Top Management has Diversified Experience
with Major Oil Companies
Maston N. Cunningham, Chief Executive Officer and President
Mr. Cunningham became CEO in March 2010 after serving as President & Chief Operating Officer since May 2009. He joined the
Company in early 2009 as VP Corporate Development following a distinguished 22-year international career with Occidental
Petroleum Corporation (Oxy), including 15 years of senior assignments in Pakistan, Peru and Ecuador. Under his leadership as
President & GM of Oxy’s Ecuadorian subsidiary, he led a successful restructuring of the company and renegotiation of its Block 15
contract that led to increased oil production from 16,000 to over 100,000 barrels per day (bopd), following new exploration and
development investments by Oxy and completion of the new $1 billion privately owned and operated 450,000 bopd heavy oil
pipeline system, Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP). Mr. Cunningham has an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and
is a graduate of Trinity University. He is a CPA and also fluent in Spanish.
John E. Durbin, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Durbin joined as Chief Financial Officer in October 2009. The 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. Most recently at ConocoPhillips, he
was Assistant Treasurer for Risk Management in Houston, and was involved in the design and implementation of an Enterprise
Risk Management Program across the corporation. He holds a BS in Finance from Montana State University and an M.B.A. in
International Financial Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is multilingual with abilities in Arabic,
French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Joseph R. Kandle, Sr. Vice President of Corporate Development, President Tri-Valley Oil & Gas Co.
Mr. Kandle joined in June 1998 and has over 45 years of experience in drilling, production, and operations. He commenced his
professional career with Mobil in 1965 where he specialized in deep drilling. After a long career with Mobil, he joined Atlantic Oil
Company and held positions of V.P. & Chief Engineer of Great Basins Petroleum, V.P. Engineering with Star Resources and V.P.-
Engineering. He received his Petroleum Engineering from the Montana School of Mines.
James C. Kromer, Vice President of Operations
Mr. Kromer became Vice President of Operations in October 2009 after joining Tri-Valley 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 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.
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