It was sadly reported that Les Beddoes, one of the founding fathers of SEAPEX, passed away in May 2026. Leslie Raymond Beddoes Jr. was brought up in Dallas, Texas, and as a geologist moved to Singapore with Cities Services in 1973, where he established himself as one of the pioneers of the Asia-Pacific exploration industry.

His early successes with Cities were in NW Palawan and on the NW Shelf of Australia. During the 1980s Les moved to Jakarta with Asamera during a particularly successful time in Sumatra as VP Exploration, and then joined Bow
Valley Industries, its joint venture partner in the prolific Corridor Block. Les later founded Bow Valley Energy Ltd., which was bought by the UK’s Dana Petroleum in 2009, largely for its North Sea assets. In recent years, he was a board member of Questerre Energy based in Victoria, British Colombia.

Les is recorded as a SEAPEX officer as part of the first committee in 1973-1974 and later guided the society through two terms as President (1978–1979 and 1982–1983).His dual presidencies occurred during a golden era of Asia-Pacific oil and gas exploration, a time when his strategic vision helped transform SEAPEX from a newly formed regional group into a world-class professional society.