Empire Energy Corporation International (Empire) (Pink
Sheets:EEGC) announced on Wednesday, September 28th 2010 that four
new directors have joined Empire’s Board of Directors. David
Villarreal Jr. will replace CEO Malcolm Bendall as Chairman with
responsibility for leading the Company’s now eight directors,
including new directors Mr. James Leach, Mr. William Keating and
Mr. John Essmyer, and promoting shareholders’ interests. Mr.
Bendall will retain his role as Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Villarreal submitted the following acceptance letter:
“It is with the utmost regard for the historical efforts of the
Great South Land Minerals and Empire Energy management and Board of
Directors that I accept the honor of serving as the new Chairman of
the Board. I believe that in today’s marketplace within the oil
exploration environment, Empire is positioned to extract qualities
from its new Board of Directors makeup that will drive and
facilitate the long awaited exploratory processes to become a
reality.
While Empire’s business road to this juncture has been one with
potential and promise, a more defined and tactical approach
complimented by broader business, legal and strategic planning
experience may well be the defining step to realizing both the
company’s mission and shareholders realization to uncover the oil
resources in the Tasmanian Basin that Empire has diligently
pursued.
Additionally, while the concerted focus and pursuit of Empire’s
core and primary commitment to oil exploration will be foremost, it
is also the development potential in the recovering financial
markets that present an opportunity for Empire to maximize its
public trading vehicle by engaging in other business opportunities
with capacity for success. One such enterprise is in the recovering
financial services arena facilitating credit card opportunities to
specialized markets. As another accessory to expanding and
diversifying Empire’s base of operations is the expanding global
market for medical waste treatment currently under development
within the Grand Monarch Holdings, Inc. structure.
My interest is in the deployment of successful strategies and
implementation of ideas and concepts that create results driven to
satisfy the interests of all at Empire even with the full knowledge
of its history of challenges and obstacles. An expression I heard
and remembered many years ago said, “Encouraged people achieve the
best; dominated people achieve second best; neglected people
achieve the least.” So with respect to its author, I suggest that
we at Empire encourage all of our investors, shareholders and
supporters, dominate those that challenge our mission and neglect
those that would claim or attempt to take that which they have not
worked for and disrupt our due success.
I welcome the challenge and task ahead to create new and broader
opportunities and therewith a propensity for greater success with
the Board of Directors leadership and insight for all at Empire
Energy Corporation International.”
Respectfully,
David Villarreal, Jr.
Mr. Villarreal has spent his career building and successfully
managing companies primarily in the financial services industry as
well maintaining significant long term organized labor and
political relationships. He is the current President and Chief
Executive Officer of Grand Monarch Holdings Incorporated and has
been the Chairman of the Board of American Union Financial
Services, Inc. (“AUFS”) since he founded it in April 2004.
Previously, from 2000 to 2005, Mr. Villarreal served as the Chief
Operating Officer of American Residential Funding, Inc., a multi
billion-dollar national real estate and financial services company.
From 1992 to 2000 Mr. Villarreal was President of L.S. Inland
Ventures, Inc. which developed commercial real estate and
moderate-income housing developments. Between 1998 and 2000, he was
President and CEO of Solomon Trust Foundation, a philanthropic
charitable organization providing direct financial assistance to
low and moderate-income families to facilitate home ownership
opportunities. Mr. Villarreal also served as Human Resources
Director and National Director for the Immigration Reform and
Control Act of 1986 for a subsidiary of W.R. Grace & Co. during
his tenure from 1980 through 1988 for which he received a
Congressional Office Distinction of Service Award. From 1976 to
1980 Mr. Villarreal served as Administrative Assistant to former
Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley with responsibility for all organized
labor relations and employees of the City of Los Angeles. Prior to
recruitment into his Mayoral office responsibilities Mr. Villarreal
was the youngest Field Representative for the Laborers’
International Union of North America (“LIUNA”) from 1973 to 1976
and attended California State University Los Angeles where he
studied Business Administration and was a 1978 Trade Union Fellow
at Harvard University - Graduate School of Business and John F.
Kennedy School of Government.
Mr. William Keating maintains a diverse wealth of experience in
financial management and business development with unique
familiarity of the energy industry. He commenced his professional
career in 1981 as an auditing specialist at Price Waterhouse
Coopers. From there, Mr. Keating spent nine years working for Royal
Dutch Shell in a corporate accounting role and then later switching
to downstream retail management for the oil company. He then spent
two years working at AMCOR Limited in a national sales role
followed by another two years in business development at Ernst
& Young. Since 2000, Mr. Keating has worked as a management
consultant specializing in corporate recovery and business
development for various consultancies and companies worldwide. Most
recently including two year long roles as CEO for manufacturing
businesses in Australia and New Zealand and for an autonomous
software development company in the United Kingdom, Australia and
the USA.
Mr. Keating received a Bachelors of Business in Accounting in
1983 from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT
University), a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing from Monash
University in 1998 and became a member of the Institute of
Chartered Accounts in 1984 of which he was a member until 2000.
