Willbros Group, an independent contractor serving the oil, gas, power, refining and petrochemical industries, has appointed Geoffrey Stanford as vice president and chief accounting officer, effective as of Dec. 5. He succeeds Ron Lefaive, vice president of accounting and tax and corporate controller, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Stanford joins Willbros from the Shaw Group, where he served as senior director of corporate operational accounting since 2009.

Stanford has over 20 years of accounting and corporate controller experience working with large publicly traded companies with global operations.  In addition to The Shaw Group, Stanford also served at Albemarle Corporation, a large specialty chemical company; Global Industries, an offshore construction company; and Petroleum Helicopters, a commercial helicopter service company.  

Stanford also brings two years of public accounting experience with Coopers and Lybrand (now Pricewaterhousecoopers).