BOARD OF DIRECTORS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Executive Directors
Managing Director,
Chief Executive Officer
MR. STEFANO MARANI
BSc Actuarial Science, BSc Hons in Advanced Mathematics of Finance
Stefano is the Chief Executive Officer of Renergen Limited (“Renergen”), a dual listed helium and Natural gas company with substantial gas reserves in the Free State of South Africa (the “Gas Fields”). He was part of the team which acquired the Gas Fields from Molopo Energy Limited in April 2013, and was instrumental in taking the Gas Fields from a stranded gas asset into production with funding from the US government and an Initial Public Offering on the Australian Securities Exchange. Along with Nick Mitchell, they pioneered the use of natural gas in heavy duty vehicles in South Africa to help decarbonise the South African economy which ultimately lead to a joint-venture with Total South Africa Proprietary Limited, and he pioneered Cryo-VaccTM to help in the global rollout of vaccines in the fight against COVID-19.
Stefano has significant experience in the areas of structured finance and advisory. After completing his formative training with Deutsche Bank, Stefano was recruited by Morgan Stanley in London, where he was ultimately charged with building their sub-Saharan African fixed income capital markets business before leaving banking to start his own financial services firm.
Date appointed to Board: 20 Nov 2014
Executive Director,
Chief Operating Officer
MR. NICK MITCHELL
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) A+ Certified
Nick is an experienced Director with a demonstrated history of working in the energy industry. Specialising in the South African oil and gas sector and focused on early-stage company development. He is the current Chief Operating Officer for Renergen, who holds the only onshore Petroleum Production Right in South Africa through their 100% owned subsidiary Tetra4. Together with his partners, Nick acquired Tetra4 in 2013 and since then have developed the asset from what was once considered a stranded gas asset into a potential world-class helium and natural gas reserve. He is strong in operations, strategy and risk management. Nick currently serves as the Chairman of the Onshore Petroleum Association of South Africa (ONPASA) and has done so since March 2017. In December 2020, he was appointed as a Trustee to the Upstream Training Trust (UTT), established by the Petroleum Agency SA and the companies participating in the South African off and onshore search for oil and gas. The Trust seeks to provide bursaries to eligible students interested in Petroleum (oil and gas) Exploration.
Date appointed to Board: 25 Nov 2015
Executive Director,
Chief Financial Officer
MR. BRIAN HARVEY
BTech. Mech Eng. BComm Hons in Accounting. CA(SA)
Brian is the Chief Financial Officer of Renergen Limited with over 15 years’ experience in senior finance roles after having initially qualified and worked as a mechanical engineer for De Beers. He has worked for multinational, foreign listed and JSE listed companies, principally in the resources sector, including Weir Minerals Africa and Middle East, Royal Bafokeng Holdings Pty Ltd and Anglo American plc.
He has both strategic and operational level experience in the finance area and been involved with the project finance and oversight of the delivery of several capital projects.
Date appointed to Board: 1 May 2021
For an abridged CV of our directors, please click on their respective names
Non-Executive Directors
PhD; MSc; FAusIMM; FAICD
Chairman
DR. DAVID KING
PhD; MSc; FAusIMM; FAICDChairman, Effective from 1 December 2021.
David is a professional geoscientist and has over 40 years’ experience in oil and gas and other natural resources industries. He holds an MSc in Geophysics from Imperial College, London, and a PhD in Seismology from the Australian National University, Canberra. David has held various Board positions with ASX natural resources companies, and was a founder of oil and gas companies Eastern Star Gas Ltd and Sapex Ltd. He has also served as Managing Director of ASX listed gold producer North Flinders Mines, CEO and Managing Director of oil & gas producers Beach Petroleum and Claremont Petroleum, and Chairman of Robust Resources Ltd. David is currently Non- Executive Director of ASX listed Galilee Energy Limited and AIM listed Litigation Capital Management Limited. David is a Fellow at the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, and Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy.
Date appointed to Board: 6 June 2019
Non-Executive Director,
Independent
MR. MBALI SWANA
Bsc Hons Mineral Economics, Bsc Hons Geochemistry
Mbali is the chief executive officer of Prop5 Corporation Proprietary Limited, a turnkey-built environment infrastructure and engineered products developer which he founded in 1986. Mbali has significant experience in implementing large scale projects across Africa and is currently developing Prop5’s Africa-wide strategy for the development of infrastructure.
Date appointed to Board: 16 Feb 2015
Non-Executive Director,
Independent
MR. LUIGI MATTEUCCI
CA (SA)
Luigi actively consults on strategic and business development initiatives in the mining and engineering field. He served in senior management positions and as Financial Director of Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation Limited for 18 years up to 2007 where he implemented successful cost reduction and efficiency strategies.
Date appointed to Board: 3 May 2016
Non-Executive Director,
Independent
DR. BANE MALEKE
CA (SA)
Bane holds an MBA from Dalhousie University (Canada) and a Ph.D. – Strategic Management, from the University of Bath (UK). He spent 20 years in senior management at the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) and held the position of Regional Executive for the SADC and East Africa Regions. He is the chairman of an MNO in Lesotho and Director of an energy company.
