Board
Christopher Hill
Non-executive Chairman
Christopher Hill is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and was managing director of Guernsey International Fund Managers Ltd ("GIFM"), part of the Barings Financial Services Group, from 1996 until the group was sold to Northern Trust in 2005. During this year Christopher was also a director of GIFM's subsidiaries in Dublin and Jersey. In his 16 years with GIFM, the company administered funds with a wide range of investment strategies. In all, Christopher has over 35 years' experience in the field of offshore banking and fund administration. He presently serves as non-executive director of a number of financial institutions and investment funds. Several of the investment funds maintain listings of their shares on the stock exchanges of London, Ireland, the Netherlands or the Channel Islands. Christopher is a former chairman of the Guernsey Investment Funds Association and is a resident of Guernsey.
Arthur Copple
Non-executive Director
Arthur Copple has more than 30 years experience of working in the world of investment, the majority of it spent specialising in investment companies. He was a main board director of Smith New Court PLC and from October 1995 to March 2002 was a managing director at Merrill Lynch where he managed the Investment Company Team and later directed their Pan European Small and Midcap Service. Presently he acts as a consultant to the investment company divisions of BlackRock Investment Managers and Franklin Templeton Investment Managers. He is also a non-executive director of Temple Bar Investment Trust Plc, Chairman of the UTI India Fund and was a non-executive director of Framlington Income & Capital Trust PLC until September 2008.
Jeremy Thompson
Non-executive Director
Jeremy Thompson is a Guernsey resident with sector experience in Finance, Telecoms, Aerospace & Defence and Oil & Gas. Since 2009 Jeremy has been a consultant to a number of businesses which includes non executive directorships of investment vehicles relating to the Hermes group and the BT pension scheme. Between 2005 and 2009 he was a director of multiple businesses within the Novator private equity group. Prior to that he was CEO of four autonomous businesses within Cable & Wireless, and earlier held MD roles within the Dowty Group. Additionally Jeremy has worldwide experience within the Oilfield services sector.
John Imle
Non-executive Director
John Imle was educated as a petroleum engineer at Texas A&M and has over 45 years’ experience in the global oil and gas industry, with particular emphasis on energy exploration and development projects in the developing world. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of AED Oil Limited, an oil and gas, exploration and development company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Prior to this John held the position of CEO of Nations Petroleum Company Ltd until he stepped down on 30 April 2011 and prior to joining Nations he practiced as an energy advisor based in London and California.
Mr. Imle was president (2005-2006) of Vanco Energy Company, where he focused on several deepwater exploration projects offshore Africa and Ukraine. Previously, Mr. Imle was president and vice chairman of the international energy company, Unocal Corporation capping a 37-year career that took him through a series of technical, managerial and executive positions (mostly outside the USA), and served for ten years on the Unocal Board of Directors. For much of his time at Unocal, Mr. Imle was responsible for the Company’s worldwide oil, gas and geothermal operations. He led Unocal’s successful efforts in forming the Azerbaijan International Oil Consortium (AIOC) as well as the sponsoring of major projects in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, China and Myanmar. He was responsible for an initiative to transport natural gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India through Afghanistan. Mr. Imle was a co-founder the Business-Humanitarian Forum, a Geneva-based non-profit that encourages greater cooperation between business and humanitarian groups.