Derek Evans, centre, president and CEO of Pengrowth Energy Trust, laughs at a joke before addressing the company's annual meeting in Calgary on May 11, 2010. The retiring CEO of Pengrowth Energy Corp. says Canadian oil and gas leaders have been too “shy” to speak out in support of their industry and he plans to help fill that vacuum as he leaves the job he's held since 2009. Derek Evans, 61, says he blames himself as much as anyone for a disconnect between average Canadians and the industry in terms of pipeline and drilling technology safety, and the seeming inability of some to see how importing oil and gas hurts domestic producers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Oilsands producer MEG Energy Corp. says it has selected veteran oilman Derek Evans to replace interim CEO Harvey Doerr.
The appointment comes less than five months after Evans’ retirement from Pengrowth Energy Corp., where he had been CEO for nine years.
At the time, 61-year-old Evans said he would take a few months off but planned to assume an undefined advocacy role for the oil and gas industry after that.
MEG chairman Jeffrey McCaig says Evans was selected after an exhaustive search by a recruitment firm, adding he has been asked to focus on strengthening the company’s balance sheet while growing production through small-scale technology-driven expansion projects to 113,000 barrels of bitumen per day by 2020.
Doerr, a MEG director, had been filling in for co-founder Bill McCaffrey, who retired in May after 19 years at the helm.
Evans has more than 35 years of experience in the oilpatch, including six years as the CEO of Focus Energy Trust.
“I am excited to take on the leadership of MEG at this pivotal moment in the company’s history,” said Evans in a news release.
Both MEG and Pengrowth are based in Calgary.