JKX Names New Finance Chief

UK-listed Russia and Ukraine gas independent producer JKX Oil & Gas has named its new finance chief, who will take on the role from November 20.

He is Ben Fraser, who for the past three years has been CFO and Company Secretary at Equus Petroleum, a UK-based explorer in Kazakhstan. Prior to 2014 he was state producer KazMunaiGas E&P's financial controller/CFO for three years. He has also worked for Kazakhmys, Deloitte, NM Rothschild and HSBC in a variety of positions.

In a statement November 6, JKX chairman Hans Jochum Horn welcomed Fraser to JKX and also thanked Dmitriy Poddybniy who had been its acting CFO for the past three months.

Senior executives and several board members were ousted at a June AGM by two leading shareholders Eclairs and Proxima. On July 31 former CEO Tom Reed and former CFO Russell Hoare ended their advisory roles at JKX two months ahead of schedule, and former chair Paul Ostling also stepped down. Victor Gladun, formerly the head of a JKX subsidiary, has been acting CEO at JKX since late June. 

Mark Smedley