Senior Management
Addax Petroleum is led by a strong executive leadership team with a rich mix of both oil and gas industry expertise and cultural diversity. It successfully combines entrepreneurial and management skills with extensive financial, legal, and technical knowledge while fostering diversity as a driving force of the Company’s development and growth. Our executives have a proven track record of leadership within high-growth companies and bring a unique blend of professional experience used to engage teams and drive success in Addax Petroleum.
Xianliang Geng
Chairman
Yi Zhang
CEO
Robert Bulstra
COO
Jifeng Ye
CFO
Guus Klusener
CLO
Chuanhui Xu
CGO
Senior Vice Presidents
Cornelis Zegelaar
Senior Vice President and MD Addax Petroleum Development (Nigeria) Ltd
John Baillie
Senior Vice President Development and Growth Strategy
Colin Klappa
Senior Vice President Exploration and Middle East
Xianliang Geng, Chairman
Mr. Geng worked at the Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau from 1984 to 2001. He occupied various functions, ranging from technician engineer in the engine workshop (the factory of special repairs works) to Deputy Director, Deputy Chief in the technology divisions and Director of the third sub-factory. In 1996 he was appointed Director of the 15th block of the Management prior to his position as Deputy Secretary. Mr. Geng joined Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration & Production Corporation (SIPC) in 2001 as Vice-President, during which time his responsibilities included legal and contracts affairs, financial assets management, engineering and technology development, corporate planning, and acquisition & trade of SIPC. In 2004 he was appointed General Manager of China-Angola International Petroleum Corporation and Director of the West Africa-Asia Pacific projects. Mr. Geng is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and studied engineering followed by a Master’s degree in oil and gas field development engineering at the College of Engineering, China University of Petroleum in Beijing, China. Mr. Geng holds a PhD in Business Management from the College of Business, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
Yi Zhang, Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Zhang has 25 years of experience in the E&P business. From 1986 to 2002, he worked at the Oil Production Research Institute in Shengli Oilfield Company, the second largest oilfield in China, in various positions from Oil Engineer to Deputy Director in Heavy Oil Institute and Deputy General Manager in Oil Production Research Institute. In 2002, he was appointed General Manager of Oil Production Research Institute within 3 years, during the time he concurrently held the position of Vice-Chief Engineer of Shengli Oilfield Company to take charge of Petroleum Engineering and R&D from 2003 to 2005. In 2005, he was promoted to Vice-President of Henan Oilfield Company where he was responsible for all Oil and Gas E&P, Operations and R&D until he joined Addax Petroleum in August 2009 as Vice-President (Production & Operations). Mr. Zhang is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China. He studied MBA courses for half a year at Marshall University, West Virginia and PED courses for 3 months at IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland. Mr. Zhang holds a Masters degree in Oil and Gas Development Engineering and a PhD in Oil and Gas Drilling Engineering, both from China Petroleum University, China.
Robert Bulstra, Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Bulstra has held various technical, commercial and management positions. He joined Royal Dutch Shell in 1976 and had assignments with Petroleum Development (Oman) Ltd until 1982, followed by Shell Expro UK until 1985, Shell Gabon until 1991, Brunei Shell Petroleum from 1993 to 1995 and the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij until 2004. Mr. Bulstra joined Addax Petroleum in 2004. He worked as Corporate Gas Manager, Asset Manager Cameroon, Joint Venture Manager, General Manager Gabon, Technical Director Production and is currently Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Bulstra is a Dutch citizen and holds a Masters degree in Mining and Petroleum Engineering from the Technical University of Delft, Netherlands.
Jifeng Ye, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Ye started his career with Sinopec in 1993. In 1998 he was appointed Deputy Director of Internal Auditing with Sinopec Dianqiangui. In 2000, Mr. Ye joined Sinopec Southern Exploration & Production Branch as Deputy Director of planning and finance. In 2004, he was appointed Manager of the planning and financial department with Sinopec Sino-Saudi Gas Limited. After a brief spell with Sinopec Southern as Director of the Planning Financial department, Mr. Ye re-joined Sinopec International Exploration & Production (SIPC) as CFO for their Nigerian subsidiary. In 2006, he became a Management Committee Member of Udmurtneft Oil Company in Russia. In his role, he took charge of all significant commercial negotiations between Sinopec and ROSNEFT Russian National Petro Corporation. Before joining Addax Petroleum in 2009, Mr. Ye worked for Sinopec International Exploration and Production Corporation (SIPC) as Director of the planning department since 2008. Mr. Ye joined Addax Petroleum Corporation as Vice-President before being promoted to Chief Financial Officer in 2010. Mr. Ye is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and studied accounting at Liaoning University, International Project Auditing at the Petroleum Training Institute in Beijing, China and at the University of Houston, USA.
