Ambassador (rtd.) Howard F. Jeter, Director
Howard F. Jeter has served as a director since April 2005. Ambassador Jeter retired from the State Department in 2003 after a distinguished 27 year career in the Foreign Service. He retired with the rank of Career Minister. Ambassador Jeter served as the United States Ambassador to Nigeria. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, State Department Director for West Africa, President Clinton's Special Envoy for Liberia, and Ambassador to Botswana, respectively. Ambassador Jeter was Deputy Chief of Mission and later Charge d’Affaires, ad interim, in Lesotho and Namibia. He also had multi-year assignments in Tanzania and Mozambique. Ambassador Jeter has lived and worked in Africa for more than 18 years. In 2006, Ambassador Jeter was named President and CEO of the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, from which he retired in 2008. Ambassador Jeter also chaired the Africa Advisory Group of the U.S. Export-Import Bank and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Africare and the Center for International Affairs at Morehouse College. In Nigeria, he is an Honorary Board Member of the Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation, the Outreach Foundation, and was recently named to the International Advisory Board of the Ken Nnamani Centre for Leadership and Development.
Andrew C. Uzoigwe, Director
Dr. Uzoigwe has served as a director since April 2005. Dr. Uzoigwe started his career with Dow Chemical Company where he held various senior positions in its Walnut Creek Research Center and in its Specialty Chemicals Production Facility in Pittsburgh, California. He joined the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in 1981. During his tenure at NNPC, Dr. Uzoigwe held several senior technical and management positions, including Chief Engineer and Project Coordinator (Petrochemicals), Group General Manager (R&D Division), and Managing Director of NNPC’s Refining and Petrochemicals subsidiaries. In 1999 he was appointed the Group Executive Director (Exploration and Production), a position he held until he retired from NNPC in 2002. Dr. Uzoigwe is a Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer and a Registered Professional Chemical Engineer in the State of California. He is also a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers and a Fellow of the Polymer Institute of Nigeria.
Friday Oviawe, CPA, Director
Mr. Friday Oviawe is the Managing Partner/CEO of Jackson Friday CPA, LLC (“the Firm”). He has over 20 years of professional audit and accounting experience. The Firm is involved in providing tax, audit and accounting services to small and medium-sized companies. Prior to establishing the Firm, Mr. Oviawe worked at BDO, Seidman, LLP as a Senior Audit Manager in General Audit Services. Before joining BDO Seidman, Friday Oviawe was a Manager in the New York office of McGladrey & Pullen, LLP where he provided audit and business advice services to middle market companies in both the private and public sectors and not-for-profit organizations including A-133 Audits. Before joining McGladrey & Pullen, Mr. Oviawe spent over six years with Mitchell & Titus, LLP. At Mitchell & Titus, he provided audit and business services to fortune 500 companies as well as small and medium-sized companies. Mr. Oviawe is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Mr. Oviawe is a Chartered Accountant as well as a Chartered Banker. In addition, he holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Finance.
Peter Ntephe, PhD, President, CEO and Director
Peter Ntephe has been Chief Executive Officer of ERHC Energy since 2010. He has been involved with the Company's international operations in various management and consulting capacities, since 2001. His roles have included fundamental participation in negotiating, securing and maintaining all the group's oil and gas interests in sub-Saharan Africa. As Chief Executive officer, he oversees the executive management of ERHC Energy and its subsidiaries, ensuring that the group’s strategic objectives are met. Under Dr. Ntephe’s leadership, the Company has more than doubled the size of acreage under its control and expanded its strategic focus to include onshore acreage, which is comparatively cheaper and less complicated to explore than deep offshore acreage. The Company has also rapidly grown its in-house technical capabilities, enabling it to directly operate its onshore assets in a strategic shift from the non-operator model it previously ran. Dr. Ntephe has had a career spanning 29 years, in the public and private sectors. In addition to his PhD from the University of London, he holds five other degrees including a Master of Science from the University of Oxford, a Master of Laws from the University of London and a Master of Science (Management) from the Brunel University, London. Dr. Ntephe has previously taught as adjunct faculty in the Business School of the American Intercontinental University, London. He is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) as well as of the Committee on Oil and Gas Law of the International Bar Association.
