Woodside Energy has announced that COO International Daniel Kalms intends to leave the company after a 25-year tenure marked by significant global expansion.
Since joining Woodside in 2001, Kalms held multiple senior leadership roles and played a central part in several of the Australian energy titan’s defining project milestones.
His track record includes overseeing the start-up of the Pluto Foundation Project in 2012 and guiding the Scarborough Energy Project toward a final investment decision between 2018 and 2020.
Kalms was also instrumental in managing integration activities during Woodside’s milestone merger with BHP Petroleum in 2022.
Following that merger, Kalms relocated to Houston, Texas, taking on the role of EVP Technical Services before stepping into his current position as EVP and COO International in 2024.
Most recently, he helped steer Woodside’s acquisition of Tellurian Inc., facilitating the development of the Louisiana LNG Project to supply US natural gas to global markets.
Woodside CEO Liz Westcott praised Kalms’s long-standing service and technical contributions.
“Daniel Kalms has had a career of distinction at Woodside and has been central to building Woodside from a primarily Australia-based company to one that now has operations across three continents and which is building a globally significant position in liquefied natural gas and other energy products,” Westcott said.
“Daniel’s technical expertise, commercial capability and strong leadership have been fundamental to Woodside’s business success and corporate culture.”
Paa-Joe Akoto-Ampaw, currently Woodside’s Vice President Gulf of America, has been appointed Acting EVP and COO International while a recruitment process for a permanent successor is underway.
Akoto-Ampaw will join the executive leadership team during this transition as Woodside advances key overseas projects, including Louisiana LNG and the Trion deepwater oil development in Mexico.
