Ethelbert Cooper has nearly 35 years experience in the African natural resources sector
In 2004, Mr Cooper was the principal founder of Afren plc. Afren is now a Main Market London Stock Exchange FTSE 250 listed oil and gas exploration and production company. Mr Cooper continues to play an important role in guiding these activities as Strategic Adviser to Afren.
Mr Cooper has also been involved in a wide range of other highly successful ventures.
During the 1980s, he performed a key role in the indigenisation of Liberia’s largest industrial project – the LAMCO iron ore mining venture, which had originally been launched two decades earlier with a US$600 million capital investment. His focus on his native continent’s iron ore sector continues in the present day, with the recent establishment of African Iron Ore Group, a company which is assembling a portfolio of prospective assets in several areas of West and Central Africa.
Mr Cooper also founded African LNG Holdings Limited, now owned by London-listed Gasol Plc. In addition, Mr Cooper recently founded and advises the Geneva-based African Energy Resources Fund. Mr Cooper`s career to date has been underpinned by a strong commitment to Africa. He has established African Power Generation Ltd.(AFGEN), which is working to introduce cheaper and cleaner "gas" as a fuel of choice to address the endemic and costly power shortages across Africa.
Furthermore, he is also a founding member and Chairman of the Liberian International Development Foundation, a founder of the US-based African African-American Foundation and a member of the Advisory Board of the WEB Du Bois Institute of African Studies at Harvard University.
Ethelbert Cooper earned a BA in Economics from Yale University in 1974.