OUR PEOPLE
Mr. Steven Din – Mining/Commercial
Steven Din is the Chief Executive Officer of Konkola Copper Mines plc, Zambia since May 2014. He has over 20 years of extensive experience in the natural resources industry including copper, iron ore, titanium and oil and gas.
He moved to Zambia after spending two years in Zimbabwe with the Essar Group as Chief Executive Officer – Minerals.
Mr Din has headed operations at Rio Tinto in various capacities, including managing the Simandou operations in Guinea and as Chief Financial Officer for the Iron & Titanium business and for the Palabora Mining Company in South Africa.
Prior to this he was associated with Alumina Company of Guinea and Schlumberger. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Bradford University and is a Chartered management accountant (UK).
Mr. Frank Corsini - Energy
Frank is the Chairman & Founder of GIVE Global Energy which specializes in advising and partnering with governments and private industry to create viable renewable energy based upon sustainable agriculture practices and best of breed green energy facility designs.
Mr. Corsini also serves as co-founder and President of Liberty Global Energy which has partnered with China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) to design and build Africa’s first LNG gas port to supply 300 MW’s of new and converted electricity and to spur industrial development in Senegal.
Previously, Frank founded NXT Nutritionals, a natural sweetener three times sweeter than sugar to counter diabetes (patent pending); was an Executive of ION Capital Partners (a wholly owned wealth management division of Bear Stearns); Founder, American Express Cobalt Card (sold to First Data Corp); Founder, California Health Technologies inventor of commercial cancer drug (sold to Cooper Development); Inventor with 4 U.S. patents;
Economist, U.S. Department of Commerce and White House Staff (President Gerald Ford).
Education: Georgetown University, BA Economics; Clark University, BS Psychology.
Dr. Luka Powanga - Energy
Dr. Luka Powanga is a professor in the School of Management at Regis University and the Executive Director of the Global Commerce Forum which hosts the Energy Africa Conference (www.energyafricaconference.com). He is also the Managing Editor of the Journal of Global Commerce Research and the Journal of Current Research in Global Business. He is currently the US correspondent for CargoNews Asia a trade magazine based in Hong Kong.
He holds a BSC degree in Metallurgy and Mineral Processing, Masters and PhD degrees in Mineral Economics from Colorado School of Mines with a minor in Finance from the Graduate School at Denver University. He also holds a Masters degree in Computer Information Technology and Graduate Level Certificate in Object Oriented Programming from Regis University.
Dr. Luka specializes in international business, economic analyses and consults in mining and international business management. He worked in the mining and telecommunications industry at middle and senior management level within and outside the United States.
Mr. Haris Zografakis - Legal
Haris is a partner at Stephenson Harwood LLP. He heads the firm's commodities practice and for over twenty years has dealt with all aspects of shipping and international maritime trade. He has acted for clients ranging from mining companies and oil majors to ship owners and their insurers, state-owned oil companies, independent trading houses, chemical companies, banks and refineries from Europe, North and South America, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Mr. Zografakis started his career in the City of London in 1994 with dispute resolution as the largest part of his practice, though he is also involved in structuring transactions and drafting standard terms.
This diverse practice has allowed him a unique insight into all aspects of shipping and international trade that is uncommon amongst the shipping legal profession. He has served on the editorial Board of Shipping and Transport Law Journal, is member of the Council of the London Shipping Law Centre, has published and lectured extensively worldwide including for BIMCO.
Mr. Christian Mion - Emerging Markets Expert
Mr. Christian Mion - Senior Partner EMEIA Advisory – FraMaLux and Mena Mining leader within EY (Ernst & Young).
Christian joined EY in 1990. He was managing partner of the Guinea office for 20 years and the RDC office during 10 years prior to his current role in the Paris office.
Christian is one of EY’s most experienced mining and metals partners in the global network, with more than 25 years with the firm. He is also part of EY’s Global Mining & Metals team and the firm’s Mining & Metals Advisory Leader for the EMEIA area and is leading the MENA area since 1 year.
Christian also co-leads EY’s initiative to assist Australian investments into Africa. As a key adviser to mining companies, Christian’s main areas of focus are global risk assessment and assisting companies secure investments on the ground.
Emerging Markets Expert
Warrick Ranson – Infrastructure/Commercial
Warrick is a commercial executive with over 20 years experience working at senior levels in strategy and negotiation, finance, business services, innovation and process change. Establishing value-adding relationships across a variety of cultures, organisations and government he has successfully delivered core strategic outcomes in the areas of capital and cost efficiency; risk mitigation; maintaining licences to operate; and operational productivity.
Warrick is a Chartered Accountant and has held a variety of operational and corporate office finance, commercial and development roles; primarily in the mineral resources industry. He holds a masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Oxford.
