Colombia’s Ecopetrol names new president

Colombian oil and gas company Ecopetrol has named Felipe Bayón Pardo as the company’s new president during a meeting held on August 16.

Ecopetrol said that Bayon, an executive VP, took the president role from Juan Carlos Echeverry Garzón who resigned from the position due to family reasons.

The company added that the transition in the presidency would be made on September 15, 2017.

The appointment of Bayon was based on the process completed by a subcommittee of the board of directors, advised by an international firm specialized in the selection of high-level executives.

The new president of Ecopetrol is a mechanical engineer from the University of Los Andes with more than 25 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, both in Colombia and abroad.

For more than 20 years he worked at BP, where he held senior positions such as senior VP of BP Americas and director of the Deepwater International Response Group. Since February 2016, he led Ecopetrol’s operations as an executive VP.

Also, the board of directors made a special recognition to Echeverry for achievements during its management of Ecopetrol.

According to Ecopetrol, Echeverry laid the foundations for the company’s growth in the long term. Among his achievements is the discovery of a new hydrocarbon province in the Colombian Caribbean and a new strategy in key areas such as finance, projects, supply, human talent, and environment, among others.