Diamondback Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FANG) promoted Kaes Van’t Hof to a new position of CFO in a series of leadership appointments made on Feb. 28 by the Permian Basin powerhouse to tame its operations after a year of blockbuster deals significantly grew its asset base last year.

Van’t Hof joined Diamondback in July 2016 and was promoted early the following year to serve as the Midland, Texas-based company’s senior vice president of strategy and corporate development. As a result of his recent promotion, Tracy Dick, formerly CFO of Diamondback, will take on the role of chief accounting officer and executive vice president for the company.

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Additionally, Diamondback founders Paul Molnar and Randall Holder will be retiring at the end of the first quarter. Both Molnar, currently executive vice president of exploration and business development, and Holder, executive vice president, general counsel and secretary, have worked at Diamondback prior to the company’s IPO in 2012.

“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Paul and Randy for their significant contributions to Diamondback over the past seven-plus years,” Diamondback CEO Travis Stice said in a statement. “Both gentlemen are founders of the company and have been instrumental to the success and growth of Diamondback from a small cap producer of less than 3,000 barrels per day at the time of our IPO in 2012 to the large-cap Permian producer we are today.  Their daily contributions to Diamondback will be missed.”

Following their retirement, Matt Zmigrosky will assume Holder’s role as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary. He joins Diamondback after working for over 15 years in the private practice of law, most recently as a partner at Akin Grump Strauss Hauer & Feld LP.

In addition to his promotion to CFO, Van’t Hof will also assume the role of executive vice president of business development from Molnar.

In its leadership shuffle on Feb. 28, Diamondback also announced three executive vice president promotions and the promotion of five current vice presidents to senior vice president as well as the addition of two vice presidents and the promotion of one director to vice president.

“As we grow in size and scale, these ‘next level leaders’ are pivotal to the continued success of the Company to execute on our core philosophy of best in class execution, low-cost operations and transparency,” Strice continued.

Diamondback bolstered its position in the prolific Permian Basin last year with the purchase of both Energen Corp. and Ajax Resources LLC for a combined $10 billion. The company also grabbed an additional 3,600 acres from ExL Petroleum LP and EnergyQuest LLC in October to further shore up its position in the northern Midland Basin.

Promoted executive vice presidents:

  • Russell Pantermuehl, currently executive vice president of reservoir engineering, will assume the role of executive vice president and chief engineer;
  • Jennifer Soliman, currently senior vice president and chief human resources officer, has been promoted to executive vice president and chief human resources officer; and
  • Thomas Hawkins, currently senior vice president of land, has been promoted to executive vice president of land.

Promoted senior vice presidents:

  • Daniel Wesson has been promoted to senior vice president of operations from vice president of operations;
  • David Cannon has been promoted to senior vice president of geoscience and technology from vice president of geoscience;
  • Joe Niederhofer, who recently joined Diamondback from Energen where he was vice president of Permian Basin operations, has been promoted to senior vice president of midstream operations from vice president of midstream operations;
  • Kara Blubaugh-Few has been promoted to senior vice president of accounting and controller from vice president of accounting and controller; and
  • Marc Dingler has been promoted to senior vice president of government affairs and deputy general counsel from vice president of legal and deputy general counsel.

New vice presidents:

  • Adam Lawlis has been promoted to vice president of investor relations from director of investor relations;
  • Al Barkmann recently joined Diamondback as the vice president of reservoir engineering from Energen, where he was the reservoir engineering manager; and
  • Yong Cho was promoted to vice president of drilling in August 2018 after joining Diamondback as drilling manager of the Delaware Basin in 2017.

Diamondback’s leadership changes and promotions are effective March 1. Dick will also remain CFO of the company’s royalty business, Viper Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ: VNOM), while Van’t Hof will remain in his current role as Viper’s president.

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