Mr. Leach currently serves as the Senior Managing Director of
National Trust, LCC a subsidiary of the Leach Family Trust, one of
New England’s largest real estate developers with over 2.5 million
square feet currently under development. Since his recognition in
1997 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a pioneer in
the reuse of Superfund Sites his ongoing work has been adopted by
EPA and currently serves as the nationwide model for the Federal
agency’s billion-dollar Superfund Program.
For nearly two decades, Mr. Leach has imparted corporate
guidance to a wide array of companies. At present, he is serving
his 18th year on the board of The Oster Group, a privately owned
investment banking operation specializing in providing capital and
business management to emerging companies and his 6th year on the
board of Kenney Manufacturing Company, a leading manufacturer and
distributor of household products established in 1914 and among
Rhode Island’s largest employers. Mr. Leach graduated from Nasson
College in 1983 with a Bachelors of Science degree.
Mr. Essmyer is an accomplished inventor and entrepreneur with
more than thirty years experience in developing, manufacturing, and
marketing his own designs for equipment and materials for the
health and personal care markets. In 1982 he founded Alternative
Design Systems Inc. (ADS). ADS focused on numerous unique products
invented or extended by Mr. Essmyer, which were designed, tested,
and moved through the FDA’s 510K approval system. Of particular
note, was Mr. Essmyer and the Company’s development of three key
patents (#4684558, #4706680, #5622168) for a groundbreaking
hydrogel technology. Johnson & Johnson as well as Becton
Dickinson are currently using this and some of Mr. Essmyer’s other
innovations.
Mr. Mark Cowan of Washington D.C.’s Patton Boggs law firm will
serve as an advisor to the Board. Mr. Cowan brings with him more
than 35 years of experience working on complex domestic and
international public policy issues to counsel a broad range of
clients, advising corporations, government entities and foreign
sovereigns. Mr. Cowan previously served as President of Columbus
Public Affairs, CEO of Newmyer Associates, Vice Chairman of Cassidy
& Associates and was founder and CEO of the Jefferson Group. In
addition to two US Presidential appointments, Mr. Cowan also served
as Counsel to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct
(ethics) of the US House of Representatives as well as the
Assistant Legislative Counsel to the Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Mr. Peter Lansell and Dr. Chuck Flynn will join Mr. Cowan as
additional advisors to Empire’s Board. Since application of his
first patent at eighteen, Mr. Lansell has been a prolific inventor
for alternate energy processes and the water industry. As the
driving force behind flare gas alternative processes Mr. Lansell
brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the advisory board.
Mr. Lansell has owned and run mines in South Africa, Zambia,
Borneo, and Australia ranging from oil, to gold and other precious
metals, utilizing efficient and environmentally safe methods for
ore recovery. Mr. Lansell is expected to guide the effectiveness of
the Tasmanian Oil Drilling Program as well as the development of
the Flare Gas remediation technology.
Dr. Chuck Flynn maintains experience as both an engineering
management advisor for McDonnell Douglas Corporation for both the
Saturn V Rocket and DC10 airplane and as a business ethics pastor
and lecturer. Dr. Flynn received a doctorate in Theology in 1965
from Vanguard University.
Mr. Bendall commented, “This new Board leadership has armed the
Company with an amalgamation of political, legal, and financial as
well as business expertise. With completion of the acquisition of
Grand Monarch Holdings Incorporated, Empire will have expanded the
breadth of its business and provided the Company with short-term,
diversified revenue streams. With this new arsenal of ability
Empire will not only develop the depth of the Company’s new
expanded business but is now poised to undertake an aggressive
posture to realize commercialization of oil and gas in the Tasmania
Basin using its $3.3 billion valuation.”
Management intends to shortly be traveling to Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates and Qatar for a series of meetings to finalize
its $180 million structured finance, secure the first $45 million
disbursement and complete the $300 million investment in
development of the Company’s flare gas remediation technology – to
be rolled out in tandem with drilling operations in Tasmania.
Additionally, the Company intends to meet with its potential joint
venture partner to solidify contractual terms.
Empire Energy Corporation is an international oil and gas
exploration company, focusing on developing assets in one of the
world's last virgin basins and to become a leading low-cost finder
of hydrocarbons. The Company is currently operating in Tasmania's
central and northern basins.
This press release contains forward-looking statements based on
our current expectations about our company and our industry. You
can identify these forward- looking statements when you see us
using the words such as "expect," "anticipate," "estimate,"
"believes," "plans" and other similar expressions. These forward-
looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual
results could differ materially from those anticipated in these
forward-looking statements as a result of our ability to complete
required financings and other preconditions to the completion of
the transactions described herein and Empire's ability to
successfully acquire reserves and produce its resources among other
issues. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any
forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information
becomes available or other events occur in the future. We caution
you not to place undue reliance on those statements. For a more
detailed discussion of risks and other factors related to Empire
Energy Corporation International, please refer to 10-K and 10-Q
reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.