World-class technical, operating and merger and acquisition experience
The company has a highly experienced management team which combines the experience and expertise of the original Nigerian founders with the international operating capability of the oil and gas supermajors and the oil service industry.
Phillip Ihenacho, Executive Chairman
Mr Ihenacho is the Executive Chairman of Seven Energy International and a partner and co-founder of Amaya Capital Partners, an African-focused principal investing firm. Previously, he successfully established and ran Afrinvest for over 10 years seeing the firm grow to £100m in turnover and oversaw the subsequent sale of the company in 2007 to United Bank for Africa PLC. Mr Ihenacho remains as a non-executive director on the board of this entity which is now known as UBA Capital Europe Ltd. Prior to this, Mr Ihenacho was Chairman of the Aureos West Africa Fund, the CDC-backed private equity firm’s West Africa Fund, focusing on investments in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and other West African markets. He also has five years' experience at McKinsey & Co in London, Stockholm and New York and is a graduate of Harvard and Yale and was the President of the Harvard International Law Society.
Bruce Burrows, Chief Financial Officer
Prior to joining Seven Energy in October 2011, Bruce was Finance Director of JKX Oil & Gas plc, the London Stock Exchange listed exploration and production company with interests in Ukraine and central and eastern Europe for 14 years. Prior to this, he held various positions at Ernst & Young in the Wellington (New Zealand) and London offices. He holds a BSc Honours degree from Canterbury University (New Zealand), a Diploma in Accounting from Victoria University (New Zealand) and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand.
Campbell Airlie, Technical Director
Campbell has over 30 years of experience in reservoir and production engineering and asset management with Schlumberger, BP, Edinburgh Petroleum Services (EPS) and Weatherford. He has held positions as Reservoir Engineering Team Leader for BP's Mature Assets, Development Manager and Technical Director. He has lived or consulted in over 40 countries and has served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in Asset Management. Campbell has degrees in Physics and Petroleum Engineering and is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
Steve Tierney, Vice President Gas and Commercial
Steve has specialised expertise in gas projects, business development and M&A in Nigeria. He previously held a number of business and general management positions in the country, eventually becoming Weatherford's Divisional Region Manager for West Africa.
Graeme Jack, Vice President Development Projects
Graeme is currently on secondment to Seven Energy from Petrofac. He has over 25 years of engineering experience in the oil & gas industry and has been with Petrofac since 2001, when he joined the Woking office to work in the consultancy area. Since then he has worked on numerous projects throughout Africa, the Middle East and Russia with widely varying process constraints and ambient conditions. He has a broad experience base including plant startup and commissioning, conceptual design, detailed process design, engineering and operation of onshore and offshore production plants, gas processing terminals, refinery and synthetic fuels plants.
Chris Thomas, Vice President Corporate Finance and Group Company Secretary
Chris has over 25 years' experience in corporate finance generally and, for the last 15 years, in the exploration and production (E&P) sector. Previously Chris was a founding director and group company secretary of Melrose Resources plc, the international E&P company with interests in EMEA and the US.
Kevin McGrory, General Counsel
Kevin joined Seven Energy in December 2011 having fulfilled the role of principal external legal adviser since September 2010. He was previously Partner and Head of Oil and Gas Law at Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP and has 25 years industry experience in senior and executive level legal and commercial roles with Unocal, Chevron, Anadarko and Delta Group (KSA).
Chidi Chukwueke, Vice President Asset Management
Chidi joined Seven Energy in November 2011. He has over 20 years experience in the industry most recently as a Business Relations Manager for Shell Nigeria Exploration & Production Company.
Nkem Okoro, Drilling Superintendent
Nkem has over 20 years’ experience in drilling operations with Shell in Nigeria, where he held various management positions.