Matahio is founded and led by a team of experienced professionals, who are vested in the long-term sustainability of the company. Their wealth of experience extends beyond the oil & gas industry in Southeast Asia & Australasia, and into other industries as well. It is this diversity of talent and experience that makes Matahio the forward-looking and progressive company that it is.
Dr. Wai-Lid Wong is a global leader in the oil and gas sector. His two decades in the sector include leading global oil and gas organisations, and roles in engineering, operations and asset management. His extensive experience in driving major ownership transitions and performance improvement programmes informs his strong visionary and best practice approach to senior management and governance.
Wai-Lid was part of the senior leadership team of Tamarind Resources' international business and has been appointed as CEO of Matahio to drive the Group’s Australasian business operations, including its focus on leading the global movement of energy transition.
Wai-Lid has a track record in turning around HSE and production performance within operations improvement and operations management roles, including with BP and BG Group in the North Sea during the mid to late 2000s.
Earlier in his career, Wai-Lid led all development activity for a North American independent in the Malaysia region. Earlier, with a major oil and gas consultancy based in Singapore, he directed the execution of complex transformation programmes for leading Asian exploration and production entities, led several operations excellence initiatives, and advised internationally on health, safety and environment (HSE), asset integrity, maintenance, and production.
Wai-Lid has a PhD in chemical engineering and a Masters of Engineering from Imperial College, London.
A member of the board of directors of Matahio, Il Yong Jung is an experienced portfolio manager in the investment management industry, specialising in the natural resources sector.
Il Yong has worked for the past 13 years with OCP Asia, as Senior Portfolio Manager and Managing Director based in Hong Kong. Before OCP Asia, Il Yong worked at York Capital Management and Goldman Sachs.
Il Yong has a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) from the University of Chicago.
Dr Mike Fischer is a company director, board advisor, and geoscientist with close to four decades of global oil and gas experience spanning Asia Pacific, Africa, and Europe. Alongside his governance advisory role with Matahio he is currently working in an executive advisory capacity for the large Thai energy conglomerate Bangchak Corporation. Since 2018 Mike has served as a non-executive director on the OKEA board, which in 2019 oversaw a listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange and has since supervised the transition of ownership of multiple assets, managed the external business fluctuations caused by the pandemic, and recruited a new senior leadership team.
Mike is currently also a non-executive director of a newly founded UK-based energy transition company which is working on the development of a Hydrogen-led energy transition business.
Mike has previously served as Executive Vice President Natural Resources at Bangchak, and as Managing Director and CEO of Nido Petroleum Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bangchak whose acquisition triggered a significant change management process which was conducted successfully under Mike’s leadership. He also previously served as a non-executive director of Lithium Americas.
From the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s Mike worked with Ophir Energy Ltd, initially as COO, during which time Ophir was listed on the main board of the UK stock exchange, and latterly as the President of the Africa Business Unit, where he was for Ophir’s African asset portfolio.
Mike’s career encompasses extensive global experience in exploration, production, operations, and projects, business development and international portfolio development, and chief geologist / geoscience assurance roles in a range of countries, including UK, Norway, Eastern Europe, West, North and East Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand and China.
Mike holds a PhD from the University of Wales and a BSc (Hons) in geological sciences from the University of Leeds. He is a fellow of the Geological Society of London. He also holds a GAICD from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
A member of the board of directors of Matahio, Ernest Lee is an experienced portfolio manager in the private credit space across a wide range of industries.
Ernest is a permanent resident in Singapore and has worked with OCP Asia since August 2016 - first as a Senior Portfolio Manager, before being named a Principal in 2020. Prior to joining OCP Asia, Ernest was Head of Principal Finance for Asia (ex-Japan) at Nomura for four years and also a member of the Board of Directors of Nomura Special Investments Singapore, the primary investment and lending entity for Nomura in Asia. Before that, Ernest held various senior roles at Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse in their private financing and emerging markets financing business, respectively. He has had a career in finance since 1999, originally starting in the corporate finance and M&A sectors.
Wai-Lid Wong is a global leader in the oil and gas sector. His two decades in the sector include leading global oil and gas organisations, and roles in engineering, operations and asset management. His extensive experience in driving major ownership transitions and performance improvement programmes informs his strong visionary and best practice approach to senior management and governance.
