Dave Cliff
Exploration Manager

Mr Cliff is a Petroleum Geologist with 29 years of exploration experience in the upstream oil and gas industry. He has worked for Australian and international companies both large and small, from Woodside Petroleum to Bridge Oil. More recently he has held the position of Exploration Manager for Hardman Resources and Aminex PLC and in his last roll he was Managing Director of Gas Link Global Limited. David has been involved in many oil and gas discoveries as a team member and as a manager, which have lead to commercial developments in Australia and overseas. David also spent a year working as an oil and gas resource analyst for BBY in Sydney. He is a past President of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, a long time member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Ben Newton
Chief Financial Officer

Mr Newton is a CPA with over 15 years experience in the resources sector in Australia.  Before joining the oil industry in 1998 he held several accounting roles in the mining sector.  His oil and gas industry experience includes senior finance roles with Eni Australia and Amity Oil Ltd.  In 2003 Ben joined Oceaneering Australia (a subsidiary of the US oilfield services company) as Financial Controller where he was responsible for all of the financial and corporate affairs of the company in Australia.  From 2005 to mid 2010 Ben served as Managing Director for Oceaneering Australia.

Alan Sherrard
Business Development Manager

Mr Sherrard received an MSc in Petroleum Geophysics from Imperial College, London in 1984.  He was a founding shareholder in the company which evolved into Paradigm Geophysical and held various technical roles within that company.  In 1991 he joined WMC Petroleum in Perth as a geophysicist and worked on Timor Sea, Carnarvon Basin and Kupe Basin projects. He rejoined Paradigm Geophysical as Technical Services Manager for Southeast Asia in 1997, consulting on and supervising projects in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and India.  Alan was a co-founding director of the Oil Hunters geophysical consultancy in 2000.

Iain Smith
Commercial Manager

After working offshore as geologist and geophysicist on drilling rigs and seismic vessels respectively, Mr Smith completed an MSc in Petroleum Geology and Geophysics at Imperial College London. He subsequently joined the New Ventures team of Premier Oil in London, where he worked on the technical and commercial evaluation of E&P opportunities in the Far East, Latin America and Africa.  Iain went on to spend ten years in sales and general management roles within the geophysical technology sector (Landmark and Paradigm) in the UK, Australia and India, before joining Woodside Energy’s Exploration & New Ventures group in a commercial role in 2006.  After three years at Woodside, including a stint on the Browse LNG Project, Iain joined Neon in late 2008.

Greg Wagner
Resident Manager (USA)

Mr Wagner has over 30 years experience in the oil and gas industry. His most recent position was Director Business Development for the fourth largest oil production company in California. He brings to Neon a wealth of experience in growing and running a successful oil and gas business in California.