Barrisford joined Bowman Gilfillan in 2008. He holds a BA LLB Degree from the University of the Western Cape, has studied extensively overseas and is an advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa. Barrisford Petersen is an international oil and gas law specialist with more than 15 years experience in the industry. Prior to joining Bowman Gilfillan, he was the Manager: Legal Services for an oil and gas company, then established and managed his own private legal practice focused exclusively on African oil and gas activities.

Barrisford has extensive experience in the international oil and gas industry, having worked closely with a number of local and international oil and gas companies doing business in Africa. Barrisford brings to Bowman Gilfillan not only his accumulated experience but also a network of relationships essential for doing business in Africa.

Chris Bredenhann is a Director in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Advisory division, where he is responsible for providing advisory services to clients, focussing on the Oil and Gas industry sector. He is the South African firm’s Oil and Gas industry leader, and heads up the Risk Advisory Services practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Western Cape.

Chris has 19 years experience of providing assurance and advisory services to both local and multinational organisations in the following areas:

·         Process analysis and improvement

·         Governance and risk management consulting

·         Project Management and project quality assurance

·         Process integration/migration

·         Systems selection and implementation 

Ebbie (Engelbert Abraham) Haan was appointed Managing Director of Sasol Petroleum International on 1 October 2008. He joined Shell immediately after graduation in 1982 (M.Sc. Geology degree from State University in Utrecht, Netherlands) and worked for the organisation for 26 years before joining the Sasol Group. At Shell, he occupied different positions, from Technical to Management, all on international upstream projects. This also resulted in a number of foreign assignments abroad (Sultanate of Oman, USA, Malaysia, Gabon, Algeria). 

Ebbie is a seasoned and well-rounded energy company executive, with over 25 years industry experience. He is married to Gerda Haan and has three children: 23, 22 and 18 years.

Dr Martyn Davies is Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Advisory (Pty) Ltd, South Africa’s leading research and strategy consulting firm that specialises in emerging markets. He has provided business strategy solutions on behalf of listed and multinational clients in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Martyn is the Executive Director of the Centre for Chinese Studies (CSS) at the University of Stellenbosch. This Centre was established under the South Africa – China Binational Commission at Vice President level. The CSS is the first academic institution academic institution dedicated to the study of China in the African continent. He is also a part-time faculty member at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. Martyn is a Senior Lecturer at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), University of Pretoria, South Africa, where he heads the Asia Business Centre and lectures on MBA, Executive and Company-Specific programs. He has written over 200 articles in academia and the press and is a regular commentator for the SABC, BBC, CNBC, CCTV, Bloomberg and Al-Jazeera. He has published a number of book chapters in political-economic publications and is a regular presenter at local and international conferences that include Chatham House, the OECD, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the European Commission, the School of Oriental & African Studies, the South African Parliament and the World Bank. Martyn has chaired a private session at the World Economic Forum and participated as a panellist at numerous public forums at the World Economic Forum. Martyn holds a BA degree in Law, an Honours Degree in International Relations (cum laude), a Master's Degree in International Relations (cum laude) (University of the Witwatersrand), a Diploma in Asian Studies (Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea), and a PhD in International Relations (University of the Witwatersrand) - completed at the age of twenty five. He also has a certificate from Harvard Business School for its “Making Markets Work” course. He has lived, worked and studied in Asia for a period of fourteen years and is currently writing a book on China’s commercial engagement of Africa to be published shortly by Penguin Books. Martyn divides his time between South Africa and international travel. He is an avid reader especially of Asian history and is an active sports fan. He has been awarded Protea Colours for cycling for South African Universities, played soccer for his alma mater Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, and participated in athletics / cross country at provincial level during high school.

Oil & Gas Africa 2010 Conference Director Paul Runge is Managing Director of Africa Project Access, a consultancy that specializes in provision of early alert of projects in southern Africa. He also monitors the major funding agencies operating in Africa, such as the World Bank and African Development Bank.

Paul has direct experience in Africa, having visited 32 African countries from 1982 until present. He lived in Gabon for 2 years and worked intermittently for 3 years in the Cape Verde islands. He has frequent interaction with South African government and government-related organisations, notably the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Finance, as well as professional bodies and export councils.