Harvey Gulf Announces New BoD

Harvey Gulf International Marine’s parent, HGIM Corp., has announced the appointment of a new Board of Directors to serve following the company’s emergence from Chapter 11 proceedings.

The seven member Board includes two current members remaining on the Board and five new members, each with expertise in individual areas particularly suited to support the company’s operation and development and collectively, creating a leadership platform that will enable Harvey Gulf to adjust and thrive in an ever-changing market.  

Shane Guidry.  Mr. Guidry remains the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer for HGIM Corp. Mr. Guidry is the third generation in his family to lead Harvey Gulf.  Mr. Guidry has been with Harvey Gulf for over 30 years and has been the Chief Executive Officer for the company since 1997. Since taking over as CEO, Mr. Guidry has transformed Harvey Gulf from an inland and offshore towing vessel operator to the preferred provider of OSV, MPSV and FSV services in the deepwater and ultra-deepwater offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico.  This has included, among other innovations, leading the company to become the first owner and operator of LNG-powered OSV’s in the United States, as well as the first operator of a LNG bunkering facility in the U.S.  Mr. Guidry is intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of the company including business development, M&A activity, client management, vessel design and sales and marketing.

J. Mark Burns. Mr. Burns brings over 35 years of management and operational experience in the marine and energy industries.  Most recently he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Ensco plc from 2012 to his retirement in December 2015.  During his years of service with Ensco, Mr. Burns also served as Senior Vice President - Western Hemisphere and as President of Ensco Offshore International Company, a subsidiary of Ensco.  Prior to joining Ensco, Mr. Burns served twenty-five years with Noble Corporation.  During his career with Noble, Mr. Burns held increasing levels of responsibility and managed both US Gulf of Mexico and UK North Sea operations.  In 2007, Mr. Burns was named IADC (International Association of Drilling Contractors) Contractor of the Year.  Mr. Burns holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Sam Houston State University.

Alan Crain.  Mr. Crain has 40 years of experience across various sectors of the international oil and gas industry.  He retired as Senior Vice President, Chief Legal and Governance Officer of Baker Hughes Incorporated in 2016 after overseeing legal, compliance, government relations and other areas for 16 years. Previously, he was Vice President and General Counsel of Union Texas Petroleum Holdings, Inc. Earlier in his career, he worked for Pennzoil Company and El Paso LNG Company. He is a director, and the Chairman of the Governance Committee, of the National Association of Corporate Directors Texas Tri-Cities Chapter. He is a lecturer regarding complex issues facing corporate boards at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, Stanford University Law School, and other organizations. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and Chairman of the Houston Committee on Foreign Relations. He holds BS and MS degrees in Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and MBA and JD degrees from Syracuse University.

Sherman Edmiston, III. Mr. Edmiston has more than 20 years of experience working with companies undergoing major transitions as a principal investor, investment banker and advisor. Mr. Edmiston was a Partner and Managing Director at Zolfo Cooper LLC from November 2009 until December 2015. Mr. Edmiston served as Chief Restructuring Officer of Xinergy, Ltd, a Central Appalachian producer of thermal and metallurgical coal, and previously served as Chairman of the Finance and Transaction committee of JL French Automotive Castings, Inc. Mr. Edmiston received his B.S. in mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University and his MBA from the University of Michigan.

Peter Frank. Mr. Frank contributes extensive investment banking and financial experience to the company. He is a Senior Managing Director on the Black Diamond Private Equity Team.  Prior to joining Black Diamond, Mr. Frank was President of GSC Group, where he worked since 2001. From 2005 until 2008, he served as the Senior Operating Executive for GSC's Recovery Funds.  In addition, Mr. Frank was a member of the investment committees for Recovery Funds, U.S. Corporate Debt, European Corporate Debt and European Mezzanine Funds.  Prior to 2001, Mr. Frank was the CEO of Ten Hoeve Bros., Inc. and was an investment banker at Goldman, Sachs & Co.   Mr. Frank graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S.E.E. degree and earned an M.B.A from the Harvard Business School

Steve Orlando.  Mr. Orlando founded the Allison Marine Group in 1995. The company began as a small marine outfitting and repair company, and became a leader in the fabrication, transportation and installation of Offshore Oil and Gas productions facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and Malaysia. In 2000, Allison Marine Fourchon was founded. This highly successful company was formed to fill a critical need in Fourchon for Heavy Lift and marshaling services in support of Deepwater Development projects in the Gulf of Mexico. JAB Energy Solutions was later formed to provide Oil and Gas operators fixed priced well P & A, decommissioning and removal of offshore platforms. Under this platform, Mr. Orlando bought the intellectual property of Tarpon Systems (a marginal field development structure) in 2004 to fill a need in Malaysia. In 2012, Orlando partnered with a NYC based private equity firm and is still involved under Allison Marine Holdings.

James Swent, III Mr. Swent is a proven leader in accounting and finance, as well as international business, with over 35 years of experience working in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and Latin America.  As a Board member, CEO, and CFO of medium to large publicly-traded companies in highly competitive industries, Mr. Swent has demonstrated a unique blend of strong, principled leadership combined with a solid strategic focus and supported by sound financial discipline.  He has held senior leadership positions in general management, operations, finance and business development in a diverse range of industries - Computer Equipment and Supplies, Semiconductors, Telecommunications, Office Products, and Offshore Oil and Gas drilling - with companies such as Memorex Telex, Northern Telecom, Cyrix, American Pad and Paper, most recently Paragon Offshore.  He has served on Boards of public companies listed on the NYSE, NASDAQ, and London Stock Exchange and has held the positions of Chairman, Lead Director and Audit Committee Chairman. Most recently he served as President and CEO of Paragon Offshore. As a CEO he had full P&L and leadership responsibility for companies with revenues of $600M+ employing over 4000 people in multiple locations.  As a CFO and financial executive, he has managed large public company acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, large merger integration projects and a major tax redomestication from the U.S. to the UK.  He also led large tender offers, public debt and equity offerings, and managed complex international tax and treasury matters. His high technology experience has allowed him to lead complex IT organizations in a unique manner and he has directed successful (and cost effective) implementations of large scale ERP systems.    Mr. Swent was the recipient of Institutional Investor’s “2010 Best CFO Award”.  Mr. Swent earned both a Master of Business Administration in Finance and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley

Harvey Gulf CEO Shane Guidry commented, “I am very pleased to be supported by a group of extremely intelligent and experienced professionals.  Each is an expert in a field vital to the company, and, together with Harvey’s management team, give Harvey Gulf a unique leadership that will enable us to continue to outperform our competitors and expand upon our operations globally.”