Apart from being the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Neconde, Dr. Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi is the Executive Chairman of the Obijackson Group of Companies with Nestoil Limited as its flagship company. The Obijackson Group of Companies is one of Africa’s fastest growing conglomerates, which he established over 35 years ago.
Dr Azudialu-Obiejesi superintended the steady growth of Nestoil into the foremost indigenous Engineering Procurement Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) Company in West Africa. Companies in the Group provide services ranging from Fabrication and Dredging to Pipeline construction, Civil works, Horizontal Directional Drilling and Power
Dr. Azudialu-Obiejesi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and an MBA from the University of Benin. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business Administration by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2009. Dr Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi is an Honorary Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.
Mr. Franz Wohlfart joined Neconde Energy Limited in October of 2023, as hief Executive Officer. Franz joins NEL from TDE where he most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director. Prior to this, he had held executive positions in OMV as Director Workover Division, TNK-BP as Director of Wellwork Department, and ROSNEFT Upstream as First Deputy Director of Drilling, JVs and International Projects.
Franz started his career in the field as a Reservoir and Welltest Engineer, Operations Engineer and later Production Manager in Austria with Rohölaufsuchungs AG. His early career field assignments were in Continental Europe and Middle East. His experience spans 23 years across his home country Austria, Romania and Russia.
An accomplished Corporate Executive, he comes with vast knowledge in the oil and gas industry including Business and Strategy Development, Process Management, Operations performance development, Real data visualization, Contractor performance management, Human Resources, Market development, Restructuring and Reorganisation, Evaluation and establishing of JV’s and acquisitions.
Franz holds a master’s degree in petroleum engineering (key focus drilling and economics) from the Mining University of Leoben in Austria. Franz was a Commander of Guard in the 90s and he is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
Musa has gathered tremendous experience in the oil and gas industry in the past 28 years. He was the pioneer Company Secretary/Legal Adviser of Amni International Petroleum Development Company Limited (AMNI), concession holder of OML 112 and OML 117 and 45% interest in OPL 229, from October 1994 to August 2003. He actively participated in all the various stages of oil & gas E & P, FROM license/lease acquisition, JVAs, JOAs, JV Management Committee Agreements, Joint Operating Committee Agreements, Exploration Agreements, Seismic Acquisition Agreements, Field Development Financing Agreements (Drilling, Completion, Production Testing), Field Equipment Financing and Operations Agreements (Production Platforms, Floating, Storage & Offloading (FSO) Vessel, Pipelines, Compression System (for gas re-injection), Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring (CALM) Buoy, Pipeline Financing, Installation & Maintenance Agreements, FSO Acquisition & Operations Agreements, Crude Sales & Purchase Agreements TO Workovers/Remedial work (sand control, water control, gas control) Agreements.
He was appointed Legal Adviser by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) as a member of the Legal Committee of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), under the chairmanship of the Vice President, to review the legal and regulatory framework of the privatisation process including agreements of privatised companies from the past 10 years and advise the government accordingly, from September 16, 2011 to May 29, 2015.
He has worked with the EFCC as Special Assistant to the pioneer Executive Chairman from August 18, 2004 to June 18, 2008.
He was Assistant Company Secretary and Head of Registrars Department of Continental Merchant Bank (CMB) PLC from 1991 to 1994.
He graduated with a second class (lower) honours in law from the then University of Sokoto in 1988. He proceeded to Nigeria Law School in Lagos and was called to the bar in December 1989.
He is currently a private legal practitioner based in Abuja.
Abdulrahman Yinusa, AY as he is fondly called by colleagues is a thoroughbred finance professional with over 3 decades of quality experience in the Banking and Finance industry. After his active professional career, he served two terms on the Governing Council of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria from 2016 to 2020 and currently Chairs its Capacity Building and Certification Committee. His views and commentary on both Fiscal and Monetary Policies are well sought after, including discussion of the efficacy of the periodic CBN-MPC decisions. He is on the Board of Neconde Energy Limited as an Independent Non Executive Director
His career started in Citibank Nigeria in 1989 straight from school and left Citibank Nigeria in 1993 to join FSB International Bank (now part of Fidelity Bank) as the Financial Controller at a relatively young age of 26 years old and left in 1996 to join UBA Plc and was the pioneer Managing Director of UBA subsidiary in Sierra Leone (2007-2009). Prior to his offshore assignment, he was the Managing Director/CEO of UBA Asset Management Limited, where he launched four Mutual Fund products. And prior to that, he functioned in other capacities, including Treasurer (2001-2003) and CFO (2003-2005) during his 13-year career within UBA Group. He retired from Diamond Bank (now part of Access Bank) in 2015 as an Executive Director and CFO, where he coordinated the capital raising exercise of over $500m in a combination of four different Tier I & Tier II standard and bespoke Financing Instruments as well as raising of a 7-year $200m Senior Eurobond Debt Instrument listed in Europe. He also participated actively in the M&A process that led to the acquisition of Intercontinental Bank UK that became Diamond Bank UK. Prior to that, he was appointment by CBN unto the Board of Finbank Plc (2009 – 2011) as ED, Finance and Strategy, where he coordinated the strategy of the team that facilitated the successful merger of Finbank with FCMB Plc.
