UK-headquartered SURF contactor Ceona has announced that the company’s chairman, John Smith, has stepped down with immediate effect due to ill-health.
Smith has been involved in the oil and gas sector for more than 30 years. He worked for 20 years for engineering companies owned by Brown & Root, served as the inaugural CEO of Subsea 7, and went on to join Clough as CEO in 2007. He joined Ceona, which was created early in 2012, in the initial stages of its growth strategy and was named chairman in January 2013.
Mark Preece, Ceona’s CEO, said: “John has been with Ceona since we started down the path to building the Ceona Amazon and his expertise has been vital in supporting the company to grow into the international organisation that it is today. John is highly respected and everyone at Ceona is extremely sorry to see him leave. I would like to take this opportunity to thank John for the very significant contributions he has made to our organisation.”
Ceona, whose majority shareholder is Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, has not revealed any plans to find a successor at this stage.
