Pomy Ketema advises clients on the tax aspects of U.S. domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures, with an emphasis on deal structuring, due diligence, contract drafting and negotiations. Prior to joining Baker McKenzie, Pomy worked at a major international law firm and as in-house counsel at a global conglomerate.
Pomy has a burgeoning multidisciplinary practice in foreign direct investments flowing into emerging African markets, particularly Ethiopia and surrounding countries, where she leverages her background from her U.S. practice to deliver unique insights and innovative approaches in Africa-related transactions. Her broader experiences from prior positions where she handled hybrid corporate, commercial and tax projects enable her to maintain her agility to adapt to the settings and tasks at hand.
Pomy's role as Senior Counsel for seven years in the legal department of one of the largest oil and gas companies in the U.S. with a global intermediates business has endowed her with first-hand knowledge of the day-to-day business issues, the role of regulators, and the opportunities and challenges facing the industry.
Her primary responsibilities for negotiating enterprise zone and industrial district agreements as well as providing legal support to various business units, including a 30+ professionals tax/customs department, business development, R&D, logistics, and third-party commercial contracts teams, were instrumental in learning the financial drivers and facilitating efficiencies in local country arrangements, imports/exports, licensing and registrations, tax and customs reporting, market penetration strategies, and other initiatives and processes to enhance value and drive growth.
Wale Shonibare has over three decades experience spanning Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa in Investment Banking and Consulting. Wale joined the African Development Bank in 2017 as the inaugural Director of Energy Financial Solutions, Policy and Regulation. This team has established itself as a leading transactions team across Africa, having undertaken several Mandated Lead Arranger roles and launched well-acclaimed flagship initiatives to improve the enabling environment for private sector investment in the energy sector. Wale was the Acting Vice President, Power, Energy, Climate & Green Growth Complex at AfDB from May 2019 until April 2020.
Prior to joining the AfDB, Wale held various positions at management-level at United Capital (Nigeria), Renaissance Capital (UAE) and KPMG (UK; UAE). Wale has served on several industry panels, including the SEC Committee on the development of the 10-year Capital Markets Masterplan in Nigeria. He has also advised the Central Bank of Nigeria on policy incentives to boost private sector financing of infrastructure in Nigeria.
Wale holds a B.Eng (hons) in Civil Engineering from Glasgow University and an MBA from Imperial College, University of London.
Jaco Human is the Executive Officer for the Industrial Gas Users Association of Southern Africa. Mr. Human’s responsibilities include leadership to the industry on gas