Directors

Non-Executive Chairman
Ted Jacobson

Ted Jacobson is a petroleum geophysicist with 36 years’ experience in petroleum exploration, principally in the European North Sea, South East Asia and Australia.

He has had extensive involvement in Australian North West Shelf acreage, beginning in 1981 with the initial bid for the Harriet Joint Venture permits. He was responsible for initiating a number of commercial discoveries within the Cooper Basin, Barrow Sub-basin and the Timor Sea.

Mr. Jacobson was a co-founder of Discovery Petroleum N.L. and a co-founder and the technical director of Tap Oil Limited, which grew to a market capitalization of over $400 million under his technical leadership. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer and an Executive Director of Carnarvon Petroleum Limited.

Mr. Jacobson is a member of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia and a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG).

Managing Director

Brett Woods

Following a successful year at Rialto Energy, Mr. Brett Woods has been appointed as Managing Director. Mr Woods had held the role of Chief Executive Officer since April 2007.

Mr. Woods is a petroleum industry geoscientist with over 10 years’ industry experience, most of it international. He has significant technical expertise in evaluating and maturing both operated and non-operated exploration and development assets, principally in Australia, Africa, South East Asia and the USA.

Mr. Woods has previously worked for Woodside Energy Ltd. and more recently for Sterling Energy plc, in the UK, where he was responsible for managing that company’s considerable African oil and gas portfolio and for capturing new growth opportunities in Africa.

Executive Director

Rob Hall

In April 2008 Mr Rob Hall was appointed as a Director of Rialto Energy. Previously, Mr Hall held the role of General Manager.

Rob Hall has over 27 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry with an extensive background in exploration and development projects in a wide variety of geographical areas including Australia, Africa and Asia. Mr Hall has served as Vice President Exploration Cepu for Mobil Oil Indonesia and was instrumental in the activity leading to the Banyuurip and Cendana oil discoveries in the prolific Cepu area. He has also held senior management, technical and operational positions for other international oil companies.

Mr Hall has spent most of the last 7 years working in West Africa and East Africa in the roles of Development Manager Uganda for Hardman Resources and General Manager for Sterling Energy Pty Ltd in Mauritania, Senegal, Ghana, Gabon and Cameroon. He has joined Rialto from his most recent position as Exploration Manager, Tap Oil Limited.

Non-Executive Director

Laurie Brown

Laurie Brown is an exploration geoscientist with over 25 years’ international petroleum industry exploration experience.

Mr. Brown joined British Petroleum plc (“BP”), initially as a Research Geoscientist in 1982, transferring to International Exploration a year later. After 17 years with BP, predominantly on international assignments covering the Middle East, Asia, Africa, UK and Australia, he settled in Australia in 1999, taking a lead role in Woodside’s then developing International Team. Appointed as a Shell Global Consultant, he led Woodside’s technical team in deepwater Mauritania culminating in the initial Chinguetti discovery.

In 2001, Mr. Brown joined Mauritanian joint venturer Fusion Oil & Gas Ltd as Exploration Manager, helping the company to grow its technical expertise and its asset portfolio into a diverse range of largely operated exploration assets in Gabon, Cameroon, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Western Sahara as well as Mauritania.

Mr. Brown was appointed Exploration Director of Sterling Oil and Gas Pty Ltd, a wholly owned, Perth based, subsidiary of Sterling Energy plc following its takeover of Fusion in December 2003. He resigned from the board of Sterling Oil and Gas Pty Ltd in January 2006 following the relocation of Sterling’s asset management to the UK.

Mr. Brown is also a Director of Kairiki Energy Limited.

Non-Executive Director
Greg Munyard

Greg Munyard was Rialto’s founding Managing Director until 20 April 2007.

He is by training, a corporate solicitor, with over 25 years’ experience in the resources industry, principally in oil and gas. He has held positions with CRA Ltd (now Rio Tinto Ltd.) and has worked for small and large oil and gas exploration and production companies. Prior to Rialto, he held senior legal positions with Woodside Energy Ltd. (“Woodside”), where he worked for 17 years.

Mr. Munyard has extensive experience in a broad range of the legal and commercial aspects of the oil and gas industry, in all phases from exploration to production and sales. This has included consideration of country entries, formation and management of joint ventures, acreage acquisition, development and construction activities, risk management, reserves classification, production operations and marketing.

Mr. Munyard has extensive experience in advising on Australia’s offshore petroleum legislation and took a lead role in its recent review. He has also lectured and tutored in oil and gas topics at the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Mining, Energy and Natural Resources Law.

Non-Executive Director

Simon Potter

Simon Potter was trained as a geologist and has over 30 years' experience in the minerals, oil and gas industry sectors, gained in a range of diverse and challenging roles in Western and Central Africa, UK, USA, Indonesia, Russia as well as Australia and PNG.

Mr Potter was the Managing Director and CEO at Hardman Resources (ASX and AIM listed) where he led the growth of the company as an oil producer in Mauritania and as an explorer with considerable success in the rift valley of Africa, before its acquisition by Tullow Oil for $1.47 billion was completed in 2007.

Prior to Hardman, Mr Potter worked for 20 years with BP where he held a number of senior positions in Australia and overseas. These included President and CEO of BP's LNG JV operating in Indonesia, VICO, and Chairman and CEO of a group of Russian subsidiary companies of TNK-BP JV which managed a group of 150 fields that collectively produced 330,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Key Personnel

Exploration Manager

Gerry Spanninga

Mr Gerry Spanninga joined Rialto on 6 August 2007. He is a petroleum explorationist with 15 years international industry experience working on ventures in South America, Africa, Gulf of Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.

His career started in New Zealand with Fletcher Challenge Energy, working a range of exploration to development projects in the prolific onshore Taranaki Basin. In 1997, he joined Woodside Energy Ltd, working on several projects both domestically and internationally. Highlights include contributions to early exploration success at Vincent and Enfield for Woodside in the Exmouth Sub-Basin, Australia, and the evaluation and high grading of numerous exploration opportunities throughout offshore Africa and the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Most recently he was Technical Manager - Latin America, contributing to the successful entry, by Woodside Energy Ltd, into the prolific Santos Basin, Offshore Brazil in 2006.

Company Secretary
John Arbuckle

John Arbuckle is a CPA with extensive experience in the mining industry in Australia and overseas. Currently he is a principal of DNA Capital Pty Ltd, which provides corporate and capital financing advice to mining industry companies. His recent positions have included Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of Mount Gibson Iron Limited and Chief Financial Officer of Perilya Limited, where he guided the companies through challenging start up phases. Prior to this he held senior financial management roles with Rio Tinto Limited, North Limited and Anaconda Nickel Limited. He has considerable experience in developing financial and risk management strategies for mining companies and the implementation of accounting controls and systems.

Mr Arbuckle is also a Director and Company Secretary of Carpathian Resources Limited and Alchemy Resources Limited and is a Director of Prosperity Resources Limited.