Axeon Specialty Products LLC  -- a new specialty petroleum products, logistics and services company serving the East Coast -- announced Thursday that David Kirshner has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, effective May 1, 2014. Mr. Kirshner succeeds Michael Pesch, who will retire from the company and serve as an advisor over the next year. Until February 2014, Axeon SP was known as NuStar Asphalt LLC.

Mr. Kirshner brings more than 30 years of experience in the energy sector to Axeon SP. Most recently, Mr. Kirshner served as Senior Vice President of Commercial for Tesoro Corporation, and was a member of the Tesoro executive committee. Mr. Kirshner’s direct responsibilities included the development of the business strategy, controls, measurement and day-to-day management of Tesoro's commercial activities. Prior to Tesoro Corporation, Mr. Kirshner served as Vice President of Supply, Trading and Transportation at Hess Corporation, where he also served as a member of the Hess Marketing and Refining Leadership Team, and spent more than 20 years at Mobil and ExxonMobil working across numerous functions.

“Axeon SP is well positioned to take advantage of opportunities provided by the resurgent U.S. energy industry,” said Mr. Kirshner. “I look forward to collaborating with our talented employees, partners and customers as we work to become the leading specialty refiner and asphalt distributor on the East Coast.”

In addition, Axeon SP has appointed Darius Sweet as Executive Vice President and President of Refining and Supply. Mr. Sweet comes to Axeon SP from Hess Corporation, where he served as Senior Vice President of Refining, Terminals and Supply and was responsible for overseeing the company’s refining assets and terminal network, one of the largest along the U.S. East Coast. He was also a member of the Hess Marketing and Refining Leadership Team and Operational Excellence Leadership Team. Prior to joining Hess, Mr. Sweet served as an engineer with Exxon and as a supply analyst with Mobil.

Axeon SP to Establish Office in Stamford, Connecticut

As part of Axeon SP’s continued commitment to the East Coast, the company will establish an executive office in Stamford, Connecticut, over the next six months, in order to further strengthen operations and relationships with customers, partners and suppliers in that region. Mr. Kirshner and Mr. Sweet will be based in Stamford, along with members of Axeon SP’s crude supply, intermediates marketing, planning & economics, transportation and asphalt marketing teams.

The Stamford office will extend Axeon SP’s East Coast footprint and complement existing refining and storage facilities in Paulsboro, NJ, Savannah, GA, Wilmington, NC, and Dumfries, VA. The company is continuing to make investments in its Paulsboro facility, which provides more than 100 jobs and consists of two petroleum refining units, a liquid storage terminal, three marine docks, rail offloading capacity, a polymer modified asphalt (PMA) production facility and a testing laboratory.

Axeon SP will continue to maintain a significant presence in San Antonio, with employees across the company’s accounting, finance, legal, human resources, customer service and information technology departments.