Phillip Ihenacho is a co-founder of Amaya Capital Partners, an African-focused principal investing firm and previously established and ran Afrinvest for over 10 years, overseeing the sale of the company in 2007 to United Bank for Africa. Prior to this, Phillip was Chairman of the Aureos West Africa Fund and before that at McKinsey & Co. He is a graduate of Harvard and Yale and was the President of the Harvard International Law Society. He was born and educated in Nigeria.

Dr Andrew Jamieson, OBE, is an Independent Non-Executive Director of Woodside Petroleum. He is former Executive Vice President of Gas and Projects of Shell Gas and Power International BV with more than 30 years of experience with Shell in Europe, Australia and Africa. Andrew holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from University of Glasgow.

Ashley Dunster is a Managing Partner at Capital International Private Equity with primary responsibility for Emerging Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to this he was a principal banker in the Early Stage Equity Team at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Ashley has a BE in civil engineering from the University of Melbourne, and a Master’s degree in mathematics from Oxford University.

Gordon East is Managing Director of Petrofac’s Production Solutions business. Gordon joined Petrofac in 2006 as Managing Director of Petrofac Facilities Management (now Offshore Engineering and Operations). Prior to joining Petrofac, Gordon spent more than 20 years with ConocoPhillips in various leadership roles throughout the upstream industry. He has also held Non-Executive roles in the DTI and Cabinet Office. Gordon has an MA in Engineering from Cambridge University and an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College London.

Osam Iyahen holds the position of Vice President, Oil and Gas at Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). He has a wealth of practical industry experience working with ExxonMobil’s West Africa team, strategy consulting expertise for the oil and gas sector as well as financing for large scale oil and gas projects. He holds a BA in Political Science from Middlebury College in Vermont, and an MBA in Strategy and General Management from Cornell University (Johnson School of Management).

Atul Gupta served as the Chief Executive Officer of Burren Energy from 2006 to 2008 and has 25 years of experience in the international upstream oil and gas business successively with Charterhouse Petroleum, Petrofina, Monument and Burren Energy. He serves as the Chairman of Shiva Uranium Pty Ltd. Mr. Gupta holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University and a Master's degree in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University.

Dr Yemi Osindero is a Director of Standard Chartered Private Equity responsible for West Africa. Prior to joining Standard Chartered Bank in 2008, he was the COO of Virgin Nigeria Airways which he co-founded in 2005, and previously with Goldman Sachs. He has a PhD and a BEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Bath. Peter Baird acts as Standard Chartered’s alternate Director on the Board and also chairs the Audit Committee. Peter is the head of private equity for Africa at Standard Chartered Bank and is based in Johannesburg.

Chairman of the Environment and Community Committee

Dr Joshua Udofia was the co-founder and CEO of Gulf of Guinea Energy and has over 36 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry. He served as Deputy Managing Director of Shell Nigeria and Chairman of the Nigerian Society of Petroleum Engineers. He has also served as Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria and held Director positions within Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production and Shell Ultra Deep.

Fidelis Oditah was educated at the Universities of Lagos and Oxford and is qualified in Nigerian and English law. He began his legal career at Oxford University where he taught before going into full time commercial practice in the City of London. He was appointed a Queen’s Counsel (QC) in England and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). He set up ODITAH, a private practice, and has advised many businesses on various aspects of Nigerian commercial law and practice.

Clare Spottiswoode began her career in the Treasury before starting a software company. Between 1993 and 1998 she was Director General of Ofgas, the UK gas regulator, and a member of the UK Treasury’s Independent Commission on Banking. Clare was formerly a Non-Executive Director of Tullow Oil and her current directorships include G4S plc, Ilika plc and EnQuest plc.