Peter is Executive Chairman of Aura Energy, a metallurgist, and has been involved in the resources industry for over 35 years. He held positions with Rio Tinto, The Shell-Billiton and Newcrest Mining. He was an Investment Manager and then Corporate Finance Executive at JB Were/Goldman Sachs before management consulting roles in South Africa and Australia.
He ran an African iron ore start-up before teaming up with Robert Friedland as co-founder of Ivanhoe Australia where he was CEO for 7 years.
As a Director of several junior mining companies his focus is strategy and company building.
Keynote
Private Company
Commodities
Lanre Oloniniyi
Orbitt
Lanre has over 15 years' investment experience doing business between Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Prior to co-founding Orbitt, Lanre was involved in originating investment ideas and raising the required capital to grow start-ups in Africa, including Sankuru, First African Gold and Tranergy Capital. He also worked at BP, Subsea 7 and Citi in the UK.
Lanre holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Ado, an MSc degree in Energy Economics from the University of Dundee, UK and an MBA from University of Cambridge, UK.
Keynote
Financial Services
Asset Financing, Africa
Jon White
Impact Agri
During 15 years as an experienced CEO and manager providing equipment to the worlds’ agribusinesses, Jon introduced advanced irrigation solutions in Europe, North America and Africa.
He co-founded ImpactAgri in 2015 to unlock the amazing productive power of Africa. He identified a break through to address the impasse faced by blue chip agricultural suppliers, especially in most African countries. This is achieved by creating agribusinesses that make a real difference and are attractive to investors.
Prior to his 20+ years in Agribusiness, Jon spent 10 years with Pirelli Ltd and prior to that worked in the mining industry.
Keynote
Private Company
Agriculture, Africa
Corporates
Company backgrounds and useful links.
Valentine Cecil
Lord Valentine is the 4th son of the 6th Marquis of Salisbury and a member of one of England’s most prominent families. His family shares centuries of history with Africa, Asia and the Middle East that continues today. Although primarily based in London, Lord Valentine spends significant amounts of time in various emerging markets on business and personal interests.
A career military officer with the British Armed Forces, Lord Valentine served with distinction in incrementally more responsible positions that included executive roles within NATO and the Ministry of Defence regarding Europe and Africa. He retired as a Major in 1992.
Following his distinguished military career, Lord Valentine joined his brother, Lord Michael, in the purchase of Wilken Telecommunications Limited, a Kenya-based company with regional interests. During their ownership period, Wilken founded AfSat Communications Limited and Lord Valentine was instrumental in growing AfSat into Africa’s leading satellite-based Internet service provider with customers in 26 African countries. AfSat was ultimately sold to MWeb Africa Limited, a subsidiary of JSE-listed Naspers Limited. Wilken also founded the Tracker Security Group which provided vehicle recovery and other security services in Kenya and Uganda which was ultimately sold to private interests. Lord Valentine continues as Chairman of the Wilken Group Limited which remains active in aviation, telecommunications, energy and logistics sectors in Africa.
Keynote
Aura Energy
Peter Reeve
Aura Energy is a mineral explorer and developer that has gold, uranium and vanadium projects. The recently completed Definitive Feasibility Study for its Tiris Uranium Project demonstrated very low development and operating costs. The Scoping Study for its Häggån Vanadium Project also complete. It therefore has two de-risked projects – rare for a junior miner. It also has excellent gold and base metal exploration tenements adjacent to a 20Moz gold deposit.
The company is driving corporate growth in excellent jurisdictions of Sweden and Mauritania with considerable potential to expand resources in both countries which have a strong history of mining.
Keynote
Private Company
Commodities
Orbitt
Lanre Oloniniyi
Orbitt is a digital deal platform and business development tool, connecting the world with Africa. Designed to facilitate trade and investment with innovative technology, to date, $390 million of terms have been agreed and secured through the platform.
There are over 480 Africa-focused institutional investors and lenders registered. These banks and funds use Orbitt to originate pre-vetted trade & investment opportunities between $3m and $50m.
Corporates and trading companies can therefore access funders along with a top-tier network of intermediaries via Africa’s first Digital Financial Services Marketplace.
Keynote
Financial Services
Asset Financing, Africa
Impact Agri
Jon White
ImpactAgri is a privately owned, limited and for profit company.
ImpactAgri builds agribusinesses, primarily in Africa. We transform local economies and regenerate land, directly improving the lives of the people and communities involved; protecting and improving biodiversity, whilst delivering commercial profitability for all.
We create profitable value chains. We bring together technology providers (irrigation, seeds, drones etc) , farming companies, buyers, investors, insurers etc. and essentially local communities. Over the past 5 years, we have created a $350m portfolio of large-scale, multi-crop agribusinesses which will create large numbers of locally-owned small-scale enterprises.
