Bert Cooper

Founder and Advisor to the Board
Afren PLC

Mr Cooper, a Liberian national, has been active in the African natural resources sector for over 25 years. During the 1980s he devised and led an initiative to restructure what, at the time, was Liberia's biggest industrial project - an iron ore mining company with capital investment of over US$600 million. At one time the company in question was Africa's largest stand-alone producer of iron ore.

Mr Cooper implemented the sequential and structured buyouts of Bethlehem Steel Corporation's and Granges International Mining's (an affiliate of AB Electrolux) interests in the project and, in the process, formed Liberia's mining parastatal, LIMINCO. Prior to the outbreak of civil war in Liberia LIMINCO's management, marketing and financing needs were contracted to Mr Cooper's companies.

With a keen interest in oil and gas over the years, and with past and present involvement in the marketing of petroleum products, Mr Cooper was a principal member of the team that founded Afren and continues in a formal capacity as Advisor to the Board.

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