Esa Ikaheimonen has been appointed chief financial officer and senior vice-president of Bermuda-based energy exploration company Seadrill Management AS.

He currently serves as executive vice-president and CFO of Poyry PLC, a global consulting and engineering company with head office in Finland. Prior to joining Poyry in early 2009, Mr Ikaheimonen served with Royal Dutch Shell for almost 20 years. At Shell, he held several senior positions as Regional Vice President Finance for Upstream in both Africa and the Middle- East, Finance and Commercial Director in Qatar and Downstream Finance Director for Scandinavia. He also has an extensive M&A experience through acting as a Portfolio Manager for Oil Products Europe. Mr Ikaheimonen holds a Master degree in Law from the University of Turku in Finland. Alf C Thorkildsen, Chief Executive Officer in Seadrill Management AS says, "We are very pleased to have Esa Ikaheimonen joining our team. His extensive international oil and gas industry experience as well as his broad financial skills will strengthen our ability to grow the Company further". Esa Ikaheimonen will join the Company during second half of 2010. He is a Finnish citizen, 45 years of age, married with three children. In connection with his appointment, Mr Ikaheimonen has been awarded 150,000 options with five years maturity to acquire shares in Seadrill at strike price of NOK137.4 per share. The options vest equally over a three year period.