Officers
James J. Volker
James J. Volker, 60, has been a director of Whiting Petroleum Corporation since 2003 and a director of Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation since 2002. He joined Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation in August 1983 as Vice President of Corporate Development and served in that position through April 1993. In March 1993, he became a contract consultant to Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation and served in that capacity until August 2000, at which time he became Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Volker was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation in January 2002. Mr. Volker was co-founder, Vice President and later President of Energy Management Corporation from 1971 through 1982. He has over thirty years of experience in the oil and natural gas industry. Mr. Volker has a degree in finance from the University of Denver, an MBA from the University of Colorado and has completed H. K. VanPoolen and Associates' course of study in reservoir engineering.
James T. Brown
James T. Brown joined us as a consulting engineer in May 1995. In May 2007, he was promoted to Senior Vice President after holding the position of Vice President, Operations since January 2000. Mr. Brown has more than thirty years of oil and natural gas experience, including engineering positions with Shell Oil Company and British Petroleum p.l.c. Mr. Brown holds a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from the University of Denver.
Bruce R. DeBoer
Bruce R. DeBoer joined us as our Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in January 2005. From January 1997 to May 2004, Mr. DeBoer served as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Tom Brown, Inc., an independent oil and gas exploration and production company. Mr. DeBoer has over 20 years of experience in managing the legal departments of several independent oil and gas companies. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science from South Dakota State University and received his J.D. and MBA degrees from the University of South Dakota.
J. Douglas Lang
J. Douglas Lang joined us in December 1999 as Senior Acquisition Engineer and became Manager of Acquisitions and Reservoir Engineering in January 2004 and Vice President—Reservoir Engineering/ Acquisitions in October 2004. His thirty years of acquisition and reservoir engineering experience has included staff and managerial positions with Amoco, Petro-Lewis, General Atlantic Resources, UMC Petroleum and Ocean Energy. Mr. Lang holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Wyoming and a MBA from the University of Denver. He is a registered Professional Engineer and has served on the national Board of Directors of the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers.
Patricia J. Miller
Patricia J. Miller joined us in April 1980 as Corporate Secretary and as Secretary to our President, becoming Director of Human Resources in May 1994. In November 2001, she was appointed Vice President of Human Resources. She served as Corporate Secretary until January 2005. Mrs. Miller attended business school at Otero Junior College in LaJunta, Colorado and at Texas A & I in Kingsville, Texas.
Rick A. Ross
Rick A. Ross joined us in March 1999 as Operations Manager-Rocky Mountains and was promoted to Vice President, Operations-Denver in May 2007. He has more than twenty-five years of oil and gas experience, including engineering positions at Amoco Corporation. Mr. Ross holds a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
Dave M. Seery
David M. Seery joined us as our Manager of Land in July 2004 as a result of our acquisition of Equity Oil Company, where he was Manager of Land and Manager of Equity’s Exploration Department, positions he had held for more than five years. He became our Vice President of Land in January 2005. Mr. Seery has twenty-six years of land experience including staff and managerial positions with Marathon Oil Company. Mr. Seery holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management from the University of Montana. He is a Registered Land Professional.
Michael J. Stevens
Michael J. Stevens joined us in May 2001 as Controller, and became Treasurer in January 2002. Effective March 1, 2005, Mr. Stevens was appointed as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. From 1993 until May 2001, he served as Chief Financial Officer, Controller, Secretary and Treasurer at Inland Resources Inc., a company engaged in oil and natural gas exploration and development. He spent seven years in public accounting with Coopers & Lybrand in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a graduate of Mankato State University of Minnesota and is a certified public accountant.
Mark R. Williams
Mark R. Williams joined us in December 1983 as Exploration Geologist, becoming Vice President of Exploration and Development in December 1999. He has twenty-three years of experience in the oil and natural gas industry and his areas of primary technical expertise are in sequence stratigraphy, seismic interpretation and petroleum economics. Mr. Williams is a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines with a Master’s Degree in geology and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in geology from the University of Utah.
Brent P. Jensen
Brent P. Jensen joined us in August 2005 as Controller, and became Treasurer and Chief Accounting Officer January 2006. From 1994 to 2005, he was previously Senior Audit Manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Houston, Texas, where he also held various positions in their oil and gas audit practice after joining the company in 1994, including assignments in Milan, Italy and Moscow, Russia. He has 12 years of oil and gas accounting experience and is a certified public accountant. Mr. Jensen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis on accounting and business from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Gale Keithline
Gale Keithline joined us in 2002 as Director of Information Technology and became Vice President, Information Technology January 2006. Prior to joining Whiting, Mr. Keithline was the principal of Impact Systems Consulting, an Evergreen, Colorado-based consulting firm involved in project management, infrastructure design/development and application development. He has more than 25 years of information technology experience, including positions with Resort Computer Corporation of Lakewood, Colorado and Industrial Computer systems in Evergreen. Mr. Keithline holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Management Science from Metropolitan State College in Denver.
Executive officers are elected by, and serve at the discretion of, the Board of Directors. There are no family relationships between any of our directors or executive officers.