Plexus Gets New Board Member

Plexus Holdings PLC, owner of the proprietary POS-GRIP® friction-grip method of wellhead engineering has appointed Charles Edward Jones to the Board of Plexus as a Non-Executive Director with immediate effect.

Jones’ role will include advising the Board in respect of interacting with US oil and gas operators and service companies, industry bodies, and regulators as Plexus seeks to roll-out its best in class wellhead equipment into new geographies and expand its POS-GRIP based applications in the exploration, production and ultimately subsea markets worldwide.

Jones has over 30 years of senior management and Board experience having established and grown a number of highly successful engineered-product companies in the energy sector. In 2007, Jones became CEO of Houston-based Forum Oilfield Technology (FOT), a global oilfield products company and led its growth up to a successful merger with three other companies in 2010 to create Forum Energy Technologies, a global company with Drilling, Production and Subsea products. The enlarged business completed an IPO in 2012 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: FET) with revenues of more than US$1.5 billion. Jones remained as President – Drilling, Downhole, and Subsea of FET until August 2013.

Prior to FET, Jones was COO of Hydril Company LP, a privately owned US based drilling and downhole products company, and in 2000 led an IPO of the company to raise capital for investment in the engineering and manufacture of products associated with North American natural gas and ultra-deepwater drilling. Hydril invested over US$250 million in product development and capacity expansion, growing revenues from c.US$90 million to over US$500 million, and was subsequently sold to Tenaris in a transaction valued at US$2.1 billion. After the sale of Hydril, he acted as a consultant to the CEO of Tenaris and advised on the sale of the Pressure Control division which was eventually sold to General Electric for US$1.4 billion.

Before joining Hydril, Jones served as Director of Subsea Businesses for Cooper Cameron Corporation where he developed the global subsea production business.

Jones is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Programme and holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Houston. In 2013 he was appointed Chairman of the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association in the USA.

Plexus’ CEO, Ben Van Bilderbeek, said: “Charles’ extensive experience and proven track record in the US and Gulf of Mexico oil and gas equipment and services sector will be invaluable to Plexus, as we continue to build and develop a leading global wellhead company strategy to deliver best in class solutions for the exploration, production, subsea and HP/HT sectors to world-class oil and gas operators. As a British company we have enjoyed much success in the jack-up exploration HP/HT arena in the North Sea so that Plexus is now viewed as the go-to supplier. In recent years we have moved from strength to strength delivering our ‘friction-grip’ POS-GRIP wellhead solutions worldwide, predominantly in Africa, Asia and Oceana. We are in the process of rolling out our global growth strategy, which has already seen us establish an Asian hub with bases in Singapore and Malaysia and it is our long-term objective to expand this further across the Americas. In this vein, we believe Charles will provide key strategic direction to the Board in respect of interacting with US oil and gas operators and service companies, industry bodies, and regulators as we work towards identifying ways of offering POS-GRIP to the American markets.”

Press Release, September 18, 2014