April 29, 2009
Charles Ruigrok recently retired from Syncrude Canada Ltd., where he served as Chief Executive Officer since 2003.
Prior to his term at Syncrude, Mr. Ruigrok served as Vice-President of Oil Sands Development and Research at Imperial Oil Resources, where he was responsible for the development of Imperial’s extensive oil sands asset portfolio, including Imperial’s Cold Lake operation and their 25% interest in Syncrude. Mr. Ruigrok started his 26-year career with Imperial Oil as a project engineer in their Sarnia, Ontario petrochemical complex. He subsequently held operating assignments in Imperial’s PVC and aromatics manufacturing operations, and business and planning assignments in both Toronto, Ontario, and with Exxon Chemical Americas in Houston, Texas. In 1991, Mr. Ruigrok was appointed manager of Imperial’s Energy Chemicals business in Calgary, Alberta, and in 1995 he was appointed as Manager of Business Plans and Analysis for Imperial Oil Limited in Toronto. He also managed Imperial’s natural gas marketing business (1996 to 1998) and ExxonMobil’s East Texas oil and gas production operations (1998 to 2000).
Mr. Ruigrok holds both Bachelor of Engineering Science (1978) and Master of Engineering (1984) degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Western Ontario. He is a member of Professional Engineers Ontario. He is a past director of Syncrude Canada Ltd., Rainbow Pipeline Company, Progas Limited, the Alberta Chamber of Resources, and Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada, and a former member of the Board of Governors of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.