Mr Soukup has 25 years of investment experience. Having worked in investment banking for 10 years (1984-1994), latterly with Bear Stearns as managing director in charge of the company's non-US equity business, Mr Soukup set up his own investment management business in 1994.
Acquisitor plc, a company of which Mr Soukup was a director, was admitted to trading on AIM in January 2000. In 2002, 90 per cent. of the assets of Acquisitor Plc were moved to Acquisitor Holdings Ltd (Bermuda) and Acquisitor Plc was left as an investing company which then acquired Tinopolis Plc, a leading UK independent TV production company. In 2006, Acquisitor Holdings Limited (Bermuda) merged with New York Holdings Ltd. and Baltimore Plc. Shortly thereafter, the combined group was acquired by Oryx International Limited, a Guernsey investment company. Mr Soukup is the Founding Shareholder and Chairman of Thalassa.
Mr Duncan brings over 30 years of experience in the marine seismic industry.
Following an early career as an Engineering Technician with the Royal Air Force Marine Branch, in 1980 he joined the UK-based seismic contractor Horizon Exploration where he worked in a variety of positions culminating as a project manager responsible for new ventures and survey vessel conversions. After leaving Horizon in 1990, he worked for a number of smaller companies involved in frontier oil and gas exploration around the globe.
In 1995 Mr Duncan established the company that is now Westland GeoProjects (Holdings) Ltd (“WGP Holdings”), which operated and managed a number of seismic survey vessels. WGP Holdings has bid for and operated seismic surveys in Europe, the Middle East, Russia, East and West Africa, the Arctic, USA, Cuba, Australia and the Far East. The company has also successfully undertaken a number of survey vessel outfits and upgrades and most recently, specialised operations related to the monitoring of established oil reservoirs.
Mr Duncan is also Chairman of WGP Exploration Ltd, Thalassa Holdings Ltd’s subsidiary, which was previously majority owned by WGP Holdings.Mr Cole specialises in advising growth companies on public offerings, capital raising, merger and acquisition strategy. He has been involved in over 60 public flotations (in London, on the Official List and AIM, and in Europe, on EASDAQ - now NASDAQ Europe). Mr Cole has initiated, project managed and negotiated the acquisition and sale of a wide range of companies, both domestic and international, in transactions ranging from £2 million to £50 million.
Mr Cole qualified as a chartered accountant and was a partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells before moving into corporate finance as a director of Beeson Gregory Limited (now Evolution Securities Limited) in 1995.
Mr Cole is a co-founder and past executive member of the Quoted Companies Alliance. Mr Cole has extensive experience as a director of both private and public companies including Stagecoach Theatre Arts PLC (Chairman) and Vantis PLC.
Mr Cole received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to the mid-cap. public company market in 2002.
Mr Grossman is an international businessman and corporate international lawyer with over 35 years of experience. Mr Grossman is a graduate of Harvard Law School now living in Paris, with business activities in London and Geneva. His experience has been involved in international business transactions, corporate and securities law, acquisitions, venture capital financing and international arbitration and mediation. Mr Grossman has served as a non-executive director on the board of directors of several public companies. He is currently non-executive chairman of Canoel International Energy Ltd, a capital pool company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. He has served as a non-executive director of Champion Communications Services, Inc and World Gaming Plc (Mr Grossman resigned as a director the month before the appointment of an administrator of World Gaming plc in October 2006).
Mr Grossman has an active international arbitration practice as a member of i) the American Arbitration Association's International Disputes Panel and ii) the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Domain Name Panel. Mr Grossman has been responsible for structuring licensing arrangements, distribution agreements as well as joint ventures and has advised both venture capital as well as technology company clients in the venture capital area.
Previously, Mr Grossman served as Chairman of the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (appointed by President George H.W. Bush) and as chief negotiator for the United States in the tariff reduction acceleration round of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement (this pact was a precursor to the creation of NAFTA).
Mr Thomas is a geologist with 30 years experience in the oil and gas industry, mainly in North and West Africa. After five years of working in SE Asia and then in London for North Sea operations, Mr Thomas spent the late 1970s and early 1980s working in Libya for Occidental Petroleum, and then in Tunisia for Tenneco. A return to London as International Chief Geologist for the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation gave Mr Thomas the opportunity to develop his technical management skills and establish a broad international contact network. In the late 1980s, Mr Thomas formed a consultancy, Thomas & Associates, offering a broad range of petroleum advisory services. Clients have included major oil companies and foreign government agencies. Mr Thomas served most recently as managing director of AIM-quoted medOil PLC, a position he held for three years until the sale of the company to Cairn Energy plc in the fourth quarter of 2007
The Directors of the Company, all of whom are non-executive save for the Executive Chairman, will be responsible for the overall activities of the Company. The Board will be expanded in due course to reflect the size and needs of the Company.
As an AIM-quoted company, the Company is not obliged to, and does not, currently comply fully with the corporate governance regime in the UK, as set out in the Combined Code. Save for seeking to minimise fixed compensation costs for employees, Directors and other services providers and rewarding based on results, which is not a widely accepted practice in the UK and in relation to non-executive directors, is contary to the recommendations of the report by the Cadbury committee entitled, the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance, the Company complies with the Combined Code, so far as is practicable and appropriate for a public company of its size and nature.
The Directors support high standards of corporate governance and confirm that following Admission the Company intends, where practicable, and having regard to the size and nature of the Company, to comply with the principles of the Combined Code. The Company has appointed three non-executive Directors. In addition, the Board has established an Audit Committee, a Remuneration Committee and an AIM Compliance Committee with formally delegated duties and responsibilities.
The Audit Committee consists of Graham Cole as chairman and any one other director (other than the finance director). The Audit Committee has primary responsibility for monitoring the quality of internal controls and ensuring that the financial performance of the Group is properly measured and reported on and for reviewing reports from the Company's auditors relating to the Company's accounting and internal controls, in all cases having due regard to the interests of Shareholders.
The Remuneration Committee consists of David Thomas as chairman and any one other director, and determines the terms and conditions of service of the executive Directors, including their remuneration and grant of options.
The AIM Compliance Committee consists of Graham Cole as chairman and any one other director and will meet twice a year and will be responsible for ensuring that the Company's obligations under the AIM Rules are discharged by the Board.
The Company has adopted a share dealing code for Directors and certain employees (as applicable) in order to ensure compliance with AIM Rule 21 on share dealing. The Directors will take all reasonable steps to ensure compliance by such employees.
Registered Office:
PO Box 800
Road Town, Tortola,
British Virgin Islands