Executive Team
Jesse Darling (P.Eng)
President & Chief Executive Officer / Director
Jesse is a Petroleum Engineer by designation. Jesse started his career in various field positions before eventually going back to school to complete his Bachelors of Petroleum Engineering. Jesse held diverse roles in drilling, completions, abandonment, and production before spending 4 years specializing as a Completions Engineer at Tristar Resource Management. During his time at Tristar Jesse gained valuable experience in all aspects of completions, abandonments, and workovers across the entire WSCB. The exposure in helping oil companies grow their businesses at Tristar sparked Jesse’s passion for entrepreneurship. In 2021 Jesse founded Wyatt Resources Ltd. As President and CEO of Wyatt he led the growth of the company from 6bbl/d to 600bbl/d in 2.5 years ultimately selling to Lycos Energy at the end of 2023. During his time at Wyatt Jesse formed a partnership with Frog Lake First Nation. Wyatt bought 18 inactive wells on the reserve and cleaned up the property, abandoning 8 wells and reactivating 8 to become the largest oil producer on the Nation.
Ben Makar (P.Eng)
Chief Operating Officer / Director
Ben is a seasoned engineer with 25 years of oil and gas experience, predominantly focused on reservoir and development engineering, receiving his Bachelors of Petroleum Engineering degree from the University of Alberta in 2000. Ben’s expertise is providing vision for assets from initial acquisition to technical evaluations supporting annual budget, drilling, optimization, reserve campaigns, and Asset long term planning. Ben spend the first 17 years of his career at Cenovus, working in various Canadian and International assets in a multitude of engineering, business development and leadership roles prior to joining Tangle Creek Energy in 2017 where he worked as Vice President of Engineering. After Tangle Creek’s sale to HWN Energy in 2021, Ben stayed on as Vice President of Asset Management to continue to develop the acquired assets, and worked with the Team to triple the size of the organization in the following two years. Ben also sits on the Board of Directors for iCan for Kids, a local Calgary charity supporting food insecure families.
Scott Leroux (P.Geol, MSc.)
Executive Vice President, Exploration / Director
Scott is a professional geologist with 25 years of diverse experience with a mix of Technical and Leadership roles across the spectrum of play types both conventional and unconventional throughout Western Canada. Scott spent his first 10 years at PanCanadian / Encana where he progressed into roles of increasing responsibility and leadership before moving on to Corporate Development at Surge Energy. Scott has a tremendous amount of A&D experience and has been involved with over 2 billion dollars in acquisitions as well as being involved in the sales process of 3 companies. Scott has managed multidisciplinary teams up to 10 people and was Geo Science manager at both Long Run and Mancal Energy. Scott was a founding member of Primavera Resources a private start-up where he was VP Exploration, and successfully proved up and delineated a multi layer Montney light oil play in NEBC. Scott is an active volunteer for over 20 years and had been on the Board of Directors for the CEGA (CSPG) three times and is currently the GeoLeaders Co-chair. Scott graduated from Simon Fraser University in 2000 with a M.Sc. in Earth Sciences.
Kathleen Dixon (P.Geol, MBA, ICD.D)
Sr. Vice President, Business Development / Director
Kathleen Dixon retired as a Director from BMO Capital Markets, Mergers and Acquisitions in 2023 where she’d worked for 13 years and was part of over $20 billion Canadian energy sector transactions. Prior thereto she worked as a geologist for 10 years in heavy oil and oil sands for Canadian Natural Resources and Iteration energy. In 2019, Kathleen had the opportunity to take a 3 month leave of absence to pursue her passion for politics and run as a Candidate in Vancouver for the Conservative Party of Canada. Kathleen graduated in 1990 from UBC with a B.Sc. in geology and Durham University with an MBA in 1995. In 2022, Kathleen completed the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors designation (ICD.D) and sits on 5 private, public and not-for-profit boards.
Glenn Gradeen (P.Eng.,ICD.D)
Board Chair / Director
Glenn brings a wealth of leadership and executive oil industry experience combining technical knowledge with business acumen and leadership abilities that enable rapid creation of shareholder value with focus on sustainability, team, quality and good governance grounded in strong risk management principles and a commitment to ethical business practices. Glenn has led executive teams for both publicly traded and private energy companies for over 25 years, including Tangle Creek Energy (private), Cirrus Energy, Berkana Energy, Rosetta Exploration and Ocelot Energy (all Public). Prior thereto, Glenn served in several technical capacities including reservoir, production and drilling engineering. Glenn received his Bachelor of Applied Science in Geological Engineering with honours from the University of Windsor in 1979 and has chaired and organized several energy related conferences including for the Conference Board of Canada.
Jessica Brown (LL.B.)
Corporate Secretary / Director
Jessica Brown is a partner in the Business Law Group at Cassels. Her practice focuses on securities and corporate law, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, shareholder activism, corporate governance, and general corporate matters. Jessica is a trusted advisor to both issuers and dealers and regularly helps them successfully navigate securities and governance matters, IPOs, TSX and TSX Venture Exchange listings and related transactions, capital markets transactions, public and private share and asset acquisitions and divestitures, and compliance with securities regulatory requirements. Jessica is a member of the TSX Venture Exchange’s Alberta Local Advisory Committee and the Alberta Securities Commission’s Securities Advisory Committee. She is also a member of the Alberta Bar Association, the Canadian Bar Association, and the Calgary Bar Association.