Controller

ARTHUR H. "ART" HUGHES, CPA

**** ********* ***** *****, ***** 75703-5718

Cell: 903-***-**** Email: *********@**********.*** Home: 903-***-****

Financial and Accounting Problem SOLVER

A high-energy extroverted CPA. Very POSITIVE attitude with a can-do spirit. May wear buttoned-down shirts but eschews a buttoned-down mind. An out-of-the-box thinker unafraid to take calculated risks.

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DAVIS HOLDINGS, LP & DAVIS SOUTHERN OPERATING COMPANY 2008-2009 Houston, Texas

Controller: Led upstream accounting effort for an oil and gas exploration company focused on wildcat drilling in Texas. Reviewed several O&G accounting packages, bought one, and took the outsourced accounting effort in-house. Implemented WolfePak and cut two unproductive staff members. Closed accounts at an unresponsive bank and laid groundwork for transition to cash sweeping, positive pay, and ACH. Reported to VP.

VERNON E. FAULCONER, INC. 2001-2008 Tyler, Texas

Controller: Managed upstream oil and gas accounting effort for an oil and gas production company operating over

700 wells in nine US states and Australia.

• Responsibilities included supervision of Revenue Accounting, DOI maintenance, Joint Interest Billing, Accounts

Receivable, Accounts Payable, Severance and Ad Valorem tax processing, AS-400 System Maintenance, Records

Retention, Payroll, and annual yard inventories. Prepared monthly Financial Statements for 17 tax partnerships

and 11 Subchapter S pass-through entities. Directed the work efforts of 14 professional accountants. Presented

Financial Results of Operations to the Company President and management team each month. Developed key

subordinates as part of a Controllership succession plan. Reported to CFO.

Specific accomplishments include:

- Moved entire office of an acquisition from Houston to Tyler. Supervised its systems and data integration.

- Intervened in numerous disputes with vendors, resolving problems they had with our engineers. Saved VEF

several tens of thousands in expenses, restored good vendor relations.

- Led implementation of Positive Pay systems for Operating and Royalty Payment bank accounts.

- Managed conversion of monthly task of generating co-owner billings, revenue statements, and

owner checks from old impact printer and continuous feed preprinted-forms, to much faster secure

laser-printed forms eligible for bulk mail discounts. Saved many man-hours and over $700 monthly in postage.

- Personally collected over $1,000,000 in overdue JIB’s from co-owners - especially challenging, as most of it

was on wells already on the plugging list.

- Oversaw implementation of RVI optical scanning tool to expedite routing of invoices for engineer approval.

- Managed implementation of fully automated, DAILY remote online backup of AS400 data. Successfully

completed full system restore and test of data entry & processing at Avatar site in McKinney, TX.

- Developed Excel-based standard deviation variance report for production volume analysis by engineers.

- Put revenue / royalty payments and trade A/P on ACH. Converted all employee payroll / expense to ACH.

- Convinced top management to implement CDEX program for non-Operated wells.

- Cross-trained direct reports on my key functions as part of Controllership succession planning.

- Outsourced payroll processing to Paycom, saving 14 staff-weeks annually.

- Converted Tyler office long distance from unregulated AT&T rates to discount plan, saving $5,300 per

month. Also rationalized Company’s ad hoc cell phone plans, cutting cost in half.

- Upgraded staff with every vacancy to deal with increasing scope and complexity of the business.

- Renegotiated contract with Ryan and Co (Tax consultants) to avoid huge contingency fees being awarded

merely for dismissal of spurious Texas Sales and Use Tax audit claims.

- Vetted vendor and implemented company Visa card program for engineers, pilots, and field hands,

incorporating approved vendor matrix, individual spending limits, & custom reporting by level.

- Converted entire department from Lotus to Microsoft Office suite. Put all PC’s on UPS’s.

Art Hughes - Page Two

ENERGY SOFTWARE SYSTEMS AND CONSULTING ROLES:

Akili Systems Group: Telecom/Utilities Sr. Business Analyst 2000-2001 Dallas, Texas

Oracle Energy Company: Principal Consultant 1998-1999 Houston, Texas

Allegro Development Corp: E&P Product Mgr 1997-1998 Dallas, Texas

Art Hughes, CPA: Oil and Gas Revenue Auditor 1996-1997 Dallas, Texas

For two years ran CPA practice as an independent Oil and Gas Revenue Auditor and Revenue Issues Consultant. Clients included ARCO Permian Company, Great Western Drilling Company, Andersen Consulting, Union Pacific Resources Company, and Vastar Resources, Inc. Core specialty was review of gas plant operations.

ATLANTIC RICHFIELD COMPANY (ARCO) 1975-1996 Dallas, Texas

Revenue Systems Supervisor / Gas Volumes Supervisor:

• Led 5-8 professional accountants working as client representatives in redeveloping revenue systems.

Supervised redesign and implementation of entire Gas Lease Reference File system, paving the way for a 15% head count cut. Beat cost budget, met time deadline. User specs, testing, documentation, and training.

• Ensured proper internal controls were added to new Production Allocation and Reporting System,

cutting out-of-period volume corrections in half. Worked with Dr. Mortada International to implement.

• Directed crash interdepartmental development effort creating system to identify / track gas underpayments to Company. Pinpointed over $65 million owed to ARCO. Worked with CAP/Gemini.

• Delivered interface between Company's production allocation and revenue systems, streamlining accounting.

• Served on Revenue Design and Integration project team, modeling essential Marketing, Land, Production, and Accounting business requirements. Strongly advocated client/server solution in a Big Blue systems organization. Ultimately worked with Arthur Andersen to help install $85 million, 5-year DB2 application.

• Supervised efforts of 11 clerical personnel processing 21,000 gas charts from around USA monthly. Met all recurring deadlines while eliminating overtime. Two long-term disciplinary problems resolved.

• Reorganized unit workloads and processes, reduced head count by one.

Major Projects Leader / Audit Coordinator

• Conceived / sold to General Electric vision of an industry-wide Gas Revenue Accounting Data Exchange (GRADE) system. Organized three GRADE Forums attended by 49 major Energy firms. Drafted four GRADE record layouts. Had prototype running in 6 months.

• Proposed / negotiated architecture with Northern Natural Gas to establish PC-to-PC data link between our two mainframes, thus alleviating security concerns. As pilot project for GRADE, this system recorded over $3,000,000 in gas revenue per month.

• Provided user requirements / directed development and installation of our first in-house EDI send & receive software, enabling Company to begin recording sales to El Paso Natural Gas w/o human intervention.

• Expanded Energy firm participation in the Crude Oil Data Exchange from 14 to 25, and secured agreement by Chevron to join the Check Stub Data Exchange (CDEX).

EDUCATION: - BS double major: Accounting and Finance, awarded w/High Honors, Florida State University.

- Other Honors: Elected to Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Eta Sigma, and Beta Gamma Sigma.

- Certified Public Accountant - Texas License #044063. Texas Practice Unit #T03490-001 (inactive)

- Grad courses in mainframe computer science, COBOL, FORTRAN, and PL/1 completed at UTD.

- Tom DeMarco's Structured Analysis class completed at ARCO. PL/SQL course at Oracle.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS:

• "Making the GRADE - A Survival Tool for Energy Companies in the 80's", COPAS Accounts, June 1986.

• "Electronic Data Exchange in the Petroleum Accounting Environment", COPAS Accounts, September 1986.

• Founder and Chairman, Petrodex GRADE Steering Committee, 1986.

• Member, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants since 1986.

- References available upon request -

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