Wai-Lid was part of the senior leadership team of Tamarind Resources' international business and has been appointed as CEO of Matahio to drive the Group’s Australasian business operations, including its focus on leading the global movement of energy transition.
Wai-Lid has a track record in turning around HSE and production performance within operations improvement and operations management roles, including with BP and BG Group in the North Sea during the mid to late 2000s.
Earlier in his career, Wai-Lid led all development activity for a North American independent in the Malaysia region. Earlier, with a major oil and gas consultancy based in Singapore, he directed the execution of complex transformation programmes for leading Asian exploration and production entities, led several operations excellence initiatives, and advised internationally on health, safety and environment (HSE), asset integrity, maintenance, and production.
Wai-Lid has a PhD in chemical engineering and a Master of Engineering from Imperial College, London.
Susan Prior is a globally experienced financial executive with deep knowledge of the oil and gas sector through her two decades in key roles within world-leading organisations. Based in Australia, Susan leads Matahio’s international operations as its CFO. She has served as a CFO for oil and gas companies since 2015, focused on the Southeast Asia and North Africa territories. Earlier in her career, Susan was a Director of PwC in London and a Partner at EY in New York, where her roles centred on cross-border work with clients including carve-out transactions, acquisitions, and capital raising.
As an E&P CFO, Susan brings cross-functional expertise and commercial insight, providing strategic and operational input into a business. She has extensive experience in financial management including developing monthly management reporting processes, integration and improvement to finance functions, establishing sound internal control mechanisms and robust financial governance, treasury management, tax structuring, and meeting regulatory obligations. Susan is experienced in dealing with both the investor and banking communities and regulatory authorities. Susan holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia and a graduate diploma in applied finance and investment from the Australian Securities Institute (now FINSIA). She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand and of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
From a geotechnical engineer in the 90s to leading governance and development roles with international oil and gas organisations, Rob Fisher’s 25 years’ experience has spanned multiple regions and every facet of the industry.
For the past six years Rob has led development and asset management activities for regional independent exploration and production operators, steering multi-disciplinary teams in the delivery of a wide range of projects from early-stage concept studies, full field reviews, drilling campaigns, offshore construction projects, emissions reduction initiatives, and novel well interventions onshore and offshore.
Rob oversees all technical activities across the Matahio Group, assuring asset management, development and operations, liaising with partners, regulators and other stakeholders across multiple jurisdictions.
Rob has played an instrumental role in the commercial restructuring of various international assets including acquisitions and ensuring continuity of operations. Rob previously worked for global consultancy Senergy, growing a facilities engineering consultancy and taking charge of its subsurface and commercial divisions. Preceding this, he worked in North Sea and globally focussed roles for Technip; delivering specialist engineering, developing technology and managing subsea projects. He has an extensive track record in managing organisational change, new business development and technology implementation.
Rob has an MBA from University of Strathclyde and a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in civil engineering.
Stephane Bigard’s two decades of experience in the energy industry has seen him wear multiple hats, drawing on his skills as both an engineer and economist. His technical and commercial acumen has earned Stephane a wide-ranging network of contacts in the global oil and gas sector through his history with majors including Total and Hess across Europe, Africa, North America and Asia. He has an astute understanding of the inner workings of the industry’s technical, commercial, and economic elements through his varied roles as a process and subsea engineer, offshore project manager, economist and financial analyst.
Stephane’s core strength is his ability to apply his engineering and business skills to identify the right opportunities and then develop innovative transaction structures. Stephane executed the acquisition of the Galoc field from Nido Petroleum in 2018 and the New Zealand onshore assets from TAG Oil in 2019.
Earlier in his career Stephane was instrumental in establishing the Malaysian presence of Hess as a project manager for the US company’s first operated production in Malaysia from 2010 to 2013. He then led business development at Loyz Energy in Singapore for three years before joining Matahio as Commercial and Business Development lead in 2016.
Stephane holds an engineering degree (chemical engineering) from Ecole Centrale, Lille and a Master of Science (petroleum engineering and project development) from IFP, Paris.
