Our Management Team

Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). A Harvard-trained lawyer and recognized authority on Nigerian petroleum law and policy, Dr. Kachikwu provides strategic guidance on energy-sector dynamics, governance and stakeholder engagement.

Engr. Wole Ogunsanya brings more than 30 years of oilfield operations and technical leadership across West Africa. He spent over a decade at Schlumberger in field engineering and management roles, including Country Operations Manager for Angola, before founding Geoplex Group, now a leading indigenous oilfield services provider in West Africa.

He is Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), Pioneer Chairman of the African Local Content Association, and a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers. His technical execution experience across drilling, well services, and indigenous operator development directly informs WAOGF’s asset-level diligence and operator qualification process.

Benedict Murray-Bruce, OON, is the founder of Silverbird Group, one of Africa’s most diversified conglomerates, built from modest seed capital into a multi-country enterprise spanning broadcast media, real estate, cinema, and film distribution across Nigeria and Ghana.

He brings over four decades of capital formation and enterprise leadership alongside senior statecraft experience as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Privatization, and Director-General/CEO of Nigeria’s national public broadcaster. He has structured major cross-border financing with the African Export-Import Bank and co-chaired a $1 billion pan-African development facility. His enterprise-building and public-sector experience strengthens WAOGF’s African market access and government engagement.

Dr. Mima Nedelcovych is Founder and CEO of AfricaGlobal Partners, a strategic advisory firm focused on project development, project finance, and public-private partnerships across Africa, and Chairman of Schaffer International. He previously served as the U.S. Executive Director to the African Development Bank under the Bush Administration, where he helped establish the African Business Roundtable and the African Export-Import Bank, and later led the Initiative for Global Development.

His board roles include Vista Bank Group, Marathon International Bank, the Corporate Council on Africa, and the Niger Delta Partnership Initiative, alongside membership on the U.S. EXIM Bank’s Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee. His development-finance and Africa investment experience supports WAOGF’s institutional and government relationships.

Energy and investment executive with experience spanning structured finance, emerging markets, LNG infrastructure and corporate turnarounds. His career includes investment roles at major financial institutions and leadership of capital-intensive energy platforms. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan and a BS in Mathematical Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

International trade and equipment-finance executive with more than two decades of cross-border experience. Founder and CEO of EQUIPXP and a former three-term member of the U.S. EXIM Bank Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee, Dr. Darko supports fund structuring, capital relationships, financial controls and investor reporting.

Corporate and tax attorney and CPA with nearly two decades of experience across U.S.–Africa cross-border transactions, corporate finance, compliance, restructuring and capital markets. His early legal career at Shearman & Sterling included work for major global financial institutions. He leads WAOGF’s legal, regulatory and compliance framework.