Age: 36
Allan Carswell looks more rock star than rock scholar. Sporting hip Diesel jeans, a trendy western shirt, a
cool silver chain and a healthy mop of curly hair, this vice-president of exploration for Palliser Oil & Gas Corp. looks like he doesn’t quite belong in a corporate boardroom. But Carswell – a geologist by trade – is indeed in the right place. In fact, he kind of owns the place.
He joined Palliser in April 2006 as the company’s second employee and a board director, building the startup junior oil and gas firm from the ground up. “I am probably the most casually dressed one here,” laughs the born-and-raised Calgarian. “Sometimes I wear a suit, but a lot of times you’ll find me in shorts and flip flops.” Whatever the personal dress code, it’s working.
When he started at Palliser, the company had no production or assets and shares cost 50 cents. Today shares are worth $1.35 with production of 150 barrels per day and the ultimate goal to grow production from 5,000 to 10,000 barrels per day. “The business we’re in is really about generating ideas and seeing something that nobody else sees,” Carswell says. “And some of the best ideas I’ve had are when I’m not even in the office.”
For Carswell, outside of the office usually means on a field tossing around a disc as the captain of a competitive Ultimate Frisbee team. Carswell excels at the sport and has brought home medals from Canadian Nationals, U.S. Nationals and World Championships. And between playing Ultimate and finding oil and gas in the rocks of the earth, Carswell is forced to keep rock star-esque hours. “I don’t like to get up early, so sometimes I’ll be at the office until 2 or 3 in the morning,” he says.
COMMUNITY WORK
Co-chair, the Canadian
Society of Petroleum
Geologists’ student
industry field trip
Fundraiser, Leukemia
and Lymphoma Society
Volunteer, Mexican
National Ultimate
Association