Carole Stone Expert Panel Member   Celebrated for her legendary contact network, Carole is Chairman of YouGovStone and the founder of The Stone Club. In her previous BBC career, for many years she produced the flagship Radio 4 discussion programme Any Questions? After leaving the BBC, she developed her unique consultancy business and wrote Networking: the Art of Making Friends. YouGovStone, a joint venture with the polling company YouGov, was established in 2007 to conduct research amongst opinion leaders, and bring them together to discuss social, political and business issues of importance to all. Carole is also a former President of the Media Society. Karna Cohen Expert Panel Member   With extensive experience as a freelance consultant on African affairs to USAID, USIP, Congress, the Council on Foreign Relations and numerous other organisations, Karna is currently the Team Lead for North & East Africa at the Social Science Research Centre at AFRICOM. She has a Masters degree in International Development & Technology Transfer (focusing especially on conflict studies), and is currently also studying at Tulane University for her doctorate in business operations in post-conflict economies. She has certifications from several international organisations including the International Centre for Conflict & Ethnic Studies in Sri Lanka and the Young Diplomatic Leadership Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel. Karna is based at AFRICOM HQ in Stuttgart. H. E. Omobola Johnson Special Advisor to the Board of Directors Omobola joined the Nigerian Cabinet as Minister of Communications & Technology in July 2011. Trained as an electrical and electronic engineer, she joined Andersen Consulting in 1985 after a spell with the Nigerian subsidiary of Siemens AG and rose to become Chairman of Accenture Nigeria in 2010. Besides her business interests, Omobola is founding Chair of Women in Management & Business, an NGO based in Nigeria that works in the promotion of female participation in business. In addition, she is nearing completion of a doctorate at Cranfield University, focused on corporate leadership practices in Africa, and is a Fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative of the Aspen Institute. Resident in Nigeria, Omobola is a Special Advisor to the Board of Phoenix Africa. Senior Leadership Sir Mark Moody-Stuart KCMG Special Advisor to the Board of Directors Formerly the Chairman of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies (1998-2001) and of Anglo-American plc (2002-09), Sir Mark was also a Director of HSBC Holdings plc (2001-2010) and President of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (1997-2008). Among numerous other appointments, he was also co- Chair of the G8 Task Force on Renewable Energy in 2000 and 2001. Holding a doctorate in geology from Cambridge University, Sir Mark joined Shell in 1966 and spent many years working in Africa, Asia and around Europe, in both exploration and management roles. Sir Mark is currently Chairman of the Global Compact Foundation, Vice-Chair of the UN Global Compact Board, a Director of Accenture Ltd, and a Special Advisor to the Board of Phoenix Africa. Professor Paul Collier CBE Director   Paul is Professor of Economics at Oxford University, and the founding Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. He is the leading authority on post-conflict development and the economics of fragile states, and advises numerous governments and multilateral bodies on these issues. His 2008 book The Bottom Billion won the Lionel Gelber Prize, and his many other publications include Wars, Guns & Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places and The Plundered Planet. Besides his work at Oxford, Paul was Director of the Research Development Department of the World Bank 1998-2003. He is currently an advisor to the Africa Region of the World Bank and to the Strategy and Policy Department of the IMF, and is a non-executive director of Phoenix Africa. Major General John Holmes DSO OBE MC  Director   John joined the SAS from the Scots Guards in 1974, going on to command an SAS squadron and then serving as Special Forces Liaison Officer in Washington DC. After running the Special Forces Policy Desk in the MoD, he was Commanding Officer of  22 SAS 1989-1992, including service in the Gulf War, and then commanded the UK Airborne Brigade 1993-96. After senior appointments in NATO HQ, John returned to the UK to become Director of Special Forces 1999-2002, after which he took early retirement from the Army. Following some time as a director of Erinys, John established the business intelligence and investigations company Titon International, which operates worldwide, including in Africa from their regional HQ in Kenya. John is a non-executive director of Phoenix Africa. Expert Panel Richard Dowden Expert Panel Member   Richard is the Director of the Royal African Society and a distinguished author & commentator on African affairs. He has been involved in Africa since 1971, when he took up a post as a schoolteacher in Uganda, and has been covering the continent as a journalist since 1983. In 1986 he became Africa Editor at the Independent, and in 1995 was appointed as Africa Editor at The Economist. In 2002 he became Director of the Royal African Society. In addition to writing extensively about Africa, he has made a number of television programmes about the continent, and appears frequently as a commentator on broadcast media. His first book, Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles, was published to great acclaim in 2008. Bimpe Nkontchou Expert Panel Member   Bimpe is a Partner at the London law firm Addie & Co, where she heads the Corporate & Commercial Law and Commercial Litigation Departments. She also oversees the firm's compliance with the Solicitors' Code of Conduct and Money Laundering Regulations. Bimpe graduated from the University of Ife in 1986 and obtained an LLM from University College London in 1990. She was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1987 and later qualified as a Solicitor in England & Wales in 1997. In the UK she worked at SJ Berwin & Co prior to establishing Addie & Co in 1998. She is currently a Director of the Business Council for Africa and a Trustee of The Africa Centre. Agricultural Advisors: Indo-African Agricultural Capital Mark Campanale Director, Indo-African Agricultural Capital   Mark has over twenty years of experience in sustainable investment. Recruited as one of the City's first sustainable investment analysts in 1989, his areas of expertise and experience lie in the finance of clean tech companies, sustainable asset management, and ecosystems services, particularly forests. Mark has been co-founder of numerous sustainable investment businesses, including Ecology Funds at Jupiter Asset Management and the Industries of the