Alirio A Parra was Venezuela’s Minister of Energy and Mines from 1992 to 1994 and head of its OPEC delegation. He is a past President of the OPEC Conference and of the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE). As Minister of Energy and Mines he was Chairman of the Stockholders Assembly of PDVSA. As a member of the Presidential Commission on Oil Nationalisation in 1975, Dr Parra participated in the smooth transition of the Venezuelan oil industry to the then newly created Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., of which he became a founding Board Member. During Dr Parra’s 15-year tenure on the Board of PDVSA he helped shape the national oil company into a highly efficient entity that significantly increased the reserves position of the country, initiated the development of Orinoco heavy crudes, modernised the downstream including the revamping of the refinery sector in Venezuela and integrated abroad both into US and European markets. Dr Parra is a previous President of the International Association of Energy Economists (1988), and a past Chairman of the British Institute of Energy Economics (1997) and the Oxford Energy Policy Club (1984-95). He has also been a Member of the International Advisory Board of Total S.A. He is currently a Director and Senior Associate of The CWC Group and chairman of the Advisory Board of the Energy Intelligence Group (EIG), Washington DC. He is Vice-President of the Anglo-Venezuelan Society, London. In October 2006, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the British Institute of Energy Economics.

Nordine Ait-Laoussine is currently President of Nalcosa, an energy consulting firm based in Geneva (Switzerland).
After serving in various capacities in the Algerian Ministry for Industry and Energy between 1965 and 1969, Mr Ait-Laoussine was appointed in 1970 to the position of Senior Executive Vice President of Sonatrach in charge of the upstream activities of the company and in 1972 to the position of Senior Executive Vice President in charge of the downstream. Following his departure from Sonatrach in September 1979, Mr Ait-Laoussine established himself as an international consultant, first in Vienna (Austria) where he served as advisor to the OPEC Secretariat and then in Geneva, where he created Nalcosa in 1980. Mr Ait-Laoussine was appointed in 1981 as Managing Director of Geneva-based International Energy Development Corporation (IEDC) and President of IED Consultants. Following the take-over of the IEDC Group by KPC, Mr Ait-Laoussine was appointed in July 1985 as Chief Operating Officer of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co., Kufpec (a wholly owned subsidiary of KPC) and served in this capacity until December 1986. Currently with these activities, Mr Ait-Laoussine played an active role within OPEC during the 1970s. He served as Minister of Energy in the Algerian government from June 1991 to July 1992. He is a member of the Oxford Energy Policy Club, the Advisory Board of the Energy Intelligence Group (EIG), the Geneva Petroleum Club (GPC), the Paris Energy Club and the International Advisory Board of Dana Gas.

Alastair has been Senior Political Analyst at Nomura since October 2008, having first joined Lehman Brothers in that capacity in August 2005. He is responsible for identifying and analysing political events worldwide likely to impact on markets. In addition to his signature periodical Issues Which Keep Me Awake At Night, he has written major studies on China, India and North Korea, as well as numerous shorter papers. He is currently President of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.
Prior to joining Lehman, Alastair spent 20 years with the British Diplomatic Service

Katsumi Kuroda, Senior Vice President, Energy Business, Mitsubishi Corporation International (Europe) PLC, & General Manager of Energy Business for Europe, CIS, Middle East and Africa, Mitsubishi Corporation,Tokyo.
Mr Kuroda joined Mitsubishi Corporation in 1979 and has been in charge of energy business since then, having experienced assignments at Tokyo, New York, Hiroshima and London.He is currently responsible for all the Energy Business of Mitsubishi Corporation, especially new business development of Upstream and Natural
Gas in aforementioned regions.

Lord Browne was born in 1948. He holds degrees from Cambridge and Stanford Universities. He joined BP in 1966 and in 1984 he became Group Treasurer. In 1989, he became Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BP Exploration based in London. In September 1991, he joined the Board of The British Petroleum Company p.l.c. as a Managing Director. He was appointed Group Chief Executive on June 10, 1995. Following the merger of BP and Amoco, he became Group Chief Executive of the combined group on December 31, 1998 until 1 May 2007. He is a Managing Director and Managing Partner (Europe) of Riverstone Holdings LLC; President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Royal Society and a foreign member of the US Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was appointed a Trustee of the Tate Gallery on 1 August 2007 and Chairman of the Trustees on 26 January 2009. He is Chairman of the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance. He was appointed the UK Government’s Lead Non-Executive Board member in June 2010. He is Chairman of a variety of advisory boards.He was Chairman of the Advisory Board of Apax Partners LLC from 2006 - 2007. He was a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs from 1999 to 2007, a non-executive director of Intel Corporation from 1997 – 2006, a Trustee of The British Museum from 1995-2005, a member of the Supervisory Board of DaimlerChrysler AG from 1998 – 2001 and a non-executive director of SmithKline Beecham from 1996-1999.He was voted Most Admired CEO by Management Today from 1999 – 2002. He has been awarded 18 honorary degrees. He was knighted in 1998 and made a life peer in 2001.

