its audit committee. MSRC is the largest, dedicated standby oil spill and emergency response company in the United States. Ms. Eagan holds a B.S. in Accounting from the University of New Orleans and an M.B.A. from the University of Houston and was previously a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant. She also received her law degree from the South Texas College of Law. Ms. Eagan serves on the Company's Audit and Compensation Committees.
Mr. Lendrum became a Director of BPZ in July 2005. Mr. Lendrum was appointed in April 2005 as President, Chief Operating Officer and a Director of Torch Energy Advisors Incorporated ("Torch"), a Houston based company which specializes in the exploitation and development of oil and gas properties, mid-stream gas assets, and well servicing. From 1993 to 2005, Mr. Lendrum served as President of Rockport Resources Capital Corporation, a firm that he founded which focused on providing capital to the energy industry. During this period, he was also a principal in Star Natural Gas Company, a privately-held company with mid-stream natural gas assets. Previously, Mr. Lendrum served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Torch and in senior financial and business development roles with the Torch managed companies of Nuevo Energy Company, Energy Assets International and Bellwether Exploration. Mr. Lendrum began his career with the international public accounting firm of KPMG Peat Marwick and earned a BBA in Finance and completed his graduate studies in Accounting Theory at the University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Ledrum serves as Chairman of the Company's Audit Committee and member of the Nominating and Governance Committee.
Mr. Strauch became a Director of BPZ in July 2005. Mr. Strauch has served since 2001 as Managing General Partner of Delmar Holdings, LP, a private firm which manages U.S. oil and gas properties. From 1992 to 2001, Mr. Strauch held various positions, including President and CEO, with Zarara Oil and Gas Limited and its predecessors. Zarara, a publicly traded company in the US and UK, had international oil and gas operations in Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and South America. Mr. Strauch has over 30 years experience in the oil and gas industry with extensive international and domestic technical experience in the areas of acquisitions, reservoir engineering and economic evaluations. He began his career with Schlumberger and has served in senior management and technical positions with ARAMCO, Petro Lewis, Whiting Petroleum and Geodyne Resources. Mr. Strauch holds an MBA from the University of Denver and a degree in Geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado. Mr. Strauch serves as Chairman on the Company's Nominating and Governance Committee.