Genie Energy, an independent retail energy provider and a developer of unconventional energy projects, appointed Chairman Howard Jonas to assume the additional role of CEO effective January 1, 2014.
Jonas has served as Genie’s chairman since it was spun off from IDT Corporation in 2011. Claude Pupkin, Genie’s current CEO, will remain at Genie and continue to serve as president of Genie’s American Shale Oil subsidiary and senior vice president of Business Development. Geoff Rochwarger will remain as Genie’s vice chairman and CEO of its IDT Energy subsidiary.
“Claude Pupkin deserves tremendous credit for structuring and developing Genie Oil and Gas (GOGAS), preparing and managing Genie Energy through the spin-off from IDT, and for vigorously driving Genie’s overall strategic development,” Howard Jonas said. “He has done an outstanding job.”
“I am very pleased with the progress we have made since becoming a public company just over two years ago,” Pupkin said. “IDT Energy has become one of the largest independent retail suppliers to residential customers in the Northeast, and Genie Oil and Gas has identified and is pursuing oil and gas exploration and development projects on three continents which hold tremendous promise. I look forward to continuing to contribute to the growth of Genie under Howard’s active leadership.”