Paragon Offshore elects new boss

Offshore drilling contractor Paragon Offshore has appointed James “Jay” Swent III, Paragon’s current chairman to the position of president and chief executive officer (CEO).

Paragon recently completed its corporate and financial reorganization and emerged from Chapter 11. The new company emerged with approximately $165 million of available cash on its balance sheet, and $85 million of new debt.

The driller said on Thursday that the appointment came following a comprehensive executive search process conducted by Korn Ferry.

Swent’s long career includes more than a decade of experience in the offshore drilling industry including his most recent role as executive vice president at Ensco and is currently a director of Energy XXI Gulf Coast. He will continue to serve as a member of the board of directors. However, Paragon will maintain separation between the roles of CEO and chairman.

As a result, and effective immediately, current board member George Sandison will become chairman of the board.

Sandison said: “Swent’s selection is the result of an extensive search process centered on executives with experience in offshore drilling. His understanding of the global nature of our operations and our customers, combined with his business acumen developed through his years in a variety of other industries, will serve Paragon well in positioning the company for future success.”

Swent added: “Now that the company has successfully emerged from bankruptcy, we are uniquely positioned to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient operations to ensure our customers can sustain a competitive cost structure in this lower-for-longer oil price environment. We have much to do, but I have great confidence in the team, and I believe there’s a bright future for Paragon.”

He will take over the role from Dean Taylor, who has served as Paragon’s interim president and CEO since November 2016.

“It’s been an honor and a privilege to have held this post,” said Taylor. “I’m proud to have been associated with Paragon and wish Jay and the company the best as he takes the reins.”

Senior management changes

After more than 40 years in the drilling industry, William “Charlie” Yester, Paragon’s senior VP of operations, has elected to retire as of September 1, 2017.

During Yester’s career with Paragon and its parent company, Noble Corporation, the company made the transition from a land-based contract drilling company to an international provider of jack-up and floating drilling rigs.

Yester served Noble as VP in Qatar for 15 years and as a VP for Africa Geneva before coming to Paragon in August of 2014. He also had the distinct honor of having a jack-up rig named after him, the Noble Charlie Yester, now the Paragon M1161, currently operating in India.

Taylor said: “Under Charlie’s outstanding leadership, our safety performance as measured by TRIR dropped to a historic low of 0.15, and our operational downtime was less than one percent. We’re all extremely grateful for his hard work, his many years of service, and his dedication, and we will all miss him.”

In addition to naming Swent as the president and CEO, Paragon also named Anirudha Pangarkar as a senior VP and COO. In this newly created role, Pangarkar will be responsible for worldwide operations, engineering, supply chain, maintenance, and health, safety, and the environment.

Another new appointment was the naming of Lee M. Ahlstrom as a senior VP and CFO. He served in that role on an interim basis since November 2016.

Paragon also decided that Andrew W. Tietz, Todd D. Strickler, and Julie Ferro would continue their roles as SVP of marketing and contracts, SVP of administration, general counsel and corporate secretary and VP of human capital services, respectively.