Canada: Sonde Resources Corp. Announces Appointment of CEO and COO

Sonde Resources Corp. is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Jack W. Schanck as its President and Chief Executive Officer and Mr. William Dirks as its Chief Operating Officer.

Jack W. Schanck

Mr. Schanck is a well known and respected industry leader with over 35 years of experience in the US, Canadian and international oil and natural gas industries, as a geologist and manager. During the first 23 years of his career, Mr. Schanck was with Unocal and held positions of Vice President Worldwide Exploration; Group Vice President International Exploration and Production, a business with a capital budget of nearly $1 billion; and, for three years, was President of Unocal Canada.

Post-Unocal, Mr. Schanck was President and Chief Executive Officer of both private and publicly held exploration and production companies including Samson Investment Company (“Samson”) for five and a half years from 1999 to 2005. Under his purview, Samson was based in the US with offices in Canada, Venezuela and Russia. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Schanck was the Managing Partner of Tecton Energy (“Tecton”), following the merger of SouthView Energy and Tecton.

Prior to joining Tecton, Mr. Schanck was Chief Executive Officer of SouthView Energy, an independent oil and natural gas investment vehicle funded by Jefferies Capital Partners and Quantum Energy Partners. Mr. Schanck takes pride in building high-performing teams. Mr. Schanck will bring to Sonde an exemplary performance record and a reputation of achievement and success in Canada, the United States and internationally.

Mr. Schanck is a Director of Penn West Energy Trust and, for the past eight years, has maintained a residence in Canmore, Alberta. Mr. Schanck has both Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Geology.

William Dirks

Mr. Dirks brings with him over 30 years of E&P leadership experience, with an expertise in the North American onshore basins of the US and Canada. His recent background includes roles as Managing Partner of Tecton Energy, LLC, a privately-owned E&P company he co-founded, as well as President of Samson Canada Ltd. and Vice President of Business Development for Samson Resources.

Mr. Dirks worked for the Royal Dutch / Shell Group of companies in a variety of roles, including President and Chief Executive Officer of Shell Technology Ventures Inc. (STV), Division Manager of Shell’s Onshore U.S. Exploration Division, District Manager of the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Division, and Manager and Budget Coordinator of Shell Oil Co. E&P Finance. He served as a Director of the Shell International E&P company.

Mr. Dirks has a long-term focus on unconventional resources and the US / Canadian Rocky Mountains, and led or participated in the development of unconventional resource plays at Tecton, Samson and Shell including tight gas sands and gas shales in Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, Alberta and British Columbia, the oil shales of Colorado and Utah, Antrim gas shales in Michigan, and coalbed methane in Wyoming and Alberta.

He has substantial fundraising and startup experience, including Shell Technology Ventures, Enventure LLC and Tecton. Mr. Dirks received a BS degree in Geology (1979) and an MS in Civil Engineering (1981) from Iowa State University. Marvin Chronister, Chairman of the Board made this statement today “We look forward to Mr. Schanck and Mr. Dirks assuming direct responsibility for Sonde and unlocking the value in our assets, both domestically and internationally”.

The assumption by Mr. Schanck of his duties as President and CEO and Mr. Dirks of his duties as COO are subject to obtaining requisite Canadian work permits.

Sonde Resources Corp. is a Calgary, Alberta, Canada based diversified global energy company engaged in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas and in the development of a liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) project. Its operations are located in Western Canada, offshore Trinidad and Tobago, North Africa, and offshore Eastern United States.

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Source: Sonde Resources, October 21, 2010