John M. Brown – Chairman of the Board and Founder

John M. Brown the company’s founder, has been chairman of the board of directors since its organization in April 2000. He served as CEO until September 2004, and as president of Zion until October 2001. Mr. Brown has extensive management, marketing and sales experience, serving as corporate director of purchasing at GTE Valeron, a subsidiary of GTE Corporation from 1966 to 1986, and as corporate director of procurement at Magnetek, Inc. during 1988-89. Mr. Brown is also an officer and director of M&B Holding Inc. a provider of cement walls and floors for industrial buildings, office buildings and home developers. Mr. Brown holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Fullerton College.

Richard Rinberg – Director, Chief Executive Officer

Richard Rinberg was appointed chief executive officer in March 2007. He has been a director since November 2004, and served as president since October 2005. Mr. Rinberg, a private investor since 1996, previously served as Managing Director of the Rinberg Group, a corporate group in the UK active in the casting of precious metals for the jewelry industry, jewelry manufacturing, property development and securities trading. Mr. Rinberg holds a Bachelor of Science Honors Degree in Mathematics from University College, University of London. He is a Member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

William (Bill) Ottaviani – President and Chief Operating Officer

Bill Ottaviani was appointed president and chief operating officer in January 2010. Prior to joining Zion, Mr. Ottaviani spent 25 years (1982 to 2007) working for Chevron Corporation in various countries, including Angola, Indonesia and the USA, and two years (2007-2009) as Chief Operating Officer of Rex Energy. Mr. Ottaviani holds a Masters in Business Administration from California State University and a Bachelor of Science degree (with High Distinction) in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Sandra Green – Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President

Sandra Green was appointed chief financial officer and senior vice president in February 2009. She served as chief accounting officer and vice president from July 2007. She was Zion’s Director of Planning from March 2005 until July 2007. From 1999-2005, she was the Accounting Manager of Hunt Properties, Inc., a real estate development and management company. From 1994 to 1999, she provided accounting and auditing services for clients in North Texas and New Mexico, including governments, schools, not-for-profit organizations, financial institutions, family trusts, private entrepreneurs and oil and gas companies. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Tyler and has taken graduate classes at the University of Texas at Tyler and at Arlington. She is a Certified Public Accountant in Texas and is also a lay minister at First Assembly of God Church at Dawson, Texas.

Andrew (Drew) Louis – Secretary, Treasurer and Vice President of Administration

Drew Louis is our Secretary, Treasurer and Vice President of Administration. Prior to joining Zion in May 2009, Mr. Louis practiced law as an associate at Vinson & Elkins LLP in the firm’s corporate transactions department (from September 2006 to May 2009) where he represented several international oil and gas companies, private equity and public company clients in a variety of corporate transactional matters. Mr. Louis holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from Baylor University, Waco, Texas and a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the College of William and Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law, Williamsburg, Virginia.

Ilan Sheena – Vice President of Finance in Israel

Ilan Sheena C.P.A. (Isr.) is our Vice President of Finance in Israel. Ilan is an accounting professional with broad local and international experience. He has a degree in Accounting and Economics from Tel Aviv University. After qualifying as a C.P.A. and working for three years with KPMG Somekh Chaikin in Israel, he spent four years at Alcatel in Sydney, Australia. Returning to Israel, he joined a high-tech start-up that, with his help, subsequently held an IPO and listed on Nasdaq. He then joined Bezeq International as the Financial Controller and Finance Manager and, after that, Verint Systems, a subsidiary of the Comverse group. He then joined a venture capital fund (with investors such as JP Morgan, Siemens, EDF, AXA, Schlumberger) and dealt with over eighteen start-up companies.

Paul Oroian – Director

Paul Oroian was appointed a director in November 2003. Since its founding in 1983, he has served as president and managing partner of Oroian, Guest & Little, P.C., a certified public accounting and consulting firm based in San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Oroian holds a Bachelors of Science – Business Administration from Bryant College. He has served as a board member of Technology Oversight Committee and the IRS Regional Liaison Committee of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants and was vice president and a director of the San Antonio CPA Society between 1992-1998. He currently serves as treasurer, and is a director at the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio (YOSA).

Kent S. Siegel – Director

Kent S. Siegel, appointed a director in November 2003, has served as president and chief operating officer of Siegel and Siegel, P.C. since 1984. Siegel and Siegel is a firm of certified public accountants and attorneys at law based in West Bloomfield, Michigan, at which Mr. Siegel practices as a tax and bankruptcy attorney and CPA. Mr. Siegel holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Michigan State University School of Business, a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Lawrence Technological University School of Engineering. He currently serves as chairman of the Temple Israel School Board Fund Raising Committee.

