REG - GETECH Group plc - Board Changes & Leadership Transition

GetechAnnouncement

23/01/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 3619U  GETECH Group plc  23 January 2025

This announcement contains inside information as stipulated under the UK
version of the Market Abuse Regulation No 596/2014 which is part of English
Law by virtue of the European (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended. On
publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this
information is considered to be in the public domain.

 

Getech Group PLC

("Getech" or the "Company")

Board Changes & Leadership Transition

 

Getech, a world-leading locator of subsurface resources, announces that
Richard Bennett has decided to step down as Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"),
effective 22 January 2025. Richard joined the Company as Non-Executive
Chairman in January 2021, was appointed Interim Executive Chairman in February
2023 and then appointed CEO in February 2024. He led the Company's evolution
to becoming a leading locator of natural resources for the Energy Transition
and has now chosen to hand-over the CEO role and focus on his business
interests in renewable energy.

 

Chris Jepps, the Chief Operating Officer of Getech since February 2018, has
been appointed Interim CEO for an initial term of six months and will be
supported by Max Brouwers, Chief Business Development Officer, who it is
proposed will be appointed to the Board as an executive director. The proposed
appointment of Mr Brouwers to the board of Getech remains subject to approval
from the Company's nominated adviser and completion of the customary due
diligence to satisfy itself as to board composition and the suitability of the
proposed director for the purpose of the AIM Rules for Nominated Advisers, and
a further announcement will be made in due course.

 

Michael Covington, Chair of Getech, said:

"On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Richard for his visionary
leadership and dedication. Richard has played important roles during his
tenures in turn as Chair, Executive Chair and CEO. Under his leadership,
Getech has made considerable progress in the diversification of the business
beyond the Group's core oil and gas sector clients. Our portfolio of work
increasingly supports exploration for sub-surface resources essential for the
Energy Transition such as natural (or white) hydrogen, critical minerals and
geothermal energy. We wish him continued success in the future.

 

The Board and executive leadership remain committed to executing Getech's
strategic priorities. We will continue to deliver value-add for our customers
- many of whom have worked with us for over a decade. We are now seeing
renewed activity and interest in core markets such as oil & gas and
critical minerals as security of supply is increasingly in focus due to
heightened geopolitical uncertainty.

 

In parallel we offer new and innovative project workflows that produce
valuable and novel insight to emerging sectors.  For example, in the
geothermal industry our expertise and data can prove essential for locating
and modelling zones of sub-surface heat flow, while in the nascent natural
hydrogen sector our geophysical data allows us to easily fingerprint potential
hydrogen source rocks for further exploration."

 

Richard Bennett added:

"It has been a great privilege to lead Getech and work alongside such a
talented and dedicated team. I am proud of what we have accomplished together
particularly the headway we have made into new markets such as critical
minerals, geothermal and natural hydrogen. In Chris and Max the business has
two excellent operators who I am confident will lead the Company successfully
into the future."

 

For further information, please contact:

 

 Getech Group plc

 Chris Jepps, CEO                                   Tel:  0113 322 2200

 Cavendish Capital Markets Limited

 Neil McDonald / Pete Lynch (Corporate Finance)     Tel:  0207 397 8900

 Michael Johnson / Dale Bellis (Sales)

 Novella Communications                             Tel: 0203 151 7008
 Tim Robertson / Claire de Groot / Safia Colebrook
 getech@novella-comms.com

 

Notes to editors:

About Getech

Getech is a leading locator of the energy and mineral resources essential
for the world's energy transition. Getech's unique data encompassing the most
recent 400 million years of Earth's evolution, coupled with its geoscience
expertise, AI-driven analytics and extensive GIS capabilities, enables the
Company to provide valuable and actionable insights to support resource
discovery and development.

The Company's client portfolio is wide-ranging, from governments,
municipalities, natural resources and energy companies to consumer goods and
computing services companies, all striving to become energy and minerals
self-sufficient and drive towards net zero.

Founded in 1994 Getech is listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the
London Stock Exchange ("AIM"), with ticker symbol GTC.

About Chris Jepps

Chris has extensive energy industry, GIS and entrepreneurial experience. In
his time as Technical Director at Exprodat he established the company's
product strategy and led its software design and development programme.
Following Exprodat's acquisition by Getech Group plc in 2016, Chris joined as
Products Director, becoming Getech's COO in February 2018.

During his near 7 years as COO, Chris led the Company's product strategy with
the aim of growing software revenues from Getech's core and emerging markets.
Some of his key achievements in this time include enhancing its oil and gas
workflow products to meet the changing needs of the energy market, migrating
Globe from its legacy delivery model to a modern cloud-based architecture that
enabled the launch of a subscription model to support wider energy transition
adoption, and introducing cloud-based subscription models for its global
gravity and magnetic data holdings to better serve the needs of Getech's
mining customer-base.

Chris has a BSc in Geology from Imperial College, London, and is an alumnus of
Esri's global Partner Advisory Council.

About Max Brouwers

Max is a senior energy executive with more than 25 years' experience in oil
and gas and the energy transition. He started his career at Shell in 1996 and
his last role there was Vice President Exploration for Europe, Russia and
Caspian.

During his near 26 years with Shell he directed exploration & energy
transition activities in more than 17 countries and delivered multi billion
commercial deals. He also spearheaded the open-source industry standard cloud
platform OSDU and a digital innovation start-up. He has a track record of
forging partnerships with governments, national oil companies, boards and
across directorates. He is the Chair of the AAPG Energy Transition Forum,
member of the UK Subsurface Taskforce and has an MBA and an MSc in Geology.

Max joined Getech in October 2021 as Chief Business Development Officer, and
has focused on natural hydrogen, critical minerals and geothermal as well as
bringing considerable experience and networks in oil & gas.

 

For further information, please visit www.getech.com (http://www.getech.com/)
.

 

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