Board of Directors
Mr. Rigas is a founding shareholder of Energean Oil & Gas and has been Chairman and CEO of the Group since 2007. Mr. Rigas is a Petroleum Engineer with a combination of oil & gas and investment banking experience.
Prior to setting up Energean Oil & Gas, Mr. Rigas spent 18 years in investment banking and has experience in Private Equity investments in oil & gas, project finance and shipping. Between 2001 and 2007 Mr. Rigas set up, and became the Managing Partner of, Capital Connect Venture Partners, a Greek investment fund. From 1999 until 2001, Mr. Rigas managed Piraeus Bank’s Shipping Investment Banking division.
As Vice President of Shipping, Energy & Project Finance at Chase Manhattan Bank in London (1993-1999), Mr. Rigas arranged financing in excess of US$5 billion, mainly in the oil & gas sector.
He holds a Degree in Mining and Metallurgical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and an MSc / DIC Degree in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College.
Mr. Benos has extensive experience of working on international projects in the oil & gas sector, both in banking and industry, with a long track record of upstream financings in emerging markets.
He joined Energean from Standard Chartered Bank, where he worked as a Director in their London Oil & Gas team to deliver a number of significant projects and acquisitions in Africa, Asia and Middle East.
Mr. Benos previously worked for ConocoPhillips, where he held positions in European Treasury, North Sea Economics and International Downstream, with a focus on the North Sea, Central Europe and Middle East business. Mr. Benos began his career with Royal Bank of Scotland.
He is a Chartered Accountant (ICAS) and holds an MSc in Shipping, Trade & Finance from Cass Business School.
Mr. Bartlett has over 30 years’ experience in the upstream oil and gas industry with most of that time spent in emerging markets. He has spent 11 years as an investment banker in the City and subsequently 5 ½ years in the Private Equity business and was the former Global Head of Oil & Gas Mergers and Acquisitions and Project Finance at Standard Chartered Bank plc.
He currently advises an African private equity group, Helios Investment Partners LLP on their oil investments and sits on the boards of several public and private companies in addition to running his own advisory business.
He currently is a Non-Executive Director of Africa Oil and Impact Oil & Gas. He heads the Audit Committee of the former and sits on the Audit Committee of the latter, while he is a member of the Remuneration and Nomination / Governance committees of both companies. He is on the Advisory Board of Upside Energy, who manage an EU funded initiative to discuss energy security issues for the EU. He was previously Chairman of Azonto Energy (ASX listed) and a NED of Eland Oil & Gas (AIM listed).
Prior to that Mr. Bartlett worked for Royal Dutch Shell for 21 years, having helped to establish Shell Capital after a long international management career as a Petroleum Engineer. Postings with Shell included offshore North Sea, The Netherlands, Somalia, New Zealand, Syria and London. He was a qualified Corporate Finance and Futures and Options Representative with the FSA.
He holds an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College London.
Mr. Topouzoglou is an entrepreneur with more than 35 years’ experience in founding and growing companies in the energy transportation sector.
He is a founding partner of Energean Oil & Gas. He is also the principal shareholder and founder of Prime and serves as Chief Executive Officer since 1999, a predecessor of PRIME Tanker & PRIME Gas, a worldwide leading international product tanker and gas carrier management company with a fleet of 38 modern product tankers, LPG and Ammonia carriers.
Mr. Topouzoglou has also invested and founded Prime Energy, a company engaged in the renewable energy business in developments of solar parks.
He holds a BA in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Athens, Greece.
David Bonanno joined Third Point in 2008. He focuses on special situation opportunities in the US and Europe, and acts as the primary investment professional for the Third Point Hellenic Recovery Fund, L.P.
Mr. Bonanno was previously an associate in the Private Equity and Distressed Investments Group at Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. and an analyst in the Restructuring and Reorganization Advisory Group at Rothschild Inc.
Mr. Bonanno graduated with honours from Harvard University with a BA in Psychology
While in London, Ms.Simon was awarded “Most Influential Woman in Private Equity Advisory” by Private Equity News in 2010 and in 2011 and was cited several times as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Europe, Middle East and Africa by Financial News.
Ms. Simon is a dual US/UK citizen and sits on the Board of Aker ASA in Norway, a publicly traded industrial investment company, and the Dallas Women’s Foundation, a non-profit charity organization focused on the needs of women and children based in Dallas, Texas. She graduated from the University of Colorado, cum laude in Economics and received Master degrees from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) in Arizona.
Mr. Ohad Marani is a Board Member of Bank Leumi of Israel Ltd since October 2015 and member of the Investment Committee of Israel’s Infrastructure Fund Previously, CEO of ILDC-Energy Ltd.
Previously, Mr. Marani has been Chairman of the board of Emmanuelle Energy (2010-2015). Chairman of the board of Israel Natural gas Lines Ltd (2008-2010), Chairman of the board of Alumot Investment House (2007-2009), and Chairman of the Board of ORL- Israel Oil Refineries Ltd.( 2004-2007).
He has also served as Director-General of Israel Finance Ministry (2001 – 2003), Director of the Budget Department of the State of Israel (2000 – 2001) and Minister of Economic Affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington(1995 – 2000), while he has Voluntary served as a Board Member and Chairman of the Economics Committee of the Manufacturers Association of Israel (2004 – 2008) and a Board Member and Chairman of the Board of Batsheva Dance Company, one of the leading contemporary dance companies in the world (2005 – 2013)
Ambassador Peck has almost 35 years in the Government of Canada as a career Foreign Service Officer.
Currently, he is a Senior Advisor in the Human Ressources Bureau at Global Affairs Canada where he serves as resident mentor to nearly thirty first-time Heads of Mission.
Previously, Mr. Peck held various diplomatic roles in Nigeria, Switzerland and Greece. As Canada’s representative to both Algeria and the Hellenic Republic, Ambassador Peck worked closely with the Canadian oil and gas and mining sectors.
He is also Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra (OSO), a member of the Canadian Institute in Greece (CIG), and an Honorary Director of the Hellenic Heritage Foundation of Toronto.
Mr. Peck was also Involved with a number of charitable organizations in Greece, including a safe haven for refugee minors on the Greek island of Lesbos. He has received numerous awards including the Canadian Foreign Minister’s Citation for Foreign Policy Excellence, the Minister’s Merit Award, a Citation from the Fondation Club Avenir for his exceptional contribution to Canada-Algeria relations, and the Grand Commander of the Order of the Phoenix conferred by the President of the Hellenic Republic