Ray Leonard is the current CEO and President of Hyperdynamics, a company exploring for deep-water oil and gas in West Africa, a position he has held since July 2009. During his tenure as CEO of Hyperdynamics he has built an organization that raised over $200 MM, drilled and operated the first deep-water well offshore Guinea and is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Leonard worked with Amoco for nine-teen years, with initial assignments in Trinidad, Norway, and West Africa. In 1989, he was appointed director of New Ventures for the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China; and in 1994, Vice President for Resource Acquisitions, Amoco Eurasia; He left Amoco in 1998 and has held the following positions: exploration vice president for First International Oil Company (FIOC) in Almaty, Kazakstan; vice president-Exploration and New Ventures in Moscow for YUKOS; senior vice president for International Exploration and Production for MOL, the Hungarian National Oil and Gas Company; and vice president, Eurasia and Exploration for Kuwait Energy Company, the first Arab private oil company. He has been active in the debate regarding world oil reserves for many years, presenting and publishing at forums such as Council on Foreign Affairs (1994 and 2014), Center for Strategic Studies (2001), International Energy Agency (2003), the AAPG Hedberg Conference (2006), the Aspen Forum (2008), and the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies (2011). Leonard was born in New York. He received a bachelor of science in Geology from the University of Arizona and a master of arts in Geology from The University of Texas at Austin.