Infrastructure/Commercial Expert
John Woods - Mining & Metals Expert
John is the lead Partner for our Deloitte Central and Eastern Africa Mining Practice. He has over 20 years of experience in the Energy & Resources industry and mining in particular. He has been with the firm for more than 18 years with a range of experience in supporting energy and mining clients with important business issues including key aspects of: strategy; cost optimisation; operations management; human capital management; and information technology strategy and implementation
Mining & Metals Expert
Our people include top leaders in their industry and successful entrepreneurs that are either African or have direct African experience in key disciplines required to ensure the effective and successful design and delivery of capital projects in Africa
OUR BOARD OF ADVISORS
OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM
OUR SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS
Business Managers Entrepreneurs Finance Professionals Project Managers Negotiators Engineers Bankers Government relation professionals Investors Investment professionals Real Estate professionals Mining professionals Energy professionals Logistics Professioanls Labor management professionals Community relations & conflict management professionals Transaction attorneys Tax Attorneys Communication professionals
OUR TALENT POOL
Dr. Chris Smith
Governance Expert
Dr. Chris Smith has developed expertise over 30 years in the following areas:
- Peacebuilding, early recovery and development
- Conflict, Security & Development (especially South Asia)
- Conflict, vulnerability and migration (Sri Lanka)
- Development impacts of illegal small arms and light weapons
- Security sector reform
- Risk and Vulnerability for Asylum Seekers (South Asia)
Dr. Chris is Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute for International Affairs, Chatham House, London. He is in charge of policy research and writing, especially expert witness reports on Sri Lankan Tamil Asylum Seekers for British courts and Australian CPS (Victoria). He performs biannual fieldwork in Sri Lanka. He is developing research and consultancy for CENTRA Technology, Washington D.C. on Tamil diaspora in South East Asia. Dr. Smith is also inolved as a consultant to Metropolitian Police Service on Col Karuna (2007) and capacity building for National Security Council, Kabul (2006). He also developed police reform programme for UNDP in Sierra Leone in 2012.
Kadiatou Konate
Executive Director – the Elite Coalition for Africa
Director – Planning, Strategy & Business Analysis – Rio Tinto Minerals
Kadi Konate is a business leader in Finance with 15 years of experience in Business Planning, Financial Reporting, Enterprise Risk Management as well as Business and Controls process design and improvement for large and medium size companies in the Energy, Real Estate and Mining sectors.
Kadi currently holds a positions as Director of Planning, Strategy and Business Analysis for Rio Tinto Minerals in Denver, Colorado. In this role, she has global responsibilities for managing business strategy and 5-year Plans, integrating Commercial and Operational plans to ensure delivery of business objectives. Prior to this, Kadi served as Acting CFO and Controller for Rio Tinto’s $20 billion Iron Ore project “Simandou” in Guinea from 2011 to 2014 and was responsible for all aspects of establishing a Finance team and best practices financial processes, including overseeing the Project’s Risk Management plan. Before joining Rio Tinto, Kadi had over 10 years of progressive experience helping design and implement business strategies, financial reporting processes, risk management practices and internal controls systems for companies like Clark Realty Capital, Washington Gas light and ExxonMobil in the Washington DC Metro area.
Kadi holds Bachelor and Master degrees in Accountancy from the University of Oklahoma. She is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and has undergone several leadership development programs including the Women Leadership Program at Harvard in 2012 and a Business Leadership training program from Duke University in 2015.
Kadi is passionate about changing the landscape of Africa’s economic development and strongly believes that sustainable and meaningful change will be achieved when the new generation of African business leader across the globe come together to lead the continent into the 21st Century.
S. Gabriel Shumba
Lead - Financing (Debt/Equity)
S. Gabriel Shumba is Chief Executive Officer of Group Shumba, LLC. Gabriel has over 17 years’ experience in banking, structured finance, private equity, and business venture development.
He is an astute negotiator, deal structuring expert and business operations strategist, and he has advised Fortune 500 corporations, asset management firms and international financial institutions in North America and Africa. His experience includes work at PWC, Goldman Sachs, Barclay Capital, KPMG, and GMAC (now Ally Bank).
He is an inspirational leader who speaks on various corporate, community and economic platforms on the subjects of frontier investing and personal financial independence. He volunteers on many levels and is passionate about developing African communities, poverty alleviation, and about alternative energy explorations.
As the Founder & CEO of Group Shumba, LLC, he dedicates most of his time in developing ventures in frontier geographies for listing on developed financial markets.
Christian Mulamula
Lead - Institutional Partner Relations
Christian is a member of the Dakar (Senegal) based IFC Mining team. Apart from working on the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, he is responsible for developing IFC’s mining business in the West Africa region (Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone).
