Parkmead goes for youth with board appointment

PARKMEAD Group, the Aberdeen-based oil explorer headed by Tom Cross, yesterday announced the appointment of one of the UK’s youngest plc main board directors.

Ryan Stroulger, who is 25 and has worked for Parkmead for four years, was named as commercial director of the Aim-quoted company which is hotly-followed by private investors given the success Cross enjoyed with Dana Petroleum.

Stroulger’s relative youth compared to many plc directors in the industry raised eyebrows on an investor bulletin board yesterday.

In a statement to The Scotsman, Cross pointed out that Stroulger had been with Parkmead for two years before the ex-Dana team joined the company in 2011.

“He has worked with the Parkmead Group over the last four years, in positions of increasing responsibility,” he said.

Cross added that the Parkmead board, which built Dana into the largest independent operator in the UK and the Netherlands, “would not appoint a new director unless they were completely confident in his abilities to add value for the shareholders of Parkmead”.

Stroulger, who has a masters degree in oil and gas enterprise management from the University of Aberdeen, began his career as a financial analyst working on oil and gas projects.

His roles at Parkmead have included group finance manager and group commercial co-ordinator, a role which the company said saw him responsible for “identifying and driving forward corporate opportunities” such as the acquisition of Aberdeen-based Deo Petroleum earlier this year.

Stroulger’s only other current directorship is of Obsidian Resources, an Aberdeen- based oil and gas company where Cross is also listed as a director.