He graduated from Ahmadu Bello University with B.Sc. Accounting and also holds both M.Sc. Economics and an MBA degrees from the University of Lagos. Professionally, he is a certified member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, Chartered Institute of Taxation and Nigeria Institute of Management. He also holds the Treasurer Dealership Certificate of the Money Market Association of Nigeria (now Financial Markets Dealership Association, FMDA). He has attended a wide range of professional and general management development courses in prestigious institutions across the world, including University of Cambridge in the UK, IMD in Switzerland and the world-class Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD in France. He is married with children.
With over 35 years of experience from both public and private sectors in Nigeria and the USA, Ahmadu retired statutorily in September 2018 as Group General Manager (GGM) in charge of Group Finance for NNPC. He served this position on two separate occasions (2008 to 2011 and 2016 to 2018). During these periods he led the efforts in delivering several large-scale project financings in tens of billions of dollars for NNPC and its upstream JV partners. In between these periods he served as Managing Director of three NNPC Subsidiaries (NNPC Pension Fund, NIDAS Marine and NNPC Oilfield Services). In recognition of his meritorious service, he received numerous awards, including First Place Ministerial Award for outstanding Staff Performance from the Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (HMSPR) in 2018 and GMD’s Merit Award in 2017.
Ahmadu is the Founder and President, Kessel Capital Advisers Limited. The Financial/Transaction Advisory Firm currently has several clients in the oil and gas and telecommunications industries. He is also the Co-founder and President, Sambo Okolo & Company, LLC, CPAs, a full-service Certified Public Accounting (CPA) Firm. Located in the Boston, MA area of the USA, the Firm has been in business since 1994. Prior to setting up the accounting Firm,
Ahmadu gained his professional accounting experience at the largest minority-owned Boston-based CPA firm where he worked for over seven years rising to the position of Manager Ahmadu holds a B.Sc. in Business Management from University of Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria (1981), and an MBA in Accounting & Finance from Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA (1984). In addition, he attended numerous professional executive business education courses including at University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Graduate School of Business, Philadelphia, PA (2009) and Dartmouth College, Tuck School of Business, Hanover, NH (2001) Ahmadu is licensed to practice as a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He has been a member of the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) since 1988.
Ahmadu currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Transcorp Group, Jaiz Takaful Insurance Limited and Neconde Energy Limited
Uche Val Obi SAN, the Managing Partner of Alliance Law Firm and heads the firm’s transaction, corporate commercial and dispute resolution practice. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1992 and was elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (“SAN”) in 2015.
He holds both a Master of Laws Degree (LLM) in Corporate and Commercial Law from the University of Lagos, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Corporate Management. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Executive Business School , Boston USA, and a recipient of several local and international awards. He is a certified Chartered Management Consultant (ChMC) of the Chartered Institute of Management Delaware, USA and a Fellow of the Nigeria Institute of Chartered Arbitrators (FCArb). He has been ranked as a Top Lawyer by Chambers Global 500, and as a Top Leading Lawyer in High Demand by the International Financial Law Ranking (IFLR) 1000.
He has advised on transactions and also resolved substantial disputes on a wide range of areas including: Oil & Gas, Capital Markets, Investments and Divestments, Corporate Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Restructuring and Insolvency, FinTech, Infrastructure, Corporate Governance and Board Support, Real Estates, Regulatory Compliance, International Trade, Shipping and Maritime, and Doing Business In Nigeria advisory . He is also a notable litigator and commercial arbitrator on domestic and international under various Rules and Institutes, such as LCIA, ICC, LMAA, AAA, UNCITRAL, CIARB, NICARB.
Uche was the Chairman of the Capital Market Solicitors Association (“CMSA”) an umbrella body of capital market lawyers comprising over 250 law firms in Nigeria between 2023 – 2015. He was also the immediate past Chairman of the International Trade Law (ITL) Committee of the NBA – Section on Business Law. He is a member of the International Bar Association (IBA), and a member of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, Colorado, USA.