On joining IFC in 1999, Christian worked in the financial sectors focused on East Asia before moving to the Mining and Natural Resources division. He has extensive experience in mining in Africa where he has completed a number of transactions on both the debt and the equity side (both public and private equity to junior mining companies).
Mohamed Diallo
Lead – Operations
Mr. Mohamed Diallo is a business leader in the Telecom industry and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of GUILAB.
He has over 13 years experience in study, design, roll-out and operation of telecommunications networks and systems. He has led several projects involving the development of access networks, MPLS backbone, submarine cable systems, among others, both in Europe and in Africa.
Mohamed is also the Chairman of the Board of SABOUTECH an incubator focused on ICT, renewable energies and environment in Guinea where he brings in his own entrepreneurial and general management experience to help transform startups into sustainable businesses.
Mohamed holds an MBA from INSEAD Business School and an MSc from Telecom Sud Paris in France
Jean chawapiwa
Lead - Communication/Marketing/Branding
Jean is a strategic communications expert with over 25 years corporate communications experience, over 10 of those years were spent in the African Mining sector where she worked as vice president communications and external affairs Africa for Rio Tinto, Barrick Gold and Placer Dome.
Prior to this she worked for 7 years at senior management level in CSIR. During this time her corporate portfolios supported businesses in South Africa, Namibia, Guinea, Madagascar, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, DRC, and Tanzania, this also includes working on various acquisitions and divestments on the continent.
Born in Zimbabwe, raised and educated in the UK, Jean has lived an amazing life and worked in Africa for the last 20 years. She has in the last 2 years set up her own consulting company, partnering with other highly experienced Africans. The team is focused on using their knowledge & expertise and passion for the continent, to facilitate companies and investors to do business in Africa.
Jean is passionate about entrepreneurship in Africa, and coaching women & young professionals to play a growing role in Africa’s development; and, as part of this she continues to sit on the Board of Junior Achievement Africa (JA Africa).
Jacques Nyemb
Lead - Legal
Jacques Jonathan Nyemb is a lawyer and policy advisor. Mr. Nyemb is working at Cabinet Nyemb. He was formerly an Attorney-at-law at a leading international US law firm, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, advising on project finance with a focus on infrastructure, energy, oil and gas and mining sectors.
He has also advised a coalition of 17 sub-Saharan African governments on policy-making relating to the reform of corporate laws across West and Central Africa. His clients include multinationals, governments and institutions in Africa, Europe, Americas and the Middle East. Mr. Nyemb is also the co-founder of the African Business Lawyers' Club (ABLC), the premier pan-African organization bringing together top business leaders, political actors and legal practitioners on improving the business climate in Africa.
He holds an LLM from the London School of Economics and also graduated from the Paris II Pantheon-Assas University in Banking and Financial Law. Jacques holds also a Master in Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard University.
He currently serves on the boards of various non-profit organizations in Europe and Africa. He is an avid author of several published articles and a media commentator on public policy analysis in Africa.
Jacques is a firm believer that with relevant expertise at the right place, Africa's transformation will soon become a reality.
Makha Thiam
Lead - Elite Member Engagement
Makha Thiam is the founder and the president of ADB BPO company, specializing in outsourcing services of support functions (such as: Administration, Accounting).
He is one of the founder of EspaceJappo, a network which aims to become a platform for the empowerment of Senegalese in France .
Ibrahima Barry
Lead - Community Relations Engagement
Ibrahima has over 25 years of experience managing community relations and social license to operate challenges. While working for the United Nations at the International Labor Burau (BIT) he developed expertise in providing training related to social groups change management, facilitating agreements with communities through the design and implementation of a Think Tank (Dialogue Social) to establish appropriate solutions to maintain social peace.
During his tenure at the BIT, Ibrahima was involved in social negotiations covering over 22 African countries including labor law agreements and conflicts resolution. He is also closely working on several projects to prevent communities’ grievances and social conflicts..
Papa Dia
Lead - Government and local authority engagement
Papa Dia, a native of Dakar, Senegal arrived in Denver, Colorado the spring of 1998 with a law degree from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. Starting from an entry level position at a local bank, Papa’s hard work and dedication soon earned him a senior leadership role. As a vice president, he has been recognized by BBVA Compass, Wells Fargo, and Key Bank for consistently surpassing ambitious sales goals and penetrating into communities historically and culturally resistant to retail banking.
Papa is passionate about improving and serving his community. He actively participates in various social-civic organizations designed to share the African culture, philosophy, language, and traditions. He is the founder of the non-profit organization African Leadership Group, which specializes in developing African youth leadership and the empowerment of African women.
He has been appointed to serve on the International Advisory Council by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, selected to the Opportunity Coalition Leadership Commission by master real estate developer Brian Watson, and is a graduate candidate for the Leadership Aurora, Class of 2016.
