Tiriah David-West

Tiriah is the founder of Artery Resources.  He is an energy sector focused investor and a philanthropist with 24 years of experience.  Prior to founding Artery in 2012, he was a Partner at Mauritius-based Afrinvest Capital Partners and a Consultant at London-based Afrinvest Ltd, where he raised over US$3.3 billion in structured finance facilities for major international petroleum trading firms, including Trafigura, Mercuria, Arcadia and Glencore.  He started his energy career at the Energy Group of Lagos-based United Bank for Africa Plc.  He is on the board of directors of South Offshore Nigeria, an oil and gas engineering, procurement, construction and installation firm with operations in Congo, Gabon and Nigeria. He is a key supporting member of poverty relief charity World Vision through which he has funded development projects in Ghana, Zambia, South Sudan and Uganda.  He is a supporter of poverty relief charity Tearfund through which he has funded peace building and conflict management projects in the North East of Nigeria.  He is also a supporter of the Rivers State Government Flood Relief & Rehabilitation fund through which he has funded flood relief projects in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.  His awards and public service appointments include the Lagos State Government Award for Tax Compliance, Peace Ambassador to development charity Millennium Village Vocational Centre in the South West of Nigeria, and Advisory Member of the Edo State Government Oil Palm Development Committee.  He is a member of the King’s College Old Boys Association in Nigeria, the King’s School Old Brutonians Association in England and is a graduate of the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture in London.

Makoji Aduku

Makoji is a geologist and member of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists, the Nigerian Mining and Geoscience Society, the Society of Mining Engineers, and sits on the Editorial Board of the Africa Oil & Gas Report journal.  He has 36 years of experience in the petroleum sector with a career spanning from Kragha & Associates Mud Logging Company as Operations Supervisor, Shell Petroleum Nigeria Ltd as Well Site Operations Engineer, Dupont Nigeria Ltd as Operations Geologist, and Conoco Energy Nigeria Ltd as Director of Government Affairs.  He is a co-founder and shareholder of Pillar Oil Ltd (operator of the onshore Umuseti/Igbuku marginal field complex, Nigeria) and served as pioneer MD of Gas Transmission & Power Ltd (GTPL) (operator of PSC OPL 905 in the Anambra Basin, Nigeria).  He established Energy Portfolio Managers, an energy and petroleum advisory and consultancy firm focused on West African opportunities and Onshore Frontiers, a solid minerals consulting, exploration, mining and mineral processing firm.  He holds a B.Sc. (Geology) from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and an M.Sc. (Sedimentary Geology) from University of Benin.

Thomas Keller

Thomas is a senior energy and commodities consultant with over 40 years of experience in international trade, business development and strategic planning in the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Mauritania, Guinea, Mali, Togo and Venezuela.  He is the founder of Cleveland Energy, Malta and Cross Energy, Geneva.  Prior to this, he held senior management positions at crude, products and consumer goods trading firms specialising in West Africa including Addax, Petrotrade, Galaxy Africa, Cora Merchants and Import 10.  Fluent in French, Spanish and English, he is a skilled business developer and collaborative strategist focused on project delivery and cooperation with clients, suppliers, traders, bankers, field experts, contractors and authorities.

Franklin Erebor

Franklin is a distinguished British Chevening Scholar and a multiple award winning senior banking executive with over 30 years of experience spanning the United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), France, Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone Africa.  He was Chief Risk Officer at United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) covering 19 African countries, and Group Director, Global Financial Institutions where he had oversight functions for the bank’s operations in the USA, UK and France.  Franklin has served as Non-Executive Director on the boards of UBA subsidiaries in 11 countries across Africa and is currently Vice Chairman of UBA Mozambique as well as Non-Executive Director on the Board of UBA Tanzania.  He was Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer for UBA Cote D’Ivoire and was at a time Group Director for Energy and Structured finance for UBA. Prior to UBA, he was Group Head of Energy at First Bank of Nigeria Plc.  Franklin is active in the banking and energy sectors formulating industrial policy, leading change and coordinating cross-functional teams across geographies and global value chains.  He holds a BSc (Honours) degree in Economics and an MBA Finance degree both from the University of Benin, Nigeria as well as an M.Phil in International Finance from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.  He is an alumnus of Harvard Kennedy School of Government (USA), Harvard Business School (USA), Wharton Graduate School of Business (USA) and Stanford Graduate School of Business (USA).  Franklin is an energy sector expert and thought leader with vast experience in upstream, midstream and downstream structured finance, covering the entire energy value chain.