Ron Bain is a financial director of Vaalco Energy, an upstream oil and gas company based in Houston with a strong presence in Africa and Canada. Founded in 1985, Vaalco is double list on the New York and London scholarships.
Global finance: you have been a financial director for almost four years. How has Vaalco’s competitive position changed during your mandate?
Ron Bain: It was an active period during which we carried out several transformative transactions which increased the scale and diversified the portfolio of assets. We have completed a value merger value with transglobe in 2022 which saw us acquire operating assets in Egypt and Canada. More recently, we have acquired non -operational interest in an area of ivory Coast production thanks to the acquisition of Svenska AB.
“In addition, we continue to stimulate organic growth through the portfolio with drilling campaigns, while expanding our footprint by adding new licenses that offer long -term upward potential. All this leaves Vaalco well placed to consolidate its position as an independent company of exploration and independent production. ”
Girlfriend:: What makes this company and this industry a distinctive challenge for a financial director?
Bath: It is a very exciting, fluid and cyclic sector in which there are many competitors, many investments and the requirement to deploy material capital through the portfolio to provide growth. The role of the financial director is to ensure access to capital to support the growth objectives as well as to work with the financial team and the executive to mitigate the risks: for example, by implementing coverage instruments to protect the company from the drop in basic products.
Girlfriend:: What absorbs most of your energy and your time?
Bath: Most of my time is devoted to ensuring us to maintain a robust assessment that balances organic and inorganic growth in parallel with our commitment to the return of shareholders. Vaalco is double list in London and New York, so I also spend a lot of time engaging with our wider investors and stakeholders, supervising our regulatory commitments to these announcements and playing an important role in the development of our strategy and our ESG program.
Girlfriend:: What makes a large finance team?
Bath: It is important to have good communication within the team, so everyone knows the respective objectives and roles in achieving these objectives. I am lucky to have a large financial team in all our regions. I also have a close working relationship with our CEO, George Maxwell, having worked alongside him in our previous company, Eland Oil & Gas, who obtained a good outing for all stakeholders a few years ago.
Girlfriend:: What is the role of AI in the financial function? How do you see that it evolves in Vaalco?
Bath: AI is already used in finance in Vaalco. We use software powered by AI to manage data entry as well as the processing of invoices with optical character recognition which extracts the processing data from receipts and documents with minimal human intervention. We have implemented a global ERP system in 2024 and collect huge amounts of data sets via it. With the Internet of Objects and the ability to integrate readings readings and monitor gauges, we see automatic learning models read and learn from these large sets of data to improve our decision -making.
Girlfriend:: What is up to you at night?
Bath: Economic and market uncertainty, as well as an increased administrative burden via greater government regulations. My responsibility is, first of all, to ensure that the company realizes for the benefit of all our stakeholders. We have many employees, so we must demonstrate that we are good citizens and supervise a safe work environment.
We consider ourselves as partners in host governments in the countries where we operate, so we are responsible for the inhabitants of these countries to provide a positive impact thanks to our activities. As an operator of equipment producing equipment, we must always demonstrate operational excellence and environmental management.