Board and Management  

Non-executive Directors

Richard John Linnell (67)

Independent Non-executive Chairman

Appointed 19 September 2002

Member of Audit and Risk Committee and member of Nomination and Remuneration Committee

Richard Linnell is an experienced geologist, who has worked with various companies which now form part of the BHP Billiton (SA) Group, culminating in running the Samancor manganese operations and Billiton’s exploration and development activities in South Africa. Richard is a former non-executive director of BHP Billiton (SA) Limited and is Chairman of Coal of Africa Limited. Richard is also Chairman of Independent Power South Africa.

Gontse Moseneke (30)

Non-executive Director of SacOil

Appointed 31 August 2009

Chairman of Social and Ethics Committee and member of Nomination and Remuneration Committee

Gontse Moseneke has a background in financial management and investment banking. He is part of the executive team at Encha Group Limited, a diversified ed investment holding company. He has also been involved in a project by the South African Oil and Gas Alliance to develop and market South Africa’s engineering and related services capability. Gontse holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics and Actuarial Sciences from the University of Cape Town, and a Diploma in Actuarial Techniques from the Institute of Actuaries (London, United Kingdom).

Colin Bird (68)

Non-executive Director of SacOil

Appointed 20 April 2008

Colin has a Diploma in Mining Engineering, is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and is a certified Mine Manager both in the UK and South Africa. In the past Colin was Technical and Operations Director of Costain Mining, which involved responsibility for operations in Argentina, Venezuela and Spain.

Besides that he has been involved in the management of nickel, copper, gold and other diverse mineral operations. Colin has founded and floated several public companies in the resource sector and served on resource company boards in the UK, Canada and South Africa.

James William (Bill) Guest (58)

Independent Non-executive Director

Appointed 1 May 2011

Chairman of Audit and Risk Committee and member of Social and Ethics Committee

Bill has over 35 years’ international exploration and production experience within the oil industry, in technical business development and senior management functions. He has 14 years’ experience as a main board director of London listed oil and gas exploration and production companies with front line involvement in corporate and strategic development, PR/IR and fundraising. Recent roles included being the managing director of Endeavour Norway and President of Gulf Keystone Petroleum. Currently Bill is a non-executive director of Hurricane Exploration plc. and Matra Petroleum. Bill holds a BSc Honours degree in Geology from Leicester University, UK and is a Fellow of the United Kingdom Energy Institute.

John Bentley (63)

Independent Non-executive Director

Appointed 1 May 2011

Chairman of Nomination and Remuneration Committee and member of Audit and Risk Committee

John has over 40 years’ experience in the natural resources sector. He was Managing Director of Gencor's Brazilian mining company, Sao Bento Mineracao, from 1988 to 1993 when he became chief executive of Engen's Exploration & Production division. In 1996 he was instrumental in floating Energy Africa Limited on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and became Chief Executive for the following five years building it into one of the leading African independent oil and gas companies.

More recently John was Executive Chairman of FirstAfrica Oil plc and a non-executive director of Adastra Minerals Limited. He currently serves on the board of a number of resource companies including as chairman of Faroe Petroleum plc, chairman of Scotgold Resources Limited, deputy chairman of Wentworth Resources Limited and non-executive director of Resaca Exploitation Inc and Kea Petroleum plc. John holds a degree in Metallurgy from Brunel University.

Management Team

Robin Vela (40)

Chief Executive Officer

Appointed 25 February 2008

Robin is the founding Chief Executive Oficer of SacOil. Robin is a professionally qualified and experienced Investment Banker/Executive as well as a UK qualified Chartered Accountant and Fellow of the UK Chartered Securities Institute. Robin is also an appointed consultant to the World Bank and International Finance Corporation.

During his career path Robin has a verifiable track record of leading and closing corporate and investment related transactions in SADC and the City of London. Robin graduated with an honours degree in Economics and Accounting from Bristol University.

Carina de Beer (41)

Finance Director

Appointed 10 August 2010

Carina heads the financial division of SacOil. Carina is a Chartered Accountant (SA) and completed her articles with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Carina has 12 years’ experience in corporate financial management and reporting, company secretarial practice, compliance and corporate governance. Carina has served as an executive member of a number of JSE listed entities. She is a member of the Institute of Directors as well as the South African Institute for Chartered Accountants.

Bradley Cerff (38)

Vice President

Appointed 9 May 2011

Bradley Cerff has 15 years’ experience in the oil and gas exploration and production industry. Bradley joined SacOil from PetroSA where he held the position of regional manager for East and West Africa. He was responsible for upstream assets and business development in East and West Africa, maintaining and developing a sustainable portfolio of exploration and production assets in West Africa.

Bradley has managed teams and assets in almost all African oil producing countries including Nigeria. Bradley has also drilled a number of exploration and production wells, developed and produced oil on the continent.

Bradley has a Masters Degrees in Science and Business Administration focused on foreign direct investment in the African oil and gas industries. He is also a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Willem de Meyer (55)

Vice President - Commercial

Appointed 10 January 2012

Willem obtained a B.Sc (Hons) degree in Geophysics at the University of Pretoria and a M.Com degree in Mineral Economics at the Rand Afrikaans University.

His 25 years of technical and operational experience in the O&G industry with PetroSA, the National Oil Company of South Africa, and SOEKOR, which he joined in 1982 and subsequently became part of PetroSA.

Willem held a variety of senior managerial roles, including General Manager of E&P, Vice President of new business and chief economist. A Geophysicist by training, he is a member of the South African Geophysical Association and registered as a Professional Natural Scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions. Willem will, on a part time basis, retain his responsibilities as an Investment Analyst to the Earth Resource Investment Group.

Jordaan Fouché (51)

Vice President – Technical and New Business

Appointed 10 January 2012

Jordaan holds an honours degree in Geology and an MBA, both from the University of Stellenbosch.

He has over 25 years’ experience in the O&G industry primarily as an investor in O&G companies and assets. Jordaan developed his operational and technical skills set as a geophysicist at SOEKOR / PetroSA, where he was a Project Leader and International Portfolio Manager and was extensively involved in both technical and commercial work, including seismic acquisition and interpretation and the commercial analysis of O&G reservoirs.

Jordaan was a founding member of the Earth Resource Investment Group, a leading and award winning energy resource investment fund. Prior to that, he spent time as an Investment Analyst at Craton Capital and a Senior Project Manager at Industrial Development Corporation, a South African development finance institution.