Future Fund at Henderson Global Investors. Mark works with and advises a number of funds promoting sustainable investment in Africa, including both private and public equity strategies. These cover agriculture & forestry, renewable energy, biomass, and carbon. He has an MSc in agricultural economics from Wye College and is a Director at Indo-African Agricultural Capital. Phil Riddell Director, Indo-African Agricultural Capital   Phil is an internationally recognised expert on water policy, with 35 years of experience in irrigated agriculture and integrated water resources management. He has worked in over 30 countries in Africa and Asia with international bodies including FAO, UNDP, WWF, and the World Bank/IFC. While on contract with the latter he was responsible for a range of irrigation-based agri-business ventures throughout East Africa, where he was resident for ten years; he has also been the senior international adviser to several countries preparing new irrigation policies and investment strategies. Phil was responsible for the major study Impact Investing in Commercial African Agriculture, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation on behalf of its Terragua network.  He has an MSc in Irrigation and a BSc in civil engineering. Katherine Tweedie Expert Panel Member   Currently a Mason Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Katherine was  until June 2011 Director and Head of Africa at the World Economic Forum. In this role she was responsible for all Africa-related matters, including managing key relationships with African business members and partners, strategic relationships with heads of state and government, and setting the African engagement agenda for the Forum. A South African national, Katherine holds a BA in International Business, Finance and Economics from the University of Victoria in Canada, and began her career in investment banking and private equity. Biksham Gujja Director, Indo-African Agricultural Capital Biksham is an internationally recognised expert on water resources management and sustainable agriculture. He has over 25 years of experience in rural development, rural finance, water management, hydrogeology and the conservation of natural resources, in a wide variety of countries in Africa and Asia. Biksham has worked in corporations, rural development institutions, UN agencies and international conservation organisations. The author of several books and numerous scientific papers, among his current interests is the design and implementation of programmes that scale up the System of Rice Intensification and the Sustainable Sugar Initiative, both of which are proven methods for improving the total factor productivity of the two crops. Biksham has a PhD and an MSc, both focusing on hydrology and mining. Thomas Horn Hansen Analyst   Thomas is currently completing a PhD on the political economy of unrest in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, in the War Studies Department at King’s College, London. He has extensive experience in political risk consulting and has analysed political, financial and violent risks for international investors in a number of countries and sectors in sub-Saharan Africa. He has also worked as a consultant on research projects for the British Government. He holds Master’s degrees in International Conflict Studies (King’s College, London) and Political Science (University of Copenhagen), and has previously interned at the Danish Mission to the UN in New York and the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Thomas has published several academic papers and speaks English, Danish and conversational Spanish. Staff Sara Löfberg Analyst   Sara has an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics, where she also studied economics and organised public speaker events for the Scandinavian Society. In addition, she also has a Diploma from the University of Aix-Marseille III in France, and a Certificate from the University FLACSO in Ecuador. Prior to her studies in London, Sara worked in local governance in Latin America, focussing on research and evaluation of municipal policy and socio- economic development projects. Since graduating, Sara has worked for Control Risks and for the World Bank, and has been involved in various development projects including fundraising for microfinance initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa and for educational programmes in Guatemala. Sara speaks English, Swedish, Spanish and French. Mark Steeves Director   Formerly Head of Africa at HSBC Insurance Brokers, Mark has spent thirty years working in Africa: as a shipbroker in the 1980s, chartering supply boats to oil companies; as joint owner of a marine consultancy; then running a procurement and oilfield service business for the oil company Aminex plc. Mark joined HSBC Insurance Brokers in 2002, becoming Head of Energy, then Head of Africa, until the company was sold in March 2010. His company, Samphire & Associates, consults to Africa related businesses, and he is an advisory partner at Partner Capital. He is a director of the Business Council for Africa and a mentor for the Women-Led Business Programme run by Femmes Africa Solidarité and IE Business School. Mark is a non-executive director of Phoenix Africa. Ryan Marincowitz Analyst   Ryan holds an MSc in Development Finance from the University of Manchester and a BA in Business - Applied Finance from the University of Western Sydney. Prior to his graduate studies, Ryan worked in investment banking for a large Australian bank and on an agricultural project in Zambia for an NGO. After completing his MSc, Ryan worked on a number of projects in Africa including a benchmark study into the financial sector in Uganda (funded by the World Bank), a social protection study in post- conflict northern Uganda and on structuring pro- poor financial services for institutions in Rwanda and Uganda. Ryan has travelled through much of Africa including many post-conflict countries such as South Sudan, eastern DRC and Burundi. Paddy Docherty Chief Executive Paddy has two degrees in history from Oxford University, where he also won a Blue for boxing and was Junior Dean of Brasenose College. He was in the oil & gas corporate finance team at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London, before joining the boutique investment bank Global Union (based in Bahrain) as a Director. His work in this role included extensive business development in Africa. After leaving the Middle East, Paddy returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers to take up a role as Manager of the regional CEE & CIS energy corporate finance team, based in Prague; he left this position in the autumn of 2009 to establish Phoenix Africa. Paddy is also on the UK board of Millennium Promise and is a member of the WEF Global Agenda Council on Fragile States.