Ikon Science, the fast-growing provider of innovative technology and services for the oil and gas industry, has appointed two new directors to its board: Nick Pillar as Operations Director and Andrew Paxton as Finance Director.

Nick Pillar takes up a new position as Operations Director responsible for the integrated operations of the RokDoc® software development and Quantitative Interpretation groups.

Nick joined Ikon Science in May 2005 as Chief Geophysicist and has overseen and guided the development of the Quantitative Interpretation team over the past 3 years to become a major force in “rock physics to reservoir models”. He has led a team with many success stories under its belt, including the subsurface interpretation leading to the discovery and development of the Oilexco Brenda field and the discovery of the Huntingdon and Shelley Fields, currently under active development.

Nick started his career in the oil industry with Geophysical Services International (GSI) moving from acquisition through seismic data processing as a Party Chief to Managing GSI’s seismic interpretation systems. In 1990 he joined Enterprise Oil and was appointed Chief Geophysicist in 2000. After the Shell takeover of Enterprise in 2002 he took on a senior technical advisory role at Petronas Carigali in KL for two years. In 2005 he joined Ikon Science as Chief Geophysicist.

Andrew Paxton joins Ikon’s board as Finance Director. Andrew has a degree in Business Administration and is a Chartered Accountant. He qualified with Ernst & Young and started his career in the oil industry with Clyde Petroleum where he held a number of senior financial roles. After a period in the energy group at Chemical Bank, he joined the private-equity funded Intrepid Energy as Finance Director, from start-up in 1996 through the building of the company including the UK Buzzard Field discovery, culminating in the successful sales process in 2004/5. Since leaving Intrepid, he has run his own consultancy company and has been working with Ikon Science over the last few months.

Commenting on the appointments, Martyn Millwood Hargrave, Managing Director of Ikon Science, said: ‘The appointments of Nick and Andrew to Operations Director and Finance Director will greatly strengthen the executive presence on the Ikon board and enable further growth in value and capability for our customers and shareholders’.