Our Board

Joseph Pagop Noupoué

Chair of the Board

R C H

Appointed
April 2023

Experience
Joseph Pagop Noupoué is the Managing Partner of ECA Conseils, an organisation that brings together two professional service firms, namely ECA SA (formerly ECA EY Cameroun SA) and ECA Tax & Legal (formerly EY Cameroon SARL). His work is focused around corporate (including contract, M&A and dispute resolution) and fiscal law matters in Cameroon and other French speaking African countries. He was formerly a senior partner at EY, the leading global professional services firm, for over 16 years, where his role included major client relationship management in the French speaking and Northern regions of Africa, as well as head of the Africa Department of EY Société d’Avocats France, EY Managing Partner for Cameroon and EY Tax Leader for French speaking Africa, where he led more than 400 professional service providers located in nine countries.

Key strengths
Attorney at Law by profession; strong advisory expertise in the oil and gas, mining, electricity, and general energy sectors, including advising leading FTSE 100, CAC 40 and Fortune 500 energy and mining services companies and major private equity house; significant experience in Africa.

External appointments¹
ECA S.A. and ECA Tax and Legal SARL (formerly known as Ernst & Young Cameroon S.A. and Ernst & Young Cameroon SARL).

Sir Stephen O’Brien

Vice Chair

A C H

Appointed
December 2017

Experience
Sir Stephen is a former UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator. Prior to this, he was a MP, serving as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development and as the Prime Minister’s Envoy and UK Special Representative for the Sahel. Prior to that, Sir Stephen was International Director and Group Company Secretary of the FTSE 100 company Redland plc, and he began his career as a corporate lawyer.

Key strengths
In-depth understanding of international political, social, economic and government affairs; experience in African and emerging markets, industrial management and global public health.

External appointments¹
Member of the Privy Council; Chair of Motability Operations Group Plc.

Andrew Knott

Chief Executive Officer

Appointed
July 2014

Experience
Andrew is the principal founder of Savannah and has been the CEO since inception. As such, he has led all of the Group’s key growth initiatives. Prior to establishing Savannah, Andrew held a series of leading roles in the European oil and gas sector, including Head of Global Energy Investments for GLG Partners/MAN Group and Head of Upstream Oil & Gas Research at Merrill Lynch.

Key strengths
Passion for Africa and deep knowledge of and contact network within the global energy industry; experienced leader with a proven track record of identifying, financing and successfully managing projects in emerging market environments.

External appointments¹
None.

Nick Beattie

Group Chief Financial Officer

Appointed
June 2022

Experience
Nick was appointed as Group Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) in June 2022. Nick joined the Group in April 2019 as Group Treasurer and was appointed Interim Group CFO and Company Secretary in August 2021.

During his time at Savannah, Nick has been actively involved in all finance and business development activities for the Group. Nick has an extensive background in financing energy companies, including seven years with BNP Paribas where he was a Managing Director in the Upstream Oil and Gas team in London, responsible for leading the bank’s relationships with UK-focused independent E&P companies. Nick is a Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute and a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

Key strengths
Significant experience in corporate finance, M&A and capital markets including debt funding of energy projects across EMEA.

External appointments¹
None.

Sarah Clark

Non-Executive Director

A

Appointed
December 2022

Experience
Sarah was an elite level athlete for 18 years and is a former British, European and Commonwealth champion in the sport of judo who competed at three Olympic Games for Great Britain. She is currently CEO of Edinburgh Judo, one of the UK’s largest, most successful and fastest growing judo clubs catering for four-year-old beginners all the way through to Olympic medallists.

Sarah has worked extensively in mentor, role model and leadership positions with organisations such as the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, the Youth Sport Trust and the Winning Scotland Foundation. In these roles her focus has been to deliver personal and group development programmes to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and communities. She has also worked extensively with individuals and companies delivering programmes around the positive learning businesses can take from the elite level sport world. In 2023, Sarah successfully completed a two-year Executive MBA Programme at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Key strengths
Highly experienced in the training and development of people, and mentoring and coaching high-performance teams.

External appointments¹
None.

David Clarkson

Non-Executive Director

R C H

Appointed
December 2017

Experience
David initially served on the Board as an independent Non-Executive Director from December 2017 to June 2018 and then acted as COO of the Company from June 2018 to December 2019. Upon appointment of the new COO, David resumed his role as a Non-Executive Director in December 2019. David was formerly a member of BP’s Group Leadership Team and Senior Vice President for Projects and Engineering (Upstream) at BP. Throughout a 34-year career with BP, he was responsible for delivering safe, reliable industry-leading projects in challenging frontier locations.

Key strengths
Chartered Engineer; extensive knowledge of the oil and gas industry, including safety, operational, commercial and strategic aspects of running oil and gas companies.

External appointments¹
None.

Dr Djamila Ferdjani

Non-Executive Director

R H

Appointed
December 2022

Experience
Djamila is a medical doctor, entrepreneur and social activist. She founded the then largest private medical hospital in Niger, the Pro-Santé Polyclinic, of which she was President and CEO. Djamila formerly served as a technical consultant to the Islamic Development Bank and as a Professor of Health Prevention and Promotion at the African Development University.

She is a founding Board member of Afrikajom (the leading Pan-African human rights-focused think tank) and is the founder and President of MEDCOM (a Niger-focused medical and educational NGO). She is a former member of the executive committee of the Orange Niger Foundation. She regularly speaks at African-focused Human Rights events, including those organised by the World Bank, Oxfam, Plan International, the G5 Sahel, OSIWA, NDI and TEDX. Djamila has been named by the United Nations Population Fund as one of the 100 women leaders in Niger and by Facebook as one of 19 African LeadHERs breaking boundaries in the fields of media, entertainment, education and business.

Key strengths
Extensive emerging markets experience particularly in West Africa. Significant background in social affairs and working with NGO and development-focused organisations.

External appointments¹
None.

Mark Iannotti

Non-Executive Director

A R C

Appointed
July 2014

Experience
Mark is an experienced capital markets professional with over 20 years’ experience in EMEA equities, largely focused on the oil and gas sector. Previously, he acted as Managing Director and Head of Securities, UK & Europe of Canaccord Genuity Group Inc., and was a member of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s EMEA Executive Committee.

Key strengths
Experienced in capital markets, including equities markets, corporate financing, debt and M&A; strong understanding of institutional investor perspectives.

External appointments¹
Non-Executive Director of Rocksteady Restaurant Enterprises Limited and Djado Gold plc.

Steve Jenkins

Non-Executive Director

H

Appointed
July 2014

Experience
Steve joined Savannah as Non-Executive Chair in July 2014. He is widely recognised as one of the most capable oil and gas executives in the UK. Steve was the CEO of Nautical Petroleum Limited and led the company’s £414 million sale to Cairn Energy in 2012. Prior to this, Steve held a variety of senior roles at Nimir Petroleum Limited, a private company focused on emerging markets with extensive global exploration and production interests.

Key strengths
Geologist by profession; significant experience in emerging markets, transactions and M&A; deep understanding of commercial, operations and strategic aspects of managing an oil and gas company.

External appointments¹
Director of Viaro Energy Limited, Microenergy Generation Services Limited, Terrain Energy Limited and Evoterra Limited.