Leon Devaney has over 20 years of commercial and finance experience within the Australian oil and gas sector and holds an MBA and BSc (Finance) from the University of Southern California, USA.
Leon joined Central Petroleum in 2012 as Chief Commercial Officer, making the transition to CFO in November 2014. Leon was instrumental in negotiating the Mereenie acquisition from Santos in 2015, as well as the Palm Valley and Dingo Gas Field acquisition from Magellan Petroleum in 2014.
Leon was appointed Chief Executive Officer, effective 21 February 2019, after serving as Acting CEO since July 2018.
Prior to joining Central Petroleum, Leon worked at QGC and played a pivotal role in its growth from a small cap gas exploration company into a multi-billion dollar takeover target by the BG Group in 2008. Leon continued with BG following the QGC takeover, where he served as General Manager, Gas and Power, responsible for the domestic gas and electricity portfolio.
Prior to QGC, Leon held senior roles at Deloitte in the Corporate Finance Advisory group where he was active in structuring and implementing commercial and financing transactions for major energy and infrastructure projects throughout Australia.
Mr Devaney has been a director of Central Petroleum Limited since 14 November 2018.
Ross Evans has been appointed Chief Operating Officer with oversight of both projects and operations.
Mr Evans was recently Executive General Manager for Exploration & Development for Lattice Energy, the upstream business divested by Origin. Prior to that Ross held various senior roles with Origin where he was instrumental in the rapid growth of Origin’s upstream business and the successful delivery of the APLNG Coal Seam Gas to LNG project in Queensland. Mr Evans brings to Central more than 25 years’ of diversified upstream industry experience particularly in Queensland and the Northern Territory, and holds a number of qualifications including a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Queensland and an MBA from the University of NSW.
Damian Galvin is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of experience in all aspects of financial management and corporate affairs of fast-growing companies in the energy and resources sector in Australia and overseas. A former Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of coal seam gas pioneer, Queensland Gas Company Limited (“QGC”), Damian headed QGC’s corporate function for five years as the company grew from a junior CSG explorer to a significant gas producer. Damian subsequently guided WestSide Corporation Ltd through an IPO in 2006 as Chief Financial Officer and continued to lead the finance and corporate functions through the acquisition of a controlling interest in the Dawson CSG fields in 2010 and until after WestSide’s takeover and subsequent de-listing in 2014. Damian gained his initial financial and commercial experience with Price Waterhouse, independent oil producer Premier Oil Plc and more recently as Chief Financial Officer of White Energy and ReNu Energy.
Mr White has over 25 years’ legal experience in the management, negotiation and documentation of mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt capital raisings, joint venture, farmout and partnering arrangements, all aspects of the exploration, development and production life-cycle, oil and gas sales and dispute resolution.
Prior to his appointment at Central Petroleum, Mr White was Group General Counsel and Company Secretary of Kuwait Energy Company, based in Kuwait. Mr White has also held senior legal and executive management positions in Australia and overseas for Clough Limited. Prior to joining Clough, Mr White worked for many years as a commercial litigator with boutique litigation law firm Arns & Associates.
Mr White holds a Master of Laws (University of London), a Bachelor of Laws (Murdoch University) and a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) (Murdoch University). He is admitted as a Solicitor of the High Court of Australia and the Supreme Courts of Queensland and Western Australia, and is a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales (SRA-regulated solicitor, not practising).
