Ron Bain is the financial manager of Vaalco Energy, an oil and gas company in Houston with a strong presence in Africa and Canada. Valcoo was founded in 1985, and is listed on the New York and London Stock Exchange.
Global Finance: I have been the financial manager for nearly four years. How did Vaalco’s competitive position change during your term?
Ron Payne: It was an active period during which we delivered many transformational transactions that increased the range and the diversity of the asset wallet. We completed the merger of the brief value companies with Transglobe in 2022, which witnessed us to obtain operational assets in Egypt and Canada. Recently, we have gained interest in a production field in Côte d’Ivoire by acquiring Svenska AB.
“In addition, we continue to lead organic growth across the wallet through drilling campaigns, with the expansion of our silence by adding new licenses that provide long -term capabilities. All this leaves vaalco in a good position to unify its position as a leading and independent exploration and production company.”
GF: What makes this work and industry a special challenge for the financial manager?
Payne: It is a very exciting and periodic sector where there is a lot of making deals, a lot of investment, and the condition of spreading material capital via the wallet to achieve growth. The role of the financial manager is to ensure access to capital to support growth goals as well as work with the financing team and the executive director to mitigate risk: for example, by implementing hedge tools to protect the company from the commodity side.
GF: What absorbs most of your energy and time?
Payne: Most of my time is to ensure that a strong public budget is maintained a balance between organic and non -organic growth along with our commitment to the return of shareholders. Falco is listed in a double list in London and New York, so I also spend a lot of time dealing with our investors and the wider stakeholders, supervising our organizational obligations towards these lists, playing a great role in developing our strategy and our ESG agenda.
GF: What makes a great financing team?
Payne: It is important to have a good connection within the team, so everyone knows the goals and roles in achieving these goals. I am lucky because I have a great financing team in all our regions. I also have a close business relationship with our CEO, George Maxwell, after I worked with him in our former company, Eland Oil & GAS, which has achieved a good exit for all stakeholders a few years ago.
GF: What is the role of artificial intelligence in the financing function? How do you see it developing in Falco?
Payne: Artificial intelligence is already used in funding in Falco. We use programs that are powered by artificial intelligence to deal with data entry as well as processing the invoice while identifying visual letters that extract processing data from receipts and documents with minimal human intervention. We implemented an international ERP system in 2024 and collect huge amounts of data groups through it. With the Internet of Things and the ability to integrate meter readings and monitor standards, we see automated learning models read and learn from these large data collections to improve decisions.
GF: What keeps you awake at night?
Payne: Economic uncertainty and markets, along with an increasing administrative burden through a greater government organization. My responsibility is, first, make sure the company performs for all our stakeholders. We have a lot of employees, so we must prove that we are good citizens of companies and supervise a safe work environment.
We see ourselves as partners of the host governments in the countries in which we work, so we bear the responsibility of the people of those countries for a positive impact through our activities. As an operator of materials producing materials, we must always show operating excellence and environmental supervision.
