Ben Dell is the Founder and a Managing Partner of Kimmeridge, the chairman of the Investment Committee and is responsible for managing portfolio investments.  Prior to assuming his role with Kimmeridge, Mr. Dell served as the Senior Equity Research Analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein, a subsidiary of AllianceBernstein, covering the Oil and Gas E&P sector, where he ranked first in the Institutional Investor Survey for E&Ps three times (2008, 2009 and 2010), third for Natural Gas (2009) and fourth for Oil Services and Equipment (2009).  In his capacity as Senior Analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein over seven years, Mr. Dell covered 16 of the largest US and Canadian E&Ps.  Before joining Sanford C. Bernstein, Mr. Dell was employed at British Petroleum (“BP”) in its M&A and finance group, where he was the lead analyst on the $6.75 billion acquisition of TNK-BP, the sale of BP’s $125 million convertible bond position in the Zhenhai refinery and the $15 million acquisition of the Gudrun field offshore Norway.  In addition, Mr. Dell spent a year in BP’s finance group, principally engaged in managing BP’s internal foreign exchange activities.  Before moving into the finance field, Mr. Dell also held positions as an exploration geologist and geophysicist in BP’s West African, Middle Eastern, Caspian and Norwegian business units.  His role included detailed regional prospect evaluation across much of the Middle East, West Africa and Norway. 

Mr. Dell previously held positions as Chairman of the Board and interim CEO of Civitas Resources, Inc. (“Civitas”), a company that formed from the merger of Extraction Oil & Gas, Inc. and Bonanza Creek Energy, Inc.  Mr. Dell earned an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree in Earth Sciences from St. Peter’s College, Oxford.