Mr Ethelbert Cooper
Mr Cooper was the principal founder of Afren plc, a London FTSE 250-listed oil and gas exploration and production company which recently had a market capitalization of nearly US$3bn. He plays an important ongoing role in guiding the expansion of Afren's activities as its Strategic Adviser.
During the 1980s, Mr Cooper was instrumental in initiating the transfer, to indigenous control, of ownership and management responsibility of Liberia's largest industrial project - the LAMCO/LIMINCO iron ore mining venture, established in the early 1960s, by major U.S. and Swedish interests with a US$600m capital investment. He continues to be very active in the iron ore sector today, as leader of African Iron Ore Group, a company which is assembling prospective assets in West and Central Africa.
In the natural gas sector, Mr Cooper founded African LNG Holdings Limited, a project-development company which was acquired by London AIM-listed Gasol Plc. He has also been the lead player in the establishment of African Power Generation ("Afgen"), a venture which is seeking to alleviate the African continent's chronic deficiencies in electricity supply through the use of cost-efficient and clean gas-fuelled solutions for power generation.
To directly mobilize Africa-focused investment in the oil and gas sector, Mr Cooper also recently founded and advises African Energy Resources Fund, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Finally, Mr Cooper's desire to play a strong overall role in addressing urgent Africa's social and economic issues is reflected in his commitment to his important duties as a founding member and Chairman of the Liberian International Development Foundation, a founder of the US-based African African-American Foundation and a member of the Advisory Board of the WEB Du Bois Institute of African Studies at Harvard University.
Mr. Cooper received a BA in Economics from Yale University in 1974.