Drew Cadenhead is a professional exploration geologist with 40 years’ experience in technical and executive roles in the oil and gas sector in Canada and the South Pacific. Drew has been based in New Zealand for over two decades, and before joining Matahio as its New Zealand Country Manager, Drew led TAG Oil Ltd as CEO / COO for 12 years, managing TAG’s unprecedented exploration campaign in New Zealand, securing several significant acquisitions, and overseeing all operational aspects of the company. TAG’s New Zealand assets were acquired by Tamarind in late 2020, and Drew served as its Country Manager until joining Matahio.
Earlier in his career, Drew spent 15 years exploring the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin before leading exploration and development teams for Petrocorp / Fletcher Challenge in New Zealand. He founded and co-governed Pulse Oil Corp, which acquired under-capitalised producing oil and gas properties in Western Canada.
During his time with TAG Drew led its market capitalisation from less than CDN$2 million to over CDN$650 million and a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange with predominant institutional shareholders. Drew was responsible for raising over CDN$300 million dollars in equity-placed capital from North American and European markets.
Drew holds a Bachelor of Science in geology from the University of Calgary. He is a registered member of APEGA (Association of Professional Engineers, Geoscientists of Alberta).
Edgar Benedict (Ed) Cutiongco has more than three decades of experience in oil and gas exploration and production operations. He brings comprehensive technical abilities garnered from regional experience at PNOC Exploration Corporation, the upstream oil, gas and coal subsidiary of the Philippine National Oil Company, and in Singapore with PEARL Oil, Mubadala Petroleum and InterOil Corporation.
Ed’s expertise has enabled him to bring exploration projects to fruition while managing and mitigating subsurface and surface risks. His deep technical experience and knowledge of the industry has seen Ed participate in mergers and acquisitions and develop business cases which are integral to decision-making and future planning.
Ed is the current President of the Philippine Petroleum Association of the Upstream Industry (Oil & Gas), Inc. and a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences. He holds a Master of Science in petroleum geoscience from the Universiti Brunei Darussalam and a Bachelor of Science in geology from the University of the Philippines.
Matahio is founded and led by a team of experienced professionals, who are vested in the long-term sustainability of the company. Their wealth of experience extends beyond the oil & gas industry in Southeast Asia & Australasia, and into other industries as well. It is this diversity of talent and experience that makes Matahio the forward-looking and progressive company that it is.
DIRECTORS
Dr. Wai-Lid Wong is a global leader in the oil and gas sector. His two decades in the sector include leading global oil and gas organisations, and roles in engineering, operations and asset management. His extensive experience in driving major ownership transitions and performance improvement programmes informs his strong visionary and best practice approach to senior management and governance.
Wai-Lid was part of the senior leadership team of Tamarind Resources’ international business and has been appointed as CEO of Matahio to drive the Group’s Australasian business operations, including its focus on leading the global movement of energy transition.
Wai-Lid has a track record in turning around HSE and production performance within operations improvement and operations management roles, including with BP and BG Group in the North Sea during the mid to late 2000s.
Earlier in his career, Wai-Lid led all development activity for a North American independent in the Malaysia region. Earlier, with a major oil and gas consultancy based in Singapore, he directed the execution of complex transformation programmes for leading Asian exploration and production entities, led several operations excellence initiatives, and advised internationally on health, safety and environment (HSE), asset integrity, maintenance, and production.
Wai-Lid has a PhD in chemical engineering and a Masters of Engineering from Imperial College, London.
A member of the board of directors of Matahio, Sam de Meyrick is a highly experienced portfolio manager and consultant to the oil and gas industry and a leader in the global banking sector.
Sam has worked for the past six years with OCP Asia, currently as Senior Portfolio Manager based in Sydney and previously in a consulting capacity, and earlier spent ten years with Deutsche Bank in Sydney and London, ultimately serving as Vice President. His work with the bank included global banking, leveraged finance, and analysis of global markets and high yield research. Earlier in his career, Sam worked on several significant development projects across Melbourne as a Project Engineer with Lend Lease.
Sam has a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil Engineering) with Honours and a Bachelor of Business Administration from RMIT University.
