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Christy Pontious

August 24, 2023
Read moreChristy Pontious

Christy Pontious

Chief Accounting Officer

Christy previously served as Vice President of Accounting and Controller of Enchanted Rock, where she led the accounting efforts for the company. Prior to joining Enchanted Rock, Christy served as Controller for Navigation Petroleum and held multiple roles of growing responsibility within financial reporting at Oasis Petroleum. She began her career as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she focused on various industries. Christy brings over 15 years of accounting experience for both public and private energy businesses. Christy holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and Master in Professional Accounting from University of Texas at Austin.

Elijah Lavicky

June 12, 2023
Read moreElijah Lavicky

Elijah was previously Principal at Selenite Energy Partners, a structured capital provider and portfolio company of Carnelian, Ridgemar’s private equity sponsor. He began his career as an investment banker in the Jefferies energy group in Houston, where he focused on capital raising and M&A advisory for upstream oil and gas companies. Elijah holds a B.B.A. in Finance with special distinction from the University of Oklahoma and an MSc in Accounting and Finance with merit from the London School of Economics.

Ridgemar Energy Acquires Callon Petroleum’s Eagle Ford Position

May 3, 2023
Read moreRidgemar Energy Acquires Callon Petroleum’s Eagle Ford Position

James Parker

April 19, 2022
Read moreJames Parker

James previously served as Partner and Vice President of Land of Wayfinder Resources Operating, LLC, where he oversaw the land and business development efforts for the company in the SCOOP, STACK, MERGE trend in Oklahoma. Prior to Wayfinder, James served as Land Manager for Oasis Petroleum where he played a role in multiple large-scale acquisitions in the Williston and Permian Basins.  Prior to Oasis, James held multiple roles at Texas American Resources Company and was responsible for land operations for Texas American’s Austin Chalk/Eagle Ford, Cotton Valley, and Anadarko assets. James has over 18 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and has worked in both conventional and unconventional plays across multiple states, including Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. James holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Petroleum Land Management from Texas Tech University and is a Certified Professional Landman.

Robert Leidy

January 18, 2022
Read moreRobert Leidy

Robert previously served as Reservoir Engineering Manager of ExL Petroleum II with a primary focus on conducting the company’s technical evaluations. Prior to joining ExL, Robert served as the Northern Midland Basin Reservoir Engineering Supervisor at ConocoPhillips, and its predecessor, Concho Resources. In this capacity he led a team of engineers through numerous budget, reserves, and project planning cycles, culminating with asset production reaching 70,000 net BOE/D shortly before his departure. Robert began his career with Concho Resources in Midland, TX where he rotated through drilling, completions, and production field assignments before settling on the reservoir engineering discipline. Prior to his promotion to Reservoir Engineering Supervisor, he served as an asset engineer and reservoir simulation engineer. Robert holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Ridgemar Energy Announces Commitment From Carnelian Energy Capital

December 14, 2021
Read moreRidgemar Energy Announces Commitment From Carnelian Energy Capital

HOUSTON (December 14, 2021) – Ridgemar Energy, LLC (“Ridgemar”) today announced the closing of an equity commitment from an investment fund managed by Carnelian Energy Capital Management, L.P. (“Carnelian”). Ridgemar, headquartered in Houston, is pursuing an acquisition and development strategy in select onshore basins in North America. Ridgemar is led by Preston Powell, who was previously a senior member of the investment team at Carnelian, as well as Mina Elmalak and David Loveday, who bring strong technical and operating experience to the team from prior roles at Concho Resources, ConocoPhillips and Chevron.

“We are excited to partner with Carnelian to build Ridgemar during this compelling time in the market,” said Powell, Ridgemar’s Chief Executive Officer. “As the industry continues to consolidate, we are seeing attractive opportunities to capture assets and create value.”

“After working alongside Preston for years and seeing his knack for creative deal making first hand, we are excited to partner with him and Mina and David,” said Tomas Ackerman, a Carnelian Partner. “We believe the team’s commercial acumen, technical skillset and nimble approach will position Ridgemar for success.”

About Ridgemar Energy, LLC
Ridgemar Energy is a Houston-based oil and gas company pursuing an acquisition and development strategy in select onshore basins in North America. For more information, please visit www.ridgemarenergy.com.

About Carnelian Energy Capital Management, L.P.
Carnelian Energy Capital is an energy investment firm based in Houston, Texas. With approximately $1.8 billion of cumulative equity commitments, Carnelian is dedicated to bringing its strategic expertise and nimble approach to partnerships with leading businesses and best-in-class management teams in the North American energy space. For more information, please contact Carnelian at [email protected] or visit www.carnelianenergy.com.

David Loveday

November 30, 2021
Read moreDavid Loveday

Dave was previously a Partner and Chief Technical Officer of Millennial Energy Partners, which made upstream investments across all the major onshore unconventional plays of North America.  He began his career as a geologist in the Gulf of Mexico with Chevron and would go on to lead development and exploration efforts in West Africa and Brazil.  Dave brings more than a decade of leading subsurface technical teams focused on finding and developing oil and gas in basins across the world. He received his B.S. in Geology from the Ohio State University, his M.S. in Geophysics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and is currently pursing a M.S. in Data Science and Machine Learning from Southern Methodist University.

Mina Elmalak

November 30, 2021
Read moreMina Elmalak

Mina previously served as Chief Operating Officer of ExL Petroleum II where he oversaw the company’s technical evaluations.  Prior to ExL, Mina served as Asset Manager of ConocoPhillips’, and its predecessor, Concho Resources, Northern Midland Basin asset team where he oversaw reservoir and operations engineering, geology, and field operation functions as well as planning and development of the team’s large scale, multi-zone development projects.  Mina began his career with Concho Resources in Artesia, NM where he rotated through drilling, completions, and production field assignments before rotating through reservoir engineering assignments in Midland, TX on the NM Shelf, Corporate Engineering, Planning & Budgeting, and Midland Basin teams, culminating in his promotion to Midland Basin Reservoir Engineering Supervisor.  Mina holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University and an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. 

Preston Powell

Preston Powell

November 14, 2017
Read morePreston Powell

Preston Powell

Chief Executive Officer

Preston was previously Managing Director and a member of the Management Committee at Ridgemar’s private equity sponsor, Carnelian, where he was responsible for leading upstream investments, transaction due diligence and the execution and monitoring of active portfolio company investments.  Prior to joining Carnelian at its founding, Preston was an energy private equity investor with Denham Capital Management and KKR & Co.  He began his career as an investment banker in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group of Greenhill & Co.  Preston received his B.B.A. in Finance with honors from the Business Honors Program from The University of Texas at Austin.

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