Arthur Hanna is the international managing director of Accenture's global Energy practice. Prior to taking on this position, Arthur headed up the Energy Downstream business and led a wide portfolio of work for a variety of super major and NOC clients. During his career at Accenture, he has focused primarily on business strategy development and implementation. His client experiences span post-merger integration, new operation model architectures and implementation, consumer research, brand management, new product development, market-entry strategies and global deployment of new operating models and systems. Mr Hanna has had broad international experience, having led engagements in Argentina, Australia, China, India, Germany, Italy, Kuwait and the United States. While working in the industry, he and his family have been posted to Dubai, Oman, France and the United States. Mr Hanna joined Accenture in 1990 and became a senior executive in 2000. Prior to joining Accenture, he had 10 years of international management experience with BP Oil International. He now lives in London and enjoys watching rugby and cricket with his family. Arthur has a BSc (Hons) in Economics and Economic Policy from Loughborough University, England.

Elias Kassis is currently Managing Director of Total EP Iraq. Previously, he has assumed several positions in Total which he joined in the early 1990s where he worked in the Trading Division, in the Gas & Power Division and Exploration and Production Division. In 2002 he took the position of Asset Manager of the Sincor project in Venezuela, and then in 2005 held the responsibility of managing the Group’s activities for its non-operated ventures (Qatargas) as well as business development in Qatar. In 2006, Elias Kassis returned to the Headquarters and was appointed in 2008 Vice President Middle East for Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East Division. Elias Kassis is an engineer from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble and has a Master Degree in Finance from ESSEC business school.

Motassim A. Al-Ma’ashouq is the Vice President of New Business Development. Previously he held the position of Treasurer of Saudi Aramco from 2005 until 2010.
Mr Al-Ma’ashouq was President and CEO of Petrol Corporation (JV with Saudi Aramco) in the Philippines from 2000-2003.
He serves as Chairman of Saudi Aramco Lubricating Oil Refinery Co. (Luberef), is a Board Member of Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh), and Aramco Services Company (ASC), the Saudi Aramco subsidiary in the USA.
Mr Al-Ma’ashouq has worked in the planning and joint venture activities during his career with Saudi Aramco since 1985.

Sami Al Rushaid is currently the Chairman and Managing Director (C&MD) of Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) responsible for all Oil & Gas Exploration and Productions Operations in Kuwait. He was C&MD of Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) from October 2004 till October 2007. He had enjoyed a long and illustrious career at KNPC where he had held a number of positions including Corporate Planning Manager, Executive Assistant Managing Director (Planning & Projects) and Deputy Chairman and Deputy Managing Director (Manufacturing) before being appointed C&MD of KNPC. He is also Board member of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) & a Council member for College of Graduate Studies in Kuwait Universit

Michael Townshend has 30 years in BP covering engineering, project management, operations, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions. Posts he held range from projects in Alaska, Australia, Holland, Indonesia, Nigeria, FSU and Washington. In 2002 he was appointed CEO of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline managing BP’s onshore business in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, including the South Caucasus gas pipeline, two further operating pipelines, three terminals, rail and shipping operations. He moved to Oman in 2007 to run the tight gas appraisal of Block 61 and then became BP President of Middle East and Pakistan. He was appointed President of BP Iraq in 2009 with BP’s successful bid for Rumaila. Michael Townshend holds an Honours degree in Engineering and an MBA with distinction.

Tony spent some 30+ years with BP in a variety of technical, commercial and management roles in Europe, Asia, Australasia, West Africa, South America and the US. His most recent BP post was as Commercial Director responsible for New Business Development across the Middle East. Tony left BP in 2006 to set up Oil Experience Ltd; a networked consultancy consisting of some 400 ex Major Oil Company professionals; the business was sold to RPS Energy in 2007. Tony continues to work in RPS on a variety of advisory projects.