Dr Mike Fischer is a company director, board advisor, and geoscientist with close to four decades of global oil and gas experience spanning Asia Pacific, Africa, and Europe. Alongside his governance advisory role with Matahio he is currently working in an executive advisory capacity for the large Thai energy conglomerate Bangchak Corporation. Since 2018 Mike has served as a non-executive director on the OKEA board, which in 2019 oversaw a listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange and has since supervised the transition of ownership of multiple assets, managed the external business fluctuations caused by the pandemic, and recruited a new senior leadership team.
Mike is currently also a non-executive director of a newly founded UK-based energy transition company which is working on the development of a Hydrogen-led energy transition business.
Mike has previously served as Executive Vice President Natural Resources at Bangchak, and as Managing Director and CEO of Nido Petroleum Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bangchak whose acquisition triggered a significant change management process which was conducted successfully under Mike’s leadership. He also previously served as a non-executive director of Lithium Americas.
From the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s Mike worked with Ophir Energy Ltd, initially as COO, during which time Ophir was listed on the main board of the UK stock exchange, and latterly as the President of the Africa Business Unit, where he was for Ophir’s African asset portfolio.
Mike’s career encompasses extensive global experience in exploration, production, operations, and projects, business development and international portfolio development, and chief geologist / geoscience assurance roles in a range of countries, including UK, Norway, Eastern Europe, West, North and East Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand and China.
Mike holds a PhD from the University of Wales and a BSc (Hons) in geological sciences from the University of Leeds. He is a fellow of the Geological Society of London. He also holds a GAICD from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
A member of the board of directors of Matahio, Ernest Lee is an experienced portfolio manager in the private credit space across a wide range of industries.
Ernest is a permanent resident in Singapore and has worked with OCP Asia since August 2016 – first as a Senior Portfolio Manager, before being named a Principal in 2020. Prior to joining OCP Asia, Ernest was Head of Principal Finance for Asia (ex-Japan) at Nomura for four years and also a member of the Board of Directors of Nomura Special Investments Singapore, the primary investment and lending entity for Nomura in Asia. Before that, Ernest held various senior roles at Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse in their private financing and emerging markets financing business, respectively. He has had a career in finance since 1999, originally starting in the corporate finance and M&A sectors.
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Dr. Wai-Lid Wong is a global leader in the oil and gas sector. His two decades in the sector include leading global oil and gas organisations, and roles in engineering, operations and asset management. His extensive experience in driving major ownership transitions and performance improvement programmes informs his strong visionary and best practice approach to senior management and governance.
Wai-Lid was part of the senior leadership team of Tamarind Resources’ international business and has been appointed as CEO of Matahio to drive the Group’s Australasian business operations, including its focus on leading the global movement of energy transition.
Wai-Lid has a track record in turning around HSE and production performance within operations improvement and operations management roles, including with BP and BG Group in the North Sea during the mid to late 2000s.
Earlier in his career, Wai-Lid led all development activity for a North American independent in the Malaysia region. Earlier, with a major oil and gas consultancy based in Singapore, he directed the execution of complex transformation programmes for leading Asian exploration and production entities, led several operations excellence initiatives, and advised internationally on health, safety and environment (HSE), asset integrity, maintenance, and production.
Wai-Lid has a PhD in chemical engineering and a Master of Engineering from Imperial College, London.
Susan Prior is a globally experienced financial executive with deep knowledge of the oil and gas sector through her two decades in key roles within world-leading organisations. Based in Australia, Susan leads Matahio’s international operations as its CFO. She has served as a CFO for oil and gas companies since 2015, focused on the Southeast Asia and North Africa territories. Earlier in her career, Susan was a Director of PwC in London and a Partner at EY in New York, where her roles centred on cross-border work with clients including carve-out transactions, acquisitions, and capital raising.
As an E&P CFO, Susan brings cross-functional expertise and commercial insight, providing strategic and operational input into a business. She has extensive experience in financial management including developing monthly management reporting processes, integration and improvement to finance functions, establishing sound internal control mechanisms and robust financial governance, treasury management, tax structuring, and meeting regulatory obligations. Susan is experienced in dealing with both the investor and banking communities and regulatory authorities. Susan holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia and a graduate diploma in applied finance and investment from the Australian Securities Institute (now FINSIA). She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand and of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
From a geotechnical engineer in the 90s to leading governance and development roles with international oil and gas organisations, Rob Fisher’s 25 years’ experience has spanned multiple regions and every facet of the industry.
