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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

  • A master's degree in Jurisprudence from Oxford University, Chris sat his Law Society Finals at the College of Law in Chester. 
  • 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 managed international legal teams supporting a wide number of countries. During his tenure at BP, Chris was a member of BP’s Production & Operations Business Leadership Team and was also a member of the Production & Operations, Regions, Cities & Solutions and Gas and Low Carbon Energy Legal Leadership Team. 

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 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 Caspian region. 

He has over 22 years of Procurement and Shared Services function experience for both E&P operators as well as oilfield service providers.

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

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

  • B. ENG (1st Class Honours) in Mechanical & Offshore Engineering
  • Over 25 years in technical, operational and commercial roles in Europe, Canada and the Middle East

Steve joined EnQuest PLC in October 2023. Prior to joining the Company, he most recently acted as a Technical Advisor to HSBC providing energy sector expertise and guidance on their oil and gas portfolio, and also in a personal capacity as an energy industry expert to global financial institutions and investors. Steve has 25 years’ experience in the industry and was the founding director of his own energy company, Decipher Energy, which he successfully sold on 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
  • M.Sc. 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

  • Previously CFO of Salamander Energy PLC
  • Broad background in the energy and natural resource sectors built through technical, finance, operational and commercial roles in both large and small organisations

Jonathan joined EnQuest in December 2023 as CFO Designate becoming EnQuest CFO on 1 February 2024. Jonathan has a technical background in geology and geoscience alongside ten years’ capital markets experience, four years as CFO of Salamander Energy PLC and for the last seven years has been CEO of Getech Group PLC.