Guus Klusener, Chief Legal Officer
Mr. Klusener joined Addax Petroleum in September 2011 after a career of 23 years with Shell. Mr. Klusener has held various Legal and Management positions. He started his Legal career in 1988 in The Netherlands and had assignments with various Shell or Shell affiliated companies in The Netherlands, China, Nigeria, Russia and again Nigeria. During both his assignments in Nigeria, totalling more than eight years, Mr. Klusener's responsibilities included Regional Legal responsibility also for Cameroon and Gabon. Mr. Klusener is a Dutch citizen and holds a Masters degree in Law from Utrecht University in The Netherlands and a LL.M from New York University School of Law.
Chuanhui Xu, Chief Geological Officer
Mr. Xu has 28 years experience in the oil and gas industry. He started his career as geological technician in Qinghai Oilfield, China National Petroleum Corp. from 1983 to 1989. In 1989, he was transferred to East China Petroleum and Geology Bureau, Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources in various positions from Geologist to Senior Geologist and Deputy Director until 1997, where he was mainly engaged in research and operation management of oil and gas exploration and development of the North Jiangsu Basin and Songliao Basin in China. In 1997, he joined China National Star Petroleum Corporation and worked as Director in the Exploration department and Technology department for 7 years. From 2003 to 2009, he was appointed Deputy Chief Geologist in Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration & Production Corporation (SIPC), during the time he was concurrently appointed President of FIOC in Kazakhstan from 2004 to 2006, and in 2007 he worked as Director of the Business Development department in SIPC. In September 2009, he joined Addax Petroleum as Vice-President (Exploration). Mr. Xu is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and holds a Bachelor degree in Petroleum Geology from Chengdu College of Geology, China.
Cornelis Zegelaar, Senior Vice President and MD Addax Petroleum Development (Nigeria) Ltd
Mr Zegelaar joined Addax Petroleum in July 2011 as Managing Director of Addax Petroleum Development (Nigeria) Ltd (APDNL). Mr. Zegelaar has an extensive international experience in the oil and gas industry. He started his career with Schlumberger and subsequently joined Shell where he held various positions in both technical areas (Production Technologist, Operations Manager) and Human Resources (International Recruitment Manager, Manager Shell Learning Center), before moving into Senior Management roles. From 2002 to 2005, he worked as Vice-President EP in Venezuela and from 2005 to 2010, as General Manager of SPDC Nigeria, in Warri. Mr Zegelaar is very familiar with Nigeria as his career in this country covers more than 11 years.
Mr Zegelaar is a Dutch citizen. He holds a MSc in Mechanical Engineering and graduated from INSEAD.
John Baillie, Senior Vice President Development and Growth Strategy
Mr Baillie joined Addax Petroleum in May 2008 as Technical Manager for the Gabon Business Unit and rapidly moved to the role of Development Director taking on increasing responsibilities for development, planning and new asset integration roles. He has been in the upstream oil and gas industry for 30 years.
In his career, Mr Baillie has had a variety of positions for Chevron in Canada, California, Angola and Texas in the functional areas of deepwater oil field development, offshore improved recovery projects, hydrocarbon miscible floods, steam floods, gas cycling projects and new field development planning both on and offshore.
Mr Baillie is a Canadian citizen and holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary, Canada.
Colin Klappa, Senior Vice President Exploration and Middle East
Mr Klappa joined Addax Petroleum in May 2008 serving initially as Managing Director Cameroon and later as General Manager Exploration and Managing Director Middle East. Prior to Addax he spent most of his 32-year career with numerous Chevron subsidiaries in upstream E&P technical, managerial and leadership positions in Canada, Australia, United States, Nigeria, UK, Colombia, and Kazakhstan. In 1999 he was appointed President of Chevron Petroleum Company of Colombia and in 2001 as Deputy Manager Fields Development for the supergiant Tengiz and Korolev fields in Kazakhstan. He started his career with Gulf Canada as a geologist in Calgary in 1980 after a two-year post-doctoral research fellowship at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is a dual British-Canadian citizen and holds BSc and PhD degrees in geology from the University of Liverpool, UK.
Click on the above images to view the Senior Management's biographies