Corporate Governance

Mr. Hunt joined our Board of Directors on July 1, 2020. Mr. Hunt has over 44 years of experience in the contract drilling industry, including rig-based positions in the early stages of his career, project management roles on offshore rig construction projects, and country and regional management roles in multiple international locations. From 2009 to 2014, he served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Contracts at Noble Corporation plc, where he was responsible for global marketing and contracting activities, which duties included developing and executing a fleet modernization program and developing a global marketing team. Prior to that, from 1997 to 2007, Mr. Hunt served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Contracts for GlobalSantaFe Corporation, a global offshore oil and gas drilling contractor, where he was responsible for marketing and pricing strategy, sales and contract activities, evaluation of opportunities for organic growth, rig acquisitions, joint venture management and evaluation of corporate and M&A opportunities. In the 27 years prior to that, he also held various leadership and engineering positions with GlobalSantaFe Corporation’s predecessor, Santa Fe Drilling Company.

Mr. Hunter joined our Board of Directors on July 1, 2020. Mr. Hunter currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Apollo Global Management, a position he has held since March 2020. He has also served as the Managing Member of Waterloo Capital Management, his solely-owned advisory platform since January of 2014. Mr. Hunter served as Senior Managing Director and head of North America for Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, LLC from July 2016 to June 2019 where he was responsible for investing in excess of $1.1B of equity capital into wind development (Scout Clean Energy), the largest combined solar and battery energy storage project in the United States (Gemini Solar) and a standalone battery storage development platform (GlidePath Power Solutions). Prior to joining Quinbrook, Mr. Hunter was the co-founder, Managing Partner of Power Capital Partners, LLC, where he managed the corporate development, due diligence and project finance functions from July 2013 to January 2016 on behalf of the Hunt Consolidated backed entity. Prior to Power Capital Partners, Mr. Hunter was the Co-founder, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of US Power Generating Company (“USPOWERGEN”), a privately-held merchant power company that acquired, financed and operated a portfolio of five conventional power stations located in New York, New York and Boston, Massachusetts totaling 5.0 GWs of generating capacity with a total enterprise value (TEV) in excess of $5.0B at the time of the merger. Prior to USPOWERGEN, Mr. Hunter was a partner at PA Consulting Group and principally responsible for managing the global energy strategy and risk management practice. Mr. Hunter started his career as Director, physical gas trading, for El Paso Merchant Energy.

Mr. Hunter currently also serves on the boards of 4 Point Energy, Vistra Energy (a NYSE-listed fortune 200 company) and Texas Transmission Holdings, which owns 20% of Oncor Delivery Systems, a majority-owned subsidiary of Sempra Energy (a NYSE-listed fortune 100 company). Mr. Hunter has previously served as a member of the board of directors of multiple private power companies including USPOWERGEN, Homer City Generating Co., and MachGen LLC, which was sold to Talen Energy (a Riverstone backed entity) for $1.175B (TEV). Mr. Hunter has been involved in numerous corporate restructurings, Chapter 11 filings and post-bankruptcy dispositions including Illinois Power Generating (as Chief Restructuring Officer), USPOWERGEN (as the Chief Financial Officer and primary witness in the Chapter 11 proceedings), and Energy Future Holdings (as a post restructuring member of the Board of Directors of the successor entity Vistra Energy and interim Chairman of the Board of Directors).

Mr. Ralls joined our Board of Directors on November 19, 2018 and serves as Chairman of the Board, and of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Mr. Ralls served as President of the Rowan Companies from January 2009 to March 2013 as Chief Executive Officer from January 2009 to April 2014, as a director from 2009 and as Executive Chairman of the Board from April 2014 until his retirement from the company in April 2016. He served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of GlobalSantaFe Corporation from June 2005 until November 2007 and as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of that company from 2001 to 2005. Mr. Ralls has held various other management and financial roles with other oil drilling and production companies. Mr. Ralls also serves as a director of Superior Energy Services (where he serves as Chairman of the Compensation Committee and a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee), Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation (where he serves as Chairman of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee and as a member of the Compensation Committee) and NCS Multistage Holdings, Inc. (where he serves on the Audit Committee and the Compensation, Nominating and Governance Committee).

