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Senior management

Our senior management team bring their extensive and varied experience of the energy industry and human resources to the Company and assist in the development, implementation and monitoring of the Group’s strategy.

Chris Sawyer

General Counsel

Key strengths and experience

  • International legal experience, having managed teams supporting multiple geographies in energy and natural resources in all phases of development and operations 
  • Wealth of experience in mergers and acquisitions 

Chris joined EnQuest in January 2023 from bp, where he was assistant general counsel, oil regions and production and operations. He has an MA in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and obtained his legal professional qualifications at the College of Law in Chester. Chris has responsibility for the commercial and legal affrairs of the Company and holds the offices of General Counsel, Company Secretary and Chief Risk Officer. 

For a number of years, he was a director of the Aboyne and Deeside Festival and he currently sits as the Chair of the Board of Directors at the International School Aberdeen.

Ali Talpur

Director of Global Corporate Services

Key strengths and experience

  • MBA in Finance
  • Extensive international experience

Ali joined EnQuest in July 2012 from Schlumberger wherehe held the role of Regional Procurement and Sourcing Manager for the North Sea.

He has over 22 years of procurement and shared services function experience for both E&P operators and oilfield service providers.

Ali has an MBA in Finance and has diverse experience of working in different industries in large, well-established organisations as well as medium sized start-ups in the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and the Caspain region.

Ali has also held leadership positions at various industry groups, including Chair of Oil and Gas UK's Supply Chain Forum, member of the Oil and Gas Authority's Supply Chain & Exports Board and currently Chair of World Economic Forum’s Resource Sharing Hub in the North Sea.

Steve Bowyer

General Manager North Sea

Key strengths and experience

  • Senior operational leadership positions held onshore and offshore during 28-year career
  • 15 years in executive roles (MD, CEO and Chair)
  • Involved in over $5 billion of E&P transactions
  • Founded Decipher Energy, which was successfully sold within five years
  • Steve is a director on the board of Offshore Energies UK

Steve joined EnQuest PLC in October 2023. Prior to joining the Group, he was a technical adviser to global financial institutionsand investors. Steve commenced his career in subsea engineering/installation before moving to Talisman as a reservoir engineer, offshore team leader and asset manager. Steve then set up Taqa's UK operation before moving to First Oil as MD, acquiring an interest in the Kraken field prior to the successful appraisal well. Steve was the founding director of Decipher Energy, a full life cycle operating company, safely drilling and completing an 18,500 ft well, delivering Orlando first oil within two years of founding the company and overseeing its sale to Tailwind Energy in 2021.

Jason Ewles

Technical Director

Key strengths and experience

  • Over 30 years of international upstream experience in technical and leadership roles across the full value chain of oil & gas exploration, development, and production operations
  • MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College, London

Jason joined EnQuest in November 2023 as Technical Director from Petrofac’s Integrated Energy Services division where over the previous decade he held various technical leadership roles in the UK, Mexico and Malaysia. Prior to that, Jason spent seven years with Hess, initially managing all subsurface activity associated with Hess’ UK and Russia portfolio, before transferring to the United States. Jason began his career with Chevron in the UKCS working on the Alba and Ninian fields before taking international roles to work a wide variety of subsurface developments.

Jason is based in Surrey and is a registered Chartered Engineer and a member of the Society for Petroleum Engineers ('SPE').

Jonathan Copus

Chief Financial Officer

Key strengths and experience

  • Broad background in the energy and natural resource sectors built through technical, finance, operational and commercial roles in both large and small organisations
  • Significant capital markets experience
  • Strong technical knowledge in geology and geoscience

Jonathan joined EnQuest in December 2023 as CFO Designate, becoming EnQuest CFO on 1 February 2024. Jonathan has a strong technical background in geology and geoscience alongside ten years’ capital markets experience. In his time in the City, Jonathan was the number one ranked energy analyst and co-authored a well-respected industry handbook, 'Oil and Gas for Beginners'. Jonathan spent four years as CFO of Salamander Energy PLC, a production and development business focused in South East Asia. While there, Jonathan more than doubled the post-tax margin against a flat oil price. For the last seven years, Jonathan was CEO of Getech Group PLC, where he repositioned and recapitalised the business as a data and analytics specialist, while also decarbonising more than one-third of revenues.