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    Board Of Directors
    Management Team 

    Management Team

     

     

    Maston N. Cunningham
    President and Chief Executive Officer.

    Mr. Cunningham was elected by the board of directors as President and Chief Executive Officer in March 2010 following the retirement of F. Lynn Blystone who had served as the company's CEO for 29 years.    Mr. Cunningham had been Tri-Valley's President and Chief Operating Officer since May 2009 and had joined the company in January 2009 as Vice President of Corporate Development, ending an early retirement that began in 2002 after a distinguished 22-year international career with Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy) that included over 15 years in Pakistan, Peru and Ecuador.  In 1996, he was appointed President & General Manager of Oxy's Ecuadorian subsidiary where he led a successful oil exploration and development program, and restructuring of the business unit that included renegotiation of its Oriente Basin Block 15 contract to increase oil reserves, production and profitability.  He was co-founder and first president of ASOPEC, an Ecuadorian petroleum industry association that spearheaded the industry's efforts to secure government approval for construction of a private $1.1 billion heavy oil pipeline and marine terminal to facilitate additional heavy oil development in the Oriente Basin.  Following government approval in early 2001, the pipeline, known as Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados or OCP and designed to transport up to 450,000 barrels per day over a 300-mile route from eastern Ecuador over the Andes Mountains to the Pacific Coast for export, was constructed and began operating in late 2003.  During his four-year tenure in Ecuador, Mr. Cunningham was responsible for increasing Block 15's daily oil production from approximately 16,000 to over 30,000 barrels per day; and by 2004 following his departure, production had further expanded to over 100,000 barrels per day with additional investments by Oxy facilitated by new capacity on the OCP pipeline.  He was also responsible for obtaining ISO 14001 certification in 1997 for Block 15's Environmental Management System which, at the time, was the first Oxy operation worldwide to obtain this certification, the first enterprise in Ecuador to be certified, and only the third oil and gas operation certified in South America.  Mr. Cunningham is a past president of the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA), a leading regional trade advocacy organization affiliated with the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. that serves as the umbrella for AmCham's in 21 countries whose 20,000 members manage over 80 percent of U.S. investment in the region.  AACCLA has been a major advocate for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other bilateral trade agreements and business facilitation pacts between the US and countries in the region. He currently serves as treasurer on the Board of Trustees of the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), an affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C., which implements over $50 million of projects annually to assist disadvantaged people in the hemisphere through public and private grants.  He is a graduate of Trinity University and received an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.  Mr. Cunningham is also a Certified Public Accountant and fluent in Spanish.

     

    Joseph R. Kandle
    Senior Vice-President of Corporate Development, Tri-Valley Corporation
    President , Tri-Valley Oil & Gas Co (TVOG)
    President, Great Valley Production Services (GVPS)
    President, Great Valley Drilling Co (GVDC)

    Mr. Kandle joined Tri-Valley Oil & Gas in June 1998 as Vice President - Engineering and was named as its President in February 1999. Mr. Kandle is a 1965 graduate of the Montana School of Mines where he received a B.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering. Mr. Kandle has almost 45 years of experience in drilling, production, and operations, commencing his professional career with Mobil in 1965 where he specialized in deep drilling. After his time with Mobil, Mr. Kandle held positions of V.P. & Chief Engineer of Great Basins Petroleum, V.P. Engineering with Star Resources and V.P.- Engineering with Atlantic Oil Company.

     






































    James G. Bush
    President, Select Resources Corporation.

    Mr. Bush brings a wide range of experience with over 30 years in the natural resource industry (oil, gas, and minerals), the consulting business, and in heavy industry.  Prior to Tri-Valley, Jim spent 10 years with the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the previous 10 years with ICF Kaiser Engineers.  Prior to that, he worked for Atlantic Richfield (on and off-shore Alaska and Texas), Aspen Exploration, and the Anaconda Copper Co.  His areas of expertise include oil and gas exploration and drilling, uranium exploration and drilling, and metals exploration, with particular expertise in gold placer exploration and mining (he was the finding geologist for Alaska’s recent Valdez Creek gold mine).  Jim received his Bachelors of Science degree in Geology from Ohio State University and his Masters of Science from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.  Jim is certified by the American Institute of Professional Geologists (No. 7715), and is a registered geologist in the States of Alaska (License No. A 220) and Washington (License No. 1405).  It should be noted that Jim also served three years in the U.S. Navy Seabees.



    John E. Durbin
    Chief Financial Officer

    Prior to joining Tri-Valley Corporation as Chief Financial Officer in October 2009, a majority of Mr. Durbin’s 30-year career was spent in various senior management positions in finance and treasury with subsidiaries of Conoco Inc., and The DuPont Company. During his career, he has worked internationally from assignments in Bermuda, Switzerland, and Brazil. His last position at ConocoPhillips was as Assistant Treasurer for Risk Management in Houston, Texas, and involved the design and implementation of an Enterprise Risk Management Program across the corporation. After opting for early retirement from ConocoPhillips in 2005, he relocated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and founded JED Consulting LLC to provide capital formation and business consulting services for select private clients in such areas as gasoline refining, sugar cane optimization, and iron ore development. After returning to the U.S. late in 2008, he joined Utah-based, U.S. coal producer, America West Resources, Inc., as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Durbin holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Montana State University and an M.B.A. in International Financial Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is multilingual with abilities in Arabic, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.





    James C. Kromer

    Vice-President of Operations

    Mr. Kromer joined Tri-Valley Oil and Gas in May 2009 as Operations Manager, and has over 44 years of experience in drilling, production, reservoir engineering, and operations. Prior to Tri-Valley, he has held engineering and management positions at Continental Oil Company (CONOCO), Exxon, Amerada Hess, Omni Exploration, Damson Oil, Ely and Associates, Stream Energy, Matris Exploration, and Delta Petroleum; and his experience includes 7 years in foreign assignments in Libya and Abu Dhabi. Mr. Kromer is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University where he received a B. S. degree in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering.




    Jerold L. Anderson, Jr.

    Director of Financial Planning & Analysis

    Mr. Anderson became Director of Financial Planning & Analysis at Tri-Valley Corporation in October 2009 after joining the company in July 2007 as Accounting Manager. Prior to Tri-Valley, he was an auditor at the accounting firm Brown & Armstrong, specializing in oil and gas, SEC regulations and Sarbanes-Oxley. Mr. Anderson also has 10 years of experience in portfolio management of energy investments, real estate, and securities. During this time, he covered Latin America Emerging Markets as an analyst for Nicholas Applegate Capital Management, and serviced client portfolios at Fisher Investments. Mr. Anderson holds a B.S. degree in accounting and in finance from the University of San Diego.

     

    Daneva Cofield
    Human Resources and Administrative Services Supervisor

    Ms. Cofield is Human Resources and Administrative Services Supervisor for Tri-Valley Corporation, and has over 10 years of Human Resources and Administration experience. She received her certification in Human Resources Management from Cal State Bakersfield in May 2008 and is currently pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resources Management.

     

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