Board Directors

Zev Furst is a leading global business and communications strategist who has advised political leaders, foreign principals and corporate executives of Fortune 100 companies. He is the Chairman and CEO of First International Resources, an international corporate and political consulting firm he founded in 1992. Mr. Furst specializes in providing strategic counsel on crisis management, market entry, corporate positioning and personal reputational issues with the unique perspective of someone who has operated at the nexus of business and politics for over thirty years.

Mr. Furst has been retained as strategic and crisis management consultant by various multinational corporations in many high profile situations, including: Volkswagen AG, Archer Daniels Midland, Alcoa, ExxonMobil, Pfizer, Samsung, Continental Tire and Lukoil. In recent years, he has also advised and consulted with candidates running for national office in Israel, Japan, Mexico and Ukraine.

Mr. Furst began his political consulting career in 1980 in partnership with David Garth, by establishing Garth-Furst International, an international political consulting and strategic planning firm. He was an advisor and consultant in the 1981 re-election campaign of Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel, and served as an advisor in the political campaigns of: U.S. presidential candidate John Anderson, President Luis Herrera of Venezuela, Senator John Heinz (PA), Senator Arlen Spector (PA), Senator Robert Torricelli (NJ) and Mayor Ed Koch of New York.  He also advised Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on sensitive political and diplomatic matters, and served as political consultant to Israeli Prime Ministers Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak.

In 1986, Mr. Furst was a founding partner of Meridian Resources and Development Ltd., an international commodities trading company specializing in chemicals and petroleum products.

Mr. Furst currently serves as Chairman of the International Board of the Peres Center for Peace and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Kennan Institute in Washington, DC. He has written and lectured extensively on international affairs, business and political strategy and the role of media in politics and diplomacy.

Mr Des Pallieres, a French national, was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of SPQR Capital LLP. Previously Bertrand was the Global Head of Principal Finance and member of the Global Market Leadership Group of Deutsche Bank from 2005 to 2007. From 1992 to 2005 he held various positions at JPMorgan including Global Head of Structured Credit, European Head of Derivatives Structuring and Marketing and Co-head of sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa. He is a non-executive director of Versatile Systems Inc. listed on the Toronto and London Stock Exchanges and Equus Total return, Inc., listed on the NYSE.

Mr. Schenato was appointed to the Board as Chief Operating Officer on 25 January 2012. He joined the Company after a 35 year career at Eni S.p.A ("Eni"), the Italian integrated energy business, where he served in senior global and regional positions.

His global roles at Eni included Well Operations R&D and Technical Management, and Vice President HSE & Sustainability. His regional roles include General Manager of Tunisia, Gabon and Angola as well as CEO of Eni’s Italian gas storage company.

Mr Baron was appointed to the Board on 19 March 2009, as Chief Executive Officer. He has over 30 years' international experience in the upstream petroleum industry, including in many countries in the former Soviet Union. He is founding partner of ESG Dubai Consulting, a firm which provides project management and advisory services to the oil and gas industry.

In January 2012 Mr Baron took on the role of Business Development Director.

Mr Benedetti is an Italian national with nearly 30 years of business experience in a diverse range of industries including telecoms, agro-industrial engineering, industrial mining, real estate, renewable and non-renewable energy and investment companies. He is fully conversant with business conditions and operating procedures in the world's key markets, especially Western and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, CIS, Africa, North America and the Middle East.

From 2002 onward he began structuring the acquisition of a controlling interest in Italian telecom giant WIND Telecom, and subsequently formed a consortium to close a €17.2bn leveraged buyout in 2005, at that time the largest deal of its type in Europe. Taking control of SAE Capital in 2003 he disposed of the production and distribution activity transforming the Group into a M&A boutique, which has structured various multi-billion Euro acquisitions, focusing on the telecom and energy market across Europe. He is a non-executive director of Versatile Systems Inc., which is listed on the Toronto and London Stock Exchanges, and Equus Total return, Inc., listed on the NYSE.

Chicco Testa is an Italian national with a long and varied background in the energy market. Formerly Chairman of the Board of ACEA (the Rome electricity and water utility company) from 1996 to 2002, Mr Testa was Chairman of the Board of Enel Spa, the major Italian electricity supplier, during its privatisation. From 2005 to 2009 he was Chairman of Roma Metropolitane, the Rome council owned company constructing new underground lines.

He was also Chairman of the Organising Committee for the 20th World Energy Congress held in Rome in November 2007, Senior Partner at the Franco Bernabè Group which owns several investments in the IT sector and from 2002 to 2005, member of the Advisory Board of Carlyle Europe and Chairman of the Italian Nuclear Forum since 2010.

He is currently Managing Director of Rothschild Spa, a director of Allianz Spa, Chairman of the AIM listed telecommunications company Telit Communications Plc, Vice Chairman of Intecs Spa and Chairman of Energie Valsabbia Spa – a company developing hydropower and solar generation plants.

A journalist and academic, Mr Testa was National Secretary and President of the Italian environmental organisation Legambiente from 1980 to 1987 and a representative in the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 1987 to 1994.

Appointed on 19 November 2011, Mr. Lehmann is currently an adviser to the Executive Board of Areva, the French nuclear energy business, having previously been its Deputy Chief Executive Officer responsible for finance. He is also a past Chief Financial Officer and deputy CEO of Framatone, the predecessor to Areva, and was CFO of Sogee, part of the Rothschild Group. Mr. Lehmann is also Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Eramet, the French minerals and alloy business. He is Deputy Chairman and Audit Committee Chairman of Assystem SA, the French engineering and innovation consultancy. He was Chairman of ST Microelectronics NV, one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, from 2007 to 2009, and stepped down as Vice Chairman in 2011.

Mr. Lehmann is Chairman of the Company’s Audit Committee.