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, 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
Non-Executive Director,
Chairman
DR. DAVID KING
PhD; MSc; FAusIMM; FAICD
Chairman, 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
MR. DUMISA HLATSHWAYO
CA(SA), MBA, CD(SA)
Dumisa Hlatshwayo has worked in the Financial Services Industry for over thirty years, and during that time, he held the position of Financial Director for a listed entity. He also served as the CEO of a multi-billion-rand Employee Benefits company recently.
Dumisa served as a Non-Executive Director on several Boards of both Public and Private Sector organisations. He chaired Audit and Risk Committees and was a member of Social & Ethics Committees, Actuarial Committees, Nomination Committees, among others. He also had the privilege of being appointed as Chairman of various Boards, where he successfully managed multiple stakeholders.
Date appointed to Board: 6 February 2023.
Non-Executive Director,
Independent
Thembisa Skweyiya
B.PROC, LLB, LLM, H.DIP (TAX)
Thembisa is an admitted attorney of the New York State Bar, United States of America, and has extensive corporate finance and legal expertise, having served at White & Case LLP, Nedbank Capital and Citigroup. She has over 20 years’ of experience as a non-executive director holding various directorships in other listed and unlisted companies.
Other directorships include Skweyiya Investment Holdings, Sanlam Limited and Woolworths Holdings Limited.
Date appointed to Board: 6 February 2023.
For an abridged CV of our Executive Management, please click on their respective names