Management and Administration
Sylvan Odobulu, Vice President (Administration) and Controller
Sylvan Odobulu was promoted to Vice President - Administration in January 2012. He has been involved in the Company’s executive management as a Financial Officer and Controller from 2006 until 2011. Mr. Odobulu is responsible for identifying and developing new Sub-Saharan African indigenous upstream oil and gas interests and business opportunities through mergers and acquisitions. He played a leadership role in executing the successful Production Sharing Contract negotiations of ERHC’s portfolio assets in the Republic of Chad. He is an expert in local acquisition activities, management of government stakeholders and the integration of all development exploration activities at the regional level. In his role as Vice President - Administration, Mr. Odobulu is responsible for corporate wide treasury, human resource and internal controls. As Principle Accounting Officer, Mr. Odobulu is responsible for regulatory and disclosure compliance including preparation of financial statements and other requisite disclosure documents. Prior to joining ERHC and since 1999, Mr. Odobulu was employed by Ernst and Young LLP, serving in various capacities, most recently as an Accounting Supervisor. He holds a Master of Business Administration from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Texas, majoring in Accounting. Mr. Odobulu is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN).
Dr. Ken Seymour, Senior Petroleum Engineer
Dr. Ken Seymour is a highly experienced petroleum engineer who has worked in E&P for over 30 years. He has extensive experience in Africa, particularly in Angola and Nigeria. His key competencies include E& P deal creation and asset acquisition, portfolio management, joint venture and asset management, drilling, development and production management and well engineering. Dr. Seymour previously worked with E.ON, Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and CNR International, among other companies. He earned a First Class Honours Degree in Mining Engineering and a PhD in Rock Mechanics at University of Leeds. He also earned an MBA at Aberdeen/Robert Gordon’s University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Petroleum Institute. He has authored many technical papers and presentations on African E& P including, “The True Value of Marginal Field Developments,” “Signpost to the Deepwater ~ A Technology Road Map,” and “Scenarios for Deep Water Intervention and Completions,” and “Nigerian Gas – The Entry Challenge.”
Michael Shafie, Senior Geoscientist
Michael Shafie is a Technical Consultant and Senior Geoscientist for ERHC Energy Inc. and its subsidiaries. Mr. Shafie has 29 years of experience in exploration and development of oil and gas fields throughout the shelf and deep water provinces of West Africa, the U.S., Malasia, Vietnam, Egypt, Venezuela and Black Sea. He worked for major, independent and national exploration and production companies such as El Paso, Unocal, Petronas, PDVZA, OXY USA and Vanco Energy, contributing to discovery of significant volumes of oil and gas reserves. Mr. Shafie is experienced in evaluation and acquisition of oil and gas producing properties and expert in offshore lease sales projects. A member of Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Geophysical Society of Houston and Southwest Louisiana Geophysical Society, Mr. Shafie earned Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science degrees from Florida State University.
Peter Kinyua Thuo, PhD., Geologist and Geochemist
Dr. Thuo is a highly qualified exploration geologist and geochemist. His 26 years with the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK) provides invaluable knowledge and experience for ERHC Energy, particularly on the exploration potential of basins in East and Central Africa. Prior to early retirement from the NOCK in 2011, Dr. Thuo served as Exploration Team Leader, leading the Exploration and Production department. In addition to sitting on the National Fossil Fuels Advisory Committee, which negotiates terms of the Production Sharing Contracts, Dr. Thuo had extensive experience working as a senior geologist and geochemist in the NOCK. Dr. Thuo earned his Postgraduate Diploma in Exploration Geology from the University of London, Masters of Science Degree in Geology from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and a PhD from the Université de Bretagne Occidentale in France. He has authored many technical papers and presentations on African E&P, especially on the petroleum prospectivity of the Mesozoic and Tertiary Rift Basins of Kenya.
Reginald Sewell, J.D., MBA
Reginald Sewell, J.D., MBA, is an attorney with Warner & Associates PLLC and serves as ERHC Energy's Corporate Counsel. With more than a decade of experience in legal and business matters, Mr. Sewell's practice areas include business organization and governance, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, private placements, joint ventures and private equity within the energy space. His primary responsibilities throughout his previous roles included structured finance and joint venture organization and acquisitions. Mr. Sewell has lived, worked and studied in Sao Paulo, Brasil and Bangalore, India. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Morehouse College, a Master's of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law. Mr. Sewell is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) as well as of the Committee on Oil and Gas Law of the International Bar Association.
