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Fred Hofheinz
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Mr. Hofheinz, the former Mayor of the City of Houston 1974-1978, began his business career with his late father, Roy Hofheinz, Sr., the founder of the Houston Astrodome and the initial owner of the Houston Astros baseball team. Mr. Hofheinz played a key role in the family real estate development projects surrounding the Astrodome, including an amusement park and four hotels. He was the senior officer of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, which was owned by the Hofheinz family. In 1971, Mr. Hofheinz co-founded a closed circuit television company, Top Rank, which is now the leading professional boxing promotion firm in the nation. He has served as President of the Texas Municipal League and served on the boards of numerous other state and national organizations for municipal government elected officials. In addition to his law practice, Mr. Hofheinz also owned several direct interests in oil and gas producing properties and co-founded and served as the Chief Executive Officer of several oil and gas companies. He has also dealt extensively with business interests, primarily oil and gas related, in the People's Republic of China and in the Ukraine.
For the past five years Mr. Hofheinz has been an investor and a practicing attorney with the firm of Williams, Birnberg & Andersen in Houston, Texas. While he has numerous investments in real estate, his principal investment interest is in oil and gas. He has been actively engaged in successful exploration and production ventures, both domestic and international. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Texas and takes an active interest in Houston̉s civic and charitable affairs. He was admitted to the Texas bar in 1964, having received his preparatory education at the University of Texas, (B.A., M.A., Ph.D., 1960-1964); and his Legal education.
William A. Sawyer
Director, President, and CEO
Mr. Sawyer is proven hands-on energy executive with over 30 years of diversified experience in the energy industry with firms such as; ARCO, Houston Oil & Minerals, Superior Oil (Mobil), and ERCO. He founded the petroleum consulting firm of Exploitation Engineers, Inc. The firm has served the oil and gas industry for more than 18 years. Clients have included private investors, independent oil companies, banking institutions, major energy and chemical companies, and the US government. The firm has evaluated and managed large projects such as a private trust, which included interests in several hundred producing and non-producing oil and gas properties. This background as a consultant has given Mr. Sawyer the superior technical and business skills necessary to evaluate mineral interests and to prepare fair market value appraisals of both minerals interests and sub-surface storage interests. Mr. Sawyer has been an expert witness in federal court, state court, and before several state agencies in Texas and Oklahoma. Mr. Sawyer has testified as to the fair market value of mineral interests and sub-surface storage interests on several occasions.
Eric Wold
Managing Director, Equity Research Merriman Curhan Ford & Co.
Eric Wold is a Managing Director, Equity Research at Merriman Curhan Ford & Co., where he is responsible for covering the Restaurant and Specialty Consumer sectors. He joined the firm in March 2002. For 2004, Mr. Wold was ranked number 2 in the nation by both The Wall Street Journal's «Best on the Street» and the Forbes/StarMine surveys for the Restaurant industry.
Prior to joining Merriman Curhan Ford & Co., Mr. Wold served as Director of Corporate Finance with NightFire Software, a privately-held telecommunications software company based in Oakland, California. In this capacity, he oversaw the company's corporate finance activities, including a Series D equity financing and multiple debt restructures. From 1997 through 2000, Mr. Wold served as Vice President and Senior Research Analyst at First Security Van Kasper, where he was responsible for the Restaurant and Branded Consumer sectors. Prior to Van Kasper, Mr. Wold began his career on the buy-side with Research Analyst positions with both Polynous Capital Management (a hedge fund that he co- founded in 1996) and GT Global Financial Services.
Mr. Wold received his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1997 and a BS in Finance from the University of California at Berkeley.
Peter K. Grunebaum
Mr. Grunebaum is an independent investment banker with over 40 years of experience in the energy sector with a specialty in Exploration & Production. Mr. Grunebaum is a graduate of Lehigh University, and in addition with being a board member of Lucas Energy, he is also on the Board of the Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. [NYSE:PPD] and Stonemor Partners LP. [NASDAQ: STON].
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