Julian Taylor – Director

Julian Taylor was appointed a director in June 2009. Mr. Taylor is the founder of Tangent Trading Ltd, an international non-ferrous scrap metal trading company formed in 1985 with offices in London, U.K. and Los Angeles, U.S.A. In 2006, Tangent Trading Ltd was elected to the membership of the London Metal Exchange and in 2008 Tangent Trading Ltd was included by The Sunday Times newspaper (in the U.K.) in its ‘Profit Track 100′ list of Britain’s fastest growing private companies. Mr. Taylor has led Tangent Trading from inception in 1985. Mr. Taylor has over 37 years experience in trading metals internationally. Prior to forming Tangent in 1985, he was affiliated with S & W Beresford plc (a U.K. listed merchanting and commodity trading conglomerate) as a trader from 1978. Prior to this time, from 1972 to 1978, he was a trader at a subsidiary of Amalgamated Metal Corporation plc (an international company with origins in metal merchanting).

Dr Yehezekel (Charlie) Druckman – Director

Dr Yehezekel Druckman was appointed a director in November 2005. Dr. Druckman was Petroleum Commissioner for the State of Israel from 1995 until his retirement in 2004, where he supervised the licensing of petroleum rights both onshore and offshore Israel. Since 1965 he has been a member of the professional staff of the Geological Survey of Israel, where he headed the Mapping, Stratigraphy and Oil Division during 1982-1985 and 1991-1994. He was affiliated with the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge as Research Associate in Geology during 1978-1980 and 1989-1990.  Dr. Druckman is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the Geological Society of Israel (where he served as president in 1982, and for a number of years on the Society’s editorial board). He also served as member of the Israeli National Petroleum Commission and Board of Directors of Oil Exploration (Investments) Ltd., an Israeli government company. Dr. Druckman graduated from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem with BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in geology.

Forrest A. Garb – Director

Forrest A. Garb, appointed a director in November 2005, is a petroleum engineer well known in the petroleum industry for providing independent consulting services for more than 45 years. His consulting career began with H.J. Gruy and Associates, Inc. and its successors, where he served as a vice president for four years, executive vice president for ten years, and president for fifteen years. In 1988, Mr. Garb founded Forrest A. Garb & Associates, Inc. a privately-owned petroleum consulting firm, where he served as chairman and CEO until his retirement in 2003. Mr. Garb was educated in petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University (BSc and Professional MSc) and received his early training at Socony Mobil Oil Company in Kansas, Texas, Louisiana and Venezuela. Mr. Garb is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and is a past President of the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers. He is a member of the Association of Computing Machinery, the American Arbritration Association, the Petroleum Engineers Club of Dallas, the Dallas Geological Society, and is a member of the AAPG. He is a charter member of The American Institute of Minerals Appraisers. He is a registered professional engineer in Texas.

Dr. Eliezer L. Kashai – Vice President – Israeli Exploration

Dr. Eliezer Kashai, has been Vice President – Israeli Exploration of Zion since October 2000. Dr. Kashai studied geology in the University of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, holds Masters and Ph.D. degrees from Hebrew University, Jerusalem and is a widely recognized authority on the Triassic formation of Israel. Dr. Kashai has over fifty years of geological experience in Israel working until his retirement in 1987 for the national petroleum companies of Israel, including almost thirty years for Lapidoth Israel Oil Prospectors Company, Ltd. and Oil Exploration (Investments) Ltd., where he served in progressively responsible positions, including deputy managing director responsible for all of that company’s exploration efforts. Following his retirement in 1987 and through 1998, Dr. Kashai worked as an exploration consultant for various companies active in petroleum exploration in Israel, including Sedot Neft, Ltd. where he was responsible for the original geological interpretation of Ma’anit. He began consulting for Mr. Brown in connection with the Joseph Project in late 1999. Dr. Kashai has served as president of the Israel Geological Society.

Stephen E. Pierce – Exploration Manager

Stephen E. Pierce was retained as our consulting geologist for the drilling of the Ma’anit #1 well and subsequent exploration and development in February 2005. He joined Zion on a full time basis in October 2005 and was appointed our Exploration Manager in June 2006. From 1995-2005, Mr. Pierce served as project geologist for Murfin Drilling Co. in the Caribbean, primarily in the Dominican Republic. For the period of 1992-1995, Mr. Pierce was consulting geologist for several small independent companies working on onshore and offshore projects in the U.S., the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Guyana. From 1985-1992, he acted as senior geological advisor for Mobil Oil Corporation, and from 1980-1985, he worked as senior geologist for Superior Oil Co. He served as senior geologist in Pakistan for AMOCO from 1979-1980 and as geologist for UNOCAL from 1974-1979. Mr. Pierce received his M.S. in geology from San Diego State University in 1974 and his B.S. in geology from California State University in 1971. Mr. Pierce holds the title of Professional Geologist in Wyoming and memberships with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the American Institute of Professional Geologists.

Dr. Michael Jaffe – Operations Engineer

Michael Jaffe is our operations engineer. He holds a masters in electrical engineering from Binghamton University, State University of New York, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science. He has completed General Electric’s Advanced Course in Engineering with an emphasis on multidisciplinary problem solving. Michael worked as an engineer at G.E.’s Aerospace Controls Systems Division in Binghamton, N.Y., and at Elscint Medical Systems in Haifa, Israel. He holds a doctorate in communication research from the University of Michigan and has lectured at the University of Haifa. He has published articles and book chapters on topics of health communication and interactive media.