Date appointed to Board: 7 Dec 2016
Non-Executive Director
MR. FRANCOIS OLIVIER
CA (SA) CFA, B.Com (Hons) University of Pretoria
Francois Olivier is a portfolio manager and executive committee member at Mazi Asset Management. He has 19 years of investment research and portfolio management experience, the first seven of which were spent in the USA.
Date appointed to Board: 19 Nov 2018
Vice President, Corporate Development
MR. ALEX PICKARD
Vice President, Corporate Development
Alex Pickard is Vice President, Corporate Development for Ivanhoe Mines Ltd, a Canadian mining company focused on developing disruptive projects, including the world-class Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He joined Ivanhoe in 2017 to focus on strategic initiatives and fundraising for the company, and has been actively involved in raising over US$2 billion in equity and debt financings from strategic and institutional investors during that time.
Mr. Pickard has more than 10 years of experience in corporate finance and capital markets, focusing on the mining and resources sectors. Prior to joining Ivanhoe Mines, he was Vice President, Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley, London after starting his career at BMO Capital Markets, London, advising metals and mining clients on mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt capital markets transactions.
Mr. Pickard graduated from the London School of Economics with a BSc Economics degree.
Executive Management
For an abridged CV of our Executive Management, please click on their respective names
Head of Information Technology
Ms. Mandy Stuart
Head of Information Technology
Certificate in Project Management (Damelin), Certified Process Professional (CPP) (IQ Business Group), BBA (Milpark Business School)
Mandy is an experienced ICT and Business Services Manager. Responsible for the ICT management, strategy, and execution for the Renergen Group. Skilled in ICT strategy, Management, Project Management, Risk Management, Business Development, ICT Project Management, and Corporate Governance/risk management.
Mandy has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Mandy was a National Brand Manager for Investec Private Bank (SA), as well as Investec Private Bank (UK, Guernsey, Jersey and Switzerland). Mandy then moved to Computershare South Africa where she was an IT Project Manager, implementing upgrades, enhancements and migrations for major projects across the Computershare Group.
Mandy subsequently was responsible for Computershare South Africa’s Employee Share Plans division, managing employee share schemes for numerous listed companies on the JSE. Mandy was also responsible for Corporate Sustainability for Computershare South Africa.
Mandy joined Renergen in June 2016 and her current responsibilities include strategic planning and implementation, overseeing the infrastructure of technical operations, tracking technology to achieve business goals, eliminating security risks, and maintaining operations and systems for the Renergen Group.
BProc, LLB
(University of Natal)
Ms. Nalanie Naidu
BProc, LLB (University of Natal)
Nalanie has several years of experience in the HR field over a period of approximately 22 years having worked with both local and multinational companies. In her former years she developed her transactional HR proficiency while gaining exposure in Directorships that extended across the African and European continents. She has worked in the financial services, tourism, speciality chemicals and oil & gas industries heading up HR as well as being a Non-Executive Director of the Johannesburg Zoo.
Her experience ranges from compliance through to innovation and strategy. She has worked in disciplines covering industrial relations, learning and development, transformation, organisational development and design, change management and compliance.
Nalanie is passionate about driving a high performance culture. She achieves this primarily through ensuring that she helps individuals navigate through the challenges of work, change and career progression utilising coaching, tools and techniques which become levers to success.
Nalanie joined Renergen officially as the Head of HR in April 2020 as a member of the executive team.
Technical Services Manager
Mr. Johann Weideman
Technical Services Manager
Higher National Diploma Mechanical Engineering (UJ), Government Certificate of Competency, Management Development Programme (UNISA)
More than 30 years of experience in engineering management, operations management and project management. Capable of managing multi-disciplinary engineering teams (mechanical, electrical, control and instrumentation, civil engineers project and project Controls (procurement, contract administration, cost engineering/quantity surveying).
Gained experience in the hydrocarbons, power and infrastructure field (including coal, lignite, gas turbine, coal gasification, co-generation. Projects typically included boilers, turbines, common plant, control and instrumentation and electrical. Established the Pangaea Academy that specializes in developing and presenting training material and courses aimed at project managers, engineers, cost engineers, project controls, procurement and other project support personnel.
Gained experience in the management of multi-product pipeline as project Director from pipelines, pumping stations, controls, electrical, valves, construction, procurement and contracts management. Also served on the Board of Control for various projects.
Environmental Manager
Mr. Khalid Patel
Environmental Manager
Master’s Degree in Environmental Science (Wits)
Certificate of competence in project management (GIBS).
Khalid has extensive experience with Environmental Assessments for the mining and energy industry, including managing large projects on behalf of clients such as Exxaro KZN Sands, Xstrata Alloys Samancor Chrome, Kumba Iron Ore and Sylvania Metals. In addition to Environmental Assessments, Khalid also has significant experience with Mineral Tenure Component, specialist review, IFC, World Bank and Equator Principles audits, Enviro-Legal Gap Analysis and the undertaking of due diligence work. Khalid acted as the environmental advisor to the Royal Bafokeng Nation for 5 years.
Khalid managed the mining and energy unit at EIMS for 6 years and acted as supervising principle for all work done by the unit.
He joined Tetra4 in August 2016 as its Environmental Director. Khalid’s responsibilities include ensuring environmental compliance, ongoing environmental management and detailed environmental monitoring.
Organisational Structure