Nader H Sultan is a Senior Partner in the company F&N Consultancy. The firm specialises in high level strategic advise related to the energy industry. Prior to this position, he had worked for 33 years in the Kuwait oil industry, and from 1993, he was the Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Planning of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC). In 1998, he was also appointed as the CEO of KPC. He retired in September 2004 and formed F&N Consultancy with his brother Fawzi. He is currently the Director of the Oxford Energy Seminar, which is an annual two week program, at St Catherine’s College, Oxford University. In Kuwait he is the Chairman of Ikarus Petroleum Industries, a newly established company with ownership in several petrochemical ventures in the GCC and serves on the Supervisory Board of the Al-Markaz Energy Fund. Outside of Kuwait, Mr Sultan serves on the International Advisory Boards of Dana Gas and Riverstone Holdings LLC, Schlumberger Business Consulting and the European and Middle East Panel for Nomura International Plc. Since late 2009, he has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Fluor Corporation. Mr Sultan was educated at King School Gloucester, and is a graduate of the University of London with a B.Sc. degree in Economics in 1971.

Tatsuo Masuda is Professor at the Nagoya University of Commerce and Business Graduate School and visiting Professor to the University of Paris-Dauphine. He also serves as advisor to JAPEX and board member of SOC Corporation. He was Vice President of Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC) from 2002 until its dissolution in 2005. He served as the Director of Oil Markets and Emergency Preparedness at the IEA from 1996 to 2001. He started as a diplomat in 1972, then joined MITI (now METI), where he was involved with oil and energy policy making. He graduated from Keio and Cambridge Universities.

Mr Vicente Bravo is the Managing Director Business Development for Repsol. He is responsible for Strategy, Portfolio and Acquisition & Divesture of E&P Assets worldwide. Mr Vicente Bravo received his first degree in Geology from University of Bilbao, Spain. In addition he has also undertaken PhD research in Sedimentology and Basin Analysis, University of Bilbao and an Executive MBA from the IESE Madrid, University of Navarra. With more than 17 years of international experience in the E&P Business, Mr Vicente Bravo, has worked in several senior positions in E&P as Exploration Manager in Spain, moving to Business Development and New Ventures worldwide. Previous to his current position, he was the Exploration Manager for North America, based in Houston.

Simon Bonini was most recently Centrica’s Director of LNG. He built Centrica’s LNG trading business around the Isle of Grain and developed business around acreage in Nigeria, Egypt, and Trinidad and Tobago. Simon has over twenty years of experience in the global LNG business and has been based in the USA, Trinidad, UK and mainland Europe. He spent 17 years at BG Group where he was responsible for the establishment of the global LNG trading business through the acquisition of LNG import capacity at Lake Charles and leadership of the LNG shipping business. While at BG he held the positions of President of LNG Trading and Shipping, Vice President Global LNG and President BG Trinidad & Tobago. Simon has worked within private equity as Chief Operating Officer for 4Gas, the independent LNG terminal developer based in the Netherlands. Prior to that he worked for Woodside of Australia developing an LNG entry strategy for North America. Simon Bonini graduated from Imperial College, University of London with a First Class Honours Degree in Chemical Engineering. He holds an MBA from INSEAD Fontainebleau, France. He is a Chartered Engineer and a fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

Mounir Bouaziz obtained an Engineering degree from the French Grande ’Ecole Arts et Metier and an MBA from Webster University. Mounir has been with the Royal Dutch Shell for 25 years now, initially in Exploration and Production working in Oman, the Netherlands and Gabon and then moved to Shell Gas and Power, initially in London, overseeing gas businesses in Latin America, including the development of cross regional gas pipelines and power generation. Mounir was appointed VP Upstream International MENA in September 2009. Mounir was the first senior IOC executive to visit Baghdad since 2003 and is the architect of the 2008 Heads of Agreement (HoA) with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil that sets out the commercial principles to establish a JV between Shell and the South Gas Company and Mitsubishi Corporation. The joint venture will gather, treat and process raw gas produced within Basrah and sell the processed natural gas and associated products for use in the domestic and export markets. Mounir also led the development efforts and planning for the Shell consortium’s winning bid for the Majnoon oilfield, in the second licensing round, and on 17 January 2010 signed the final contract for Majnoon in Baghdad. Mounir is originally from Tunisia and is trilingual. He is a member of the Shell Commercial Academy as Commercial Deal Leader and a founding Board Member of (Junior Achievement) INJAZ-UAE.