Norman J. Singer brings to SCA more than thirty years as a successful entrepreneur, attorney and senior business executive. As Chairman of Pexco Holdings, Inc., the U.S. arm of a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate, Mr. Singer has been active as a hands on executive and investment banker in both the natural resources industry and mergers and acquisitions in general.
After graduating from a combined program at the London School of Economics and Colgate University and Colombia University School of Law, Mr. Singer chose a career path in international law and business unlike most of his fellow classmates. His first exposure to international business was as a legal and economic advisor to the Ministry of Finance in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. After completing a two-year contract, he returned to Boston where he obtained a Master’s Degree in International Economics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. During this time, he collaborated with Professor Robert Meagher on a book on Law and Development. After a brief stay at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., he joined Oceanic Exploration Company in Denver, Colorado as International Counsel. While rising to General Counsel and a Director of the company, he led the management team which achieved Oceanic’s first NASDAQ public listing. Other highlights of his career in the international oil and gas business include negotiating almost thirty separate oil and gas exploration licenses throughout Europe, Africa, southeast Asia and South America. He also led the team which arranged over $250 million in bank and supplier finance for the development of Oceanic’s high sulfur Prinous Oil Field in the Aegean Sea.
After almost ten years at Oceanic, Mr. Singer was recruited by the Pexco Group of Companies, based in Southeast Asia, to establish a new exploration division in the United States. Pexco is the natural resources division of the Usaha Tegas Group, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate with holdings in telecommunications, broadcasting, satellite technology and real property. As Chairman of Pexco’s U.S. operations, Mr. Singer’s accomplishments included the establishment of two E & P companies in Texas and Oklahoma for which he was responsible for raising from private investors and industry partners more than $130 million for drilling and development; the merger of the combined entity with a larger pipeline and gas marketing company; and the establishment of Worldwide Sports & Entertainment, Inc., which in addition to becoming the holding company for four outdoor sports and recreation companies was also the producer of the uniquely successful Live Aid Concert. The outdoor sports group included Bushnell Sports Optics which was acquired from Bausch and Lomb and later sold in part to Wind Point Partners. The combined revenue of the sports group today is in excess of $500 million.
As an entrepreneur, Mr. Singer was a founding partner of Inter American Rail Corporation, which was one of two finalists chosen to bid on Argentina’s railroad privatization, and a founding partner of Israel Technology Partners, a private limited partnership which raised more than $15 million from both individual American investors and Israeli corporate partners. Israel Technology Partners’ investments included eleven high tech and bio medical companies. Successful exits have been made in several of these companies whose products are now in the U.S. marketplace.
Today, Mr. Singer serves as a legal advisor to International Development Enterprises, a NGO with offices in 14 countries through Asia, Africa and Central America. IDE is well-known for its projects providing sustainable economic assistance particularly in the areas of health and sanitation.
He is a member of the Colorado, New York and American Bar Associations and holds membership in the New York Chapter of the Asia Society, the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Explorers Club, the Denver Council for Foreign Relations, the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators. Mr. Singer holds a Series 7 securities license and is admitted to the Colorado and New York Bar Associations.