He was, a member of the committee that recommended the 26 billion (US$170 million USD) forbearance of debts granted to stockbrokers by the Federal Government of Nigeria as announced by the Minister of Finance/Coordinating Minister of the Economy in 2012, a member and secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Committee that prepared the blueprint for leveraging the capital market to fund agricultural sector of Nigeria in 2013. Uche also served as a member of the Capital Market vision 2020 Master Plan Committee set up by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). He was a member of the SEC – Administrative Proceedings Committee (APC) for a decade (2003 – 2013); and a non-executive board member of the National Investors Protection Fund of the SEC of the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Uche was the pioneer Nigerian legal coordinator of the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office powered Emerging Capital Markets Task Force Initiatives (ECMTFI). This project involved Lawyers from the Law Society of England and Wales working with Nigerian Lawyers on means of streamlining the rules and procedures of the capital markets in both the UK and Nigeria with the aim of deepening cross border listings and investment flows between the United Kingdom and Nigeria.
He has published numerous peer reviewed articles and commentaries in the areas of capital market, oil and gas, investments, Corporate Governance, Data Protection, Intellectual Property and Dispute Resolution. He is the author of “Class Actions in Nigeria” which is presently the only Nigerian textbook on the subject. Over the past six years, he has been an acknowledged notable contributor to the IMF / World Bank Doing Business Publications.
He also has business interests in Real Estates, Energy, ICT/Fintech, Stocks, and Agribusiness.
He is happily married with children and a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary International.
Akin Oparison is a Senior Fellow at the Lagos Business School, an FT ranked Business School. He also runs a consultancy practice, that supports individuals to bring out the leadership in them, such that they and their organizations can be the best they can be. He holds a Master of Science (M.Sc.) and a Doctorate degree (Ph.D.) in Business Policy and Organizational Development from the University of Wales, Cardiff.
For over seven years Akin was the HR Vice President for Royal Dutch Shell’s Downstream Business in Africa, a member of the Executive Management Team for Shell Oil Products Africa and a member of the Shell Downstream Global HR Leadership team, based in Johannesburg – South Africa.
He also held senior executive HR positions in Sterling Winthrop, British American Tobacco. He has lived and worked in different countries on four continents.
During his career, on several occasions and in different organizations and in different countries, Akin led major initiatives in organizational transformation and culture change that resulted in enhanced individual and organizational effectiveness. One had to do with the restructuring of a tired, almost 80year old multinational operation that was an icon in Nigeria, transforming it into a brand-new subsidiary of the multinational operation, including the building of a multi- million-dollar plant and ensuring that immediate talent requirements were met and building a pipeline of
future leaders to assure the creation of a sustainable world class enterprise.
In Russia, Akin dismantled an old soviet system of remuneration that was decades old in three separate business entities, which in many respects, was not compatible with the western styled business requirements of a multinational business that just acquired the entities. He designed and established a “Best Practice” system that is well aligned in its place. He led the change management that assimilated this into the culture across these three incongruous entities, which were eventually brought under a single governance structure. Incidentally, shortly after this he then had to integrate employees of a local subsidiary of another major multinational company into this structure, following a global merger with this company, and align their people practices.
Akin successfully led the handling of difficult people issues related to several market exits and significant new market entries of a major multinational company across Africa, while at the same time successfully leading talent development initiatives resulting in localization of senior management teams and driving gender diversity in the countries and reducing expatriation by up to 80% across Africa.
He was a Management Consultant with Price Waterhouse where he worked on a wide range of assignments including Organizational Development and Change management interventions, Executive Resourcing, Performance and Talent Management in private sector organizations ranging from Fast Moving Consumer Goods companies, financial services organization and banks, and pharmaceutical companies, Oil and Gas, as well as public sector client organizations. After over 25 years of management and leadership experience in blue chip multinational companies, Akin who describes himself as a life-long student of leadership, now enjoys supporting others as a coach, a consultant and being on the faculty of a prestigious Business Schools, as well as writing.
Mr Wolfgang Goetsch graduated as a civil engineer and holds a masters degree from the Technical University in Innsbruck/Austria.
Subsequently he worked in Austria, Germany, parts of Asia and in Africa.
Wolfgang gained his more than 30 years professional experience in various management positions.
In Nigeria Wolfgang served as Managing Director to Julius Berger Nigeria PLC for almost 10 years.
He is Member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) and the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN)
Currently Wolfgang works as an Executive Vice-President in the role of a Regional Group Director for ILF Consulting Engineers based in Austria.
Wolfgang Goetsch became a Director of Neconde Energy Limited in June 2019.
Ubaka Emelumadu is currently an Energy Consultant specializing in Gas since June, 2016. Before then, he was a General Manager and Vice President Gas, Shell Sub- Sahara Africa/Shell Nigeria at different times between 2008 and 2015, responsible for upstream and midstream gas commercial activities as well as for the downstream company Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG).
A competent and seasoned professional with over 35 years experience in the oil industry with varied corporate leadership experience – 8 years as an executive director of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC), past chairman of the Board of Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG), Board member of World Bank Rivers State Community Foundation and past Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) Executive Director and representative on the Board of Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI). Alumnus of Wharton Business School. Mr. Ubaka Emelumadu was appointed Director of Neconde Energy Limited in June 2017.