Comet Ridge Ltd. has appointed Peter Harding-Smith as its new CFO who will succeed Don Langdon, the company said in a statement on May 8.

Comet Ridge’s managing director Tor McCaul said he was delighted to have Peter join the executive team. He said with the decision of the current CFO, Don Langdon to retire from Comet Ridge and substantially reduce his current work commitments, the company had decided to take the opportunity to replace Langdon with a fulltime CFO to manage the significant increase in activity at Comet Ridge.

“Peter brings a significant amount of sector-specific finance and leadership experience to Comet Ridge. These skills will be fully utilized as Comet pursues its east coast gas strategy to deliver its significant undeveloped gas volume to the gas short, east coast market,” McCaul said.

Harding-Smith is an experienced public company CFO with more than 25 years’ experience across a wide range of industries and businesses, with recent experience in the oil and gas industry through his position at Armour Energy, as well as being the CFO and company secretary for Orbis Gold Ltd., which was acquired in 2015 by Canadian Gold producer SEMAFO Inc.

He has a wide range of experience including mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity funding, investor relations, corporate governance and financial management. He is a chartered accountant and a fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia.

Peter’s appointment is part of the company’s succession planning following the retirement of Don Langdon as Comet’s CFO. Langdon will remain part-time with Comet Ridge in the short term to ensure a seamless transition of the role to Peter.