Mr. Ramineni joined our Board of Directors on November 19, 2018. Mr. Ramineni has been a Vice President at Avenue Capital Group since 2014 and is responsible for identifying, analyzing and modeling investment opportunities for Avenue’s U.S. Strategy, with a focus on energy and utility investments. Prior to joining Avenue Capital Group, Mr. Ramineni was a Senior Vice President of strategy and finance at U.S. Power Generating Company from 2007 to 2014. Previously, Mr. Ramineni worked for Hold Brothers Capital as an Equity Trader. Prior to that, he was an Equity Trader at AJ Capital.

Mr. Simon joined our Board of Directors on December 14, 2018 and serves as Chairman of our Compensation Committee. Mr. Simon has over 40 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, specializing in engineering, project management and leadership roles in the U.S. and internationally. From 2013 to 2016 he served as Chief Executive Officer of Bennu Oil and Gas, a company formed to acquire ATP Oil & Gas Corp.’s Gulf of Mexico assets out of bankruptcy. Prior to Bennu, Mr. Simon served in a series of increasingly senior roles at Hess Corporation, most recently as Senior Vice President, Global E&P Services from 2010 to 2013 and Senior Vice President, Production, Americas and Africa from 2007 to 2010. Mr. Simon began his career as an engineer with Tenneco Oil Co. where he spent 12 years in a variety of engineering roles. Mr. Simon also serves on the board of directors of Nine Point Energy, a private exploration and production company focused on best-in-class development, operation and acquisition of oil and gas assets within the Williston Basin, where he serves as Risk Committee Chair and on the Audit Committee. Mr. Simon was a director of Ocean Rig UDW Inc. from November 2017 until its acquisition on December 5, 2018 by Transocean Ltd.

Mr. Wolford joined our Board of Directors and was appointed as our Chief Executive Officer on November 19, 2018. Prior to joining our Company, from February 3, 2012, Mr. Wolford served as Senior Vice President of Operations at Noble Corporation (“Noble”). He served as Vice President of Operational Excellence for Noble from March 2010 to February 2012. From January 2003 until March 2010, Mr. Wolford was self-employed. During that time, he provided consulting services to Noble as a contractor on the construction of the Noble Dave Beard from March 2009 to December 2009. Mr. Wolford is also a significant shareholder of Mass Technology Corporation, an independent service provider to the downstream refining and storage sector, and he supported the operations of that company from February 2007 to February 2009. Mr. Wolford began his career in the offshore drilling industry with Transworld Drilling in 1981, which was acquired by Noble in 1991. From 1981 through December 2002, he served in various roles in engineering, project management and operations with Transworld and Noble.

Mr. Weinstein joined our Board of Directors on November 19, 2018 and serves as Chairman of our Audit Committee. Mr. Weinstein also currently serves as Deputy Chairman of the Board of TORM plc. He has also served on the board of directors of TRU Taj Finance Inc., an operating subsidiary of Toys “R” Us Inc. from August 2017 to January 2019, and as Chairman of the Board of The Oneida Group Inc. from June 2015 through September 2018. From January 2017 to July 2018, Mr. Weinstein served in various executive leadership roles at Seadrill Limited, including as a director and as Chair of Seadrill’s Refinancing Committee. He also served as a director and as Chair of the Compensation Committee of Stone Energy Corporation from March 2017 through May 2018. Mr. Weinstein previously served in various executive leadership roles with Horizon Lines, Inc., from November 2011 until June 2015, including as a director and as Chairman of its board of directors. He has also served on a number of other boards and in executive leadership roles in various private and public companies within, among others, the oil and gas and chemical industries, including most recently as a director of DeepOcean Group Holdings AS from June 2011 until January 2017. From September 2009 through August 2016, Mr. Weinstein served as Chairman of the Finance Committee and as a member of the Compensation Committee of Axiall Corporation. Prior to that, Mr. Weinstein served from March 2007 through August 2008 as Managing Director and Group Head, Debt Capital Markets—High Yield and Leverage Finance at Calyon Securities Inc., and from March 2000 through February 2002 as Managing Director and Head of High Yield Origination and Capital Markets at BNP Paribas. Previously, Mr. Weinstein was a Managing Director and Head of High Yield Capital Markets for BankBoston Securities and Chase Securities, Inc., and head of the Capital Markets Group in the High Yield Department at Lehman Brothers.