Tom Brook (businessman)

Brook was born on January 27, 1908 in Pelham, New York to John Thomas and Fanny (Dean) Brook. He graduated from Amherst College and began working for an investment business on Wall Street in 1927. In 1936, he moved to Toronto.^[1]

In 1941, Brook became associated with the New British Dominion Oil Company of Calgary.^[1] He bought into the company and refinanced and reorganized it. He became president of New British Dominion Oil in 1943. The company acquired a number of gas wells the Peace River Country, oil and gas wells in Central Alberta, gas wells in southeastern Alberta, and oil wells in the United States. By 1955, New British Dominion had 175 billion cubic feet of gas reserves.^[2]

In 1956, Brook was elected president of Northwest Nitro-Chemicals, a joint venture between New British Dominion and Commercial Solvents Corporation that constructed and operated a chemical plant in Medicine Hat that sold some of New British Dominion's gas as fertilizer.^[3] He resigned the following year to resume full-time duties at New British Dominion.^[4]

In 1957, New British Dominion entered a deal with Sea Oil and General Corp., a subsidiary of Baud Corp. N.V., to work on oil exploration in Indonesia. As a part of the deal, New British Dominion was renamed Asamera Oil Co. and Baud was given shares in the company in exchange for its oil rights in Indonesia.^[5] In 1961, Asamera became the first foreign company to secure a production sharing contract in Indonesia since that country's independence.^[6]