OMV Petrom Hires CEO from BP

Austrian OMV has appointed BP's Asia-Pacific boss, Christina Verchere (pictured below), as the CEO of its 51%-owned Romanian subsidiary, OMV Petrom. The appointment is to run for the remaining term of the mandate granted to Mariana Gheorghe until April 16, 2019. But she will take up the post no later than May 21, OMV said January 9, or whenever Gheorghe surrenders it.

Until then, Christina Verchere and Mariana Gheorghe will work to ensure a smooth transition and to help the company reach its growth potential and achieve its ambitious objectives, OMV said. The largest producer in southeast Europe, it is active in the Black Sea where its challenges include marketing the gas from the Neptun deepwater field that it plans to co-develop with its Neptun co-partner ExxonMobil. 

Verchere started her career in 1993 and has spent over 20 years with an oil and gas supermajor, where she held numerous leadership positions in the UK, the US as well as in Canada. Since 2014 she has been regional president of the Asia Pacific region, in Jakarta, Indonesia.

OMV CEO Rainer Seele said that Verchere was "an exceptional leader in the oil and gas industry, with a remarkable breadth of understanding of the business." He added that her predecessor Gheorghe had turned OMV Petrom into an "international competitive and highly profitable company" in her 12 years in the post.

Gheorghe, who herself said it was the "right time to leave and for Christina Verchere and a new generation of leaders to continue to build a great company," was appointed as CEO of Petrom in 2006 after working for 13 years for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. 

Incoming OMV Petrom CEO Christina Verchere (Credit: BP)