Larry Richard

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Larry Richard was one of the founders of PetroEdge Resources which started in 2004 and began the exploration and development of the Marcellus Shale in 2006.  PetroEdge Resources was later sold to Quest Energy in 2008.  

Upon the sale, PetroEdge Energy was formed to continue the exploration and development of the Marcellus Shale and was later sold to Stat Oil in 2012. During this time PetroEdge was considered a leader in the exploration, delineation and development of the Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian basin, primarily in Northwest West Virginia.  In 2014, PetroEdge Energy II was formed with a focus on the northern extension of the Eagle Ford shale and later sold to Apache in 2015.

Prior to the PetroEdge companies, Lary worked for 25 years at Halliburton culminating in being named Global Business Manager of Halliburton’s Integrated Solutions Division. In this position he led the identification, evaluation, contracting, and application of technical solutions for the start-up of oil and gas development projects worldwide and directly supervised business activities in seven geographic locations located within three countries. From 1996 through 2002, the business unit invested over $500 million in 47 oil and gas development projects and generated an annualized rate of return of over 20% in addition to satisfying substantial additional corporate objectives of Halliburton. Mr. Richard also provided the leadership for the start-up in the Gulf Coast Operating Area, which generated an annualized rate of return of over 60%.

Mr. Richard holds a BS in Engineering from University of New Orleans.

Dr. John “Jack” Ward

EVP of Exploration and Production 

Dr. Jack Ward served as one of the founders and Executive Vice President of Exploration and Production for PetroEdge Resources and has over 40 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. Jack was a Vice President, consultant, and international advisor for Petroleum Geoservices (“PGS”) and President of Teknica Inc.

Employment history prior to Teknica included experience with a U.S major and an independent. He developed many of the techniques employed for seismic reservoir mapping and for the integrated study of hydrocarbon reservoirs. This extensive experience included managing projects within the U.S. for independent and national oil companies. His technical team have completed significant development programs for third party companies and the Petroedge companies. Jack is recognized as an expert in seismic inversion, seismic stratigraphy, AVO, and multicomponent interpretation, and development of conventional and  unconventional reservoirs.

He has lectured extensively for the SEG, AAPG, IHRDC and New World Horizon in Germany, Venezuela, U.S., Ecuador, Colombia, Indonesia, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Bolivia. Jack received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1979. Dr. Ward served on the Board of Directors of several companies and represented PGS on the management team of Triumph Petroleum.

Dr. Jeff Rutledge

EVP of Engineering

Dr. Jeff Rutledge worked with Mr. Richard and Dr. Ward in their previous venture with a focus on enhanced oil recovery (“EOR”) projects. Jeff is currently an independent consultant with QPlusEnergy, LLC, with a focus on enhanced recovery projects (“ERP”) in unconventional plays, applying an interdisciplinary approach from reservoir engineering to surface facilities design. Jeff was the lead engineer at Marathon Oil on a miscible gas injection pilot in the Eagle Ford shale. As a member of Marathon’s Eagle Ford Integrated Project, Jeff also focused on PVT characterization of oils to condensates, water disposal, designing the pilot hole logging program, and purchase / underwrite 2500 sq mi of 3D seismic.

Before his Eagle Ford shale role, he was Marathon’s Midcontinent Exploration manager, working mainly deep (20,000’+) Anadarko Basin and Wyoming projects, and also supported Marathon’s important Bakken entry. Jeff was also a geophysicist in Marathon’s Technology group, working on numerous projects on a worldwide basis, overseeing a $50 million per year seismic spend. In that position, Jeff ran the Marathon Oil Norge AS seismic work program, leading to the successful discovery of 136 mmboe of reserves, ultimately being sold for $2.1 billion as the Alvheim FPSO Project.

Previous to Marathon, Jeff worked for Schlumberger Geco-Prakla as a Depth Imaging Manager, and seismic applications developer. Previous to that, Jeff was a Research Engineer at Chevron Oil Field Research Company in the area of reservoir simulation research and thermal EOR.  

Jeff holds a Masters of Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston, a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Alex Lemond

Vice Chairman

Alex Lemond was a founding investor in, and director of, PetroEdge I. He has over 25 years of investment and management experience, both as an asset manager and for his own account. During this time, he has invested in private and public equity, distressed and performing fixed income, start-ups, structured and secured lending, and asset origination and acquisition. He has been active in various industries, including natural resources, real estate, specialty finance, consumer products, banking (including regulated institutions), industrial, and asset management. Alex also has served as a board member of numerous companies including as board chairman and a member of audit, compensation, nominating, and special committees. Alex is the founding principal of the Shelter Point Group, organized in 2011, and a founding investor in the Encanto Group, launched in 2013. Both groups were formed in order to invest the founders’ capital and have made investments in a number of asset classes.

Previously, Alex was a founding partner of Serengeti Asset Management, an alternative investment manager. During his time at Serengeti, the firm invested across the corporate capital structure including in the debt and equity of public and private companies. Alex also served as vice president of Triarc Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRY). During his time at Triarc, he launched and managed investment platforms focused on publicly-traded equities, distressed and performing fixed income instruments, and distressed consumer receivables acquisitions. The latter of these three platforms ultimately became a publicly traded company, Encore Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ECPG). He also focused on corporate acquisitions, finance, operational improvements and turnarounds, and divestitures, including for well-known consumer brands. Alex began his career in the mergers & acquisitions department of Citigroup.

Alex graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.