Board of Directors

Gary W. Casswell has more than 40 years industry experience and currently serves as a Director and Chairman of Northern Ocean, LTD. Mr. Casswell also serves as a Director and Chairman of Northern Drilling LTD and a Director of Ensign Energy Services, Inc. Most recently Mr. Casswell served as President and CEO of Northern Offshore LTD from 2010 until mid-2017. Prior to this he served as Vice President, Eastern Hemisphere Operations for Pride International responsible for the deep water, shallow water, and land operations in more than 18 countries. Prior to joining Pride, Mr. Casswell worked for Santa Fe International for more than 20 years and held a variety of increasingly responsible positions including development of Santa Fe's deep-water strategy.

Mr. Casswell has served with the IADC and received the IADC Exemplary Service award in 2007 and is a member of The Society of Petroleum Engineers. Mr. Casswell holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of California, Long Beach. He is a US citizen and resides in Houston, Texas.

Bote de Vries is an experienced professional in offshore and ship finance. Since 2009 Mr. de Vries is working as an independent non-executive director and financial advisor for the offshore and maritime industry using his broad experience as lender, borrower and investor in the shipping and offshore industry. Mr. de Vries has held positions in TBS Shipping, North Atlantic Drilling Ltd, Lloyds funds, Deap Sea Metro Ltd, Artilium and Meadsea.

Mr. de Vries was from 1996 to 2001 responsible for the transportation portfolio of NIB Capital Bank in The Hague, The Netherlands. In 2001, Mr. de Vries has established NFC Shipping Funds. During a period of eight year ten shipping and offshore funds were established acquiring assets with a value of USD 2.6 billion. Mr. de Vries is an adviser to Chemship B.V. and the chairman of the board of Northern Netherlands P&I club.

Ole Falk Hansen has more than ten years of industry experience, which includes working as a consultant for Mckinsey and Company with focus on the energy industry as well as several positions within the Aker Solutions ASA group of companies. Mr. Falk Hansen has also been the CFO of MHWirth, an offshore drilling equipment and lifecycle supplier and CEO of Beckmann AS, which was sold to Shanghai M&G Stationary Inc, a company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Mr. Falk Hansen is currently CEO of Nekkar ASA, a company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

Mr. Falk Hansen holds a master in finance from Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration from the National University of Singapore. He is a Norwegian citizen and resides in Kristiansand, Norway.

James Ayers has served as Director and Secretary of the Company since February 2019.  Mr. Ayers has more than ten years of industry experience with a range of director and management positions across the sector. Mr. Ayers is the CEO of Front Ocean Management and Company Secretary for the Fredriksen Group companies based in Bermuda, including publicly listed and SEC-regulated companies. Mr. Ayers has previously occupied company secretary positions within UK based firms, Karm Research Group and Co-operative Banking Group Ltd.

Mr. Ayers holds a Masters in International Business and Commercial Law (LLM), a Bachelors in Law (LLB) and a professional qualification in Legal Practice (LPC).  He is a British citizen and resides in Hamilton, Bermuda.