Denver Executive

With several senior leadership roles behind him, Paul J. Zecchi founded Central Resources, Inc. in 1988.   He is the majority shareholder and presides over executive and corporate direction.  He is responsible for a number of highly successful acquisitions and divestitures, and led and implemented the Company’s international diversification investment plan in 1997. 

Prior to founding Central, Mr. Zecchi started Midland Resources in 1983 and sold the firm in 1988.   He held several executive, management and engineering positions with Schlumberger (Johnston Division) and Tenneco, Inc. (Tennessee Gas Division), among others.  He is the former president of the Western Energy Alliance and is a member, or former member in many other industry organizations.  He currently serves, and has previously served, on the Boards of Directors of several corporate and non-profit firms.  Mr. Zecchi is involved with a variety of philanthropic and cultural pursuits including his foundation, The Petunia Fund, which supports education projects in third world countries.  In 2014, Mr. Zecchi was inducted into the Western Energy Rocky Mountain Oil & Gas Hall of Fame.

Mr. Zecchi graduated from Marietta College in Ohio with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering in 1970; and from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York with an M.S. in Management Science in 1979.  In February 2012 Mr. Zecchi was awarded an Honorary Juris Doctorate from Marietta College.

Paul Gagnon joined Central Resources in 2011 as a Senior Vice President with 31 years of executive, geologic, engineering, and management experience in conventional and unconventional oil and  gas resource exploration and exploitation throughout the western United States and Canada.  Prior to joining Central, Mr. Gagnon was President of Lario Oil and Gas Company (Calgary).  He also held management and executive positions with Western Gas Resources, Inc. (Denver and Calgary), Calver Resources, Inc. (Calgary) and the Gas Research Institute (Denver). Mr. Gagnon is a founding director of the Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas (CSUG).   He holds a B.A. in Earth Sciences - Geology from the University of Northern Colorado in 1980 and participates in executive education programs at Harvard Business and Harvard Law Schools.  He has served as Director of Technology Transfer for the Gas Research Institute/Gas Technology Institute and also as a director of the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States (IPAMS).