For the past six years Rob has led development and asset management activities for regional independent exploration and production operators, steering multi-disciplinary teams in the delivery of a wide range of projects from early-stage concept studies, full field reviews, drilling campaigns, offshore construction projects, emissions reduction initiatives, and novel well interventions onshore and offshore.
Rob oversees all technical activities across the Matahio Group, assuring asset management, development and operations, liaising with partners, regulators and other stakeholders across multiple jurisdictions.
Rob has played an instrumental role in the commercial restructuring of various international assets including acquisitions and ensuring continuity of operations. Rob previously worked for global consultancy Senergy, growing a facilities engineering consultancy and taking charge of its subsurface and commercial divisions. Preceding this, he worked in North Sea and globally focussed roles for Technip; delivering specialist engineering, developing technology and managing subsea projects. He has an extensive track record in managing organisational change, new business development and technology implementation.
Rob has an MBA from University of Strathclyde and a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in civil engineering.
Stephane Bigard’s two decades of experience in the energy industry has seen him wear multiple hats, drawing on his skills as both an engineer and economist. His technical and commercial acumen has earned Stephane a wide-ranging network of contacts in the global oil and gas sector through his history with majors including Total and Hess across Europe, Africa, North America and Asia. He has an astute understanding of the inner workings of the industry’s technical, commercial, and economic elements through his varied roles as a process and subsea engineer, offshore project manager, economist and financial analyst.
Stephane’s core strength is his ability to apply his engineering and business skills to identify the right opportunities and then develop innovative transaction structures. Stephane executed the acquisition of the Galoc field from Nido Petroleum in 2018 and the New Zealand onshore assets from TAG Oil in 2019.
Earlier in his career Stephane was instrumental in establishing the Malaysian presence of Hess as a project manager for the US company’s first operated production in Malaysia from 2010 to 2013. He then led business development at Loyz Energy in Singapore for three years before joining Matahio as Commercial and Business Development lead in 2016.
Stephane holds an engineering degree (chemical engineering) from Ecole Centrale, Lille and a Master of Science (petroleum engineering and project development) from IFP, Paris.
Drew Cadenhead is a professional exploration geologist with 40 years’ experience in technical and executive roles in the oil and gas sector in Canada and the South Pacific. Drew has been based in New Zealand for over two decades, and before joining Matahio as its Director & New Zealand Country Manager, Drew led TAG Oil Ltd as CEO / COO for 12 years, managing TAG’s unprecedented exploration campaign in New Zealand, securing several significant acquisitions, and overseeing all operational aspects of the company. TAG’s New Zealand assets were acquired by Tamarind in late 2020, and Drew served as its Country Manager until joining Matahio.
Earlier in his career, Drew spent 15 years exploring the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin before leading exploration and development teams for Petrocorp / Fletcher Challenge in New Zealand. He founded and co-governed Pulse Oil Corp, which acquired under-capitalised producing oil and gas properties in Western Canada.
During his time with TAG Drew led its market capitalisation from less than CDN$2 million to over CDN$650 million and a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange with predominant institutional shareholders. Drew was responsible for raising over CDN$300 million dollars in equity-placed capital from North American and European markets.
Drew holds a Bachelor of Science in geology from the University of Calgary. He is a registered member of APEGA (Association of Professional Engineers, Geoscientists of Alberta).
Edgar Benedict (Ed) Cutiongco has more than three decades of experience in oil and gas exploration and production operations. He brings comprehensive technical abilities garnered from regional experience at PNOC Exploration Corporation, the upstream oil, gas and coal subsidiary of the Philippine National Oil Company, and in Singapore with PEARL Oil, Mubadala Petroleum and InterOil Corporation.
Ed’s expertise has enabled him to bring exploration projects to fruition while managing and mitigating subsurface and surface risks. His deep technical experience and knowledge of the industry has seen Ed participate in mergers and acquisitions and develop business cases which are integral to decision-making and future planning.
Ed is the current President of the Philippine Petroleum Association of the Upstream Industry (Oil & Gas), Inc. and a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences. He holds a Master of Science in petroleum geoscience from the Universiti Brunei Darussalam and a Bachelor of Science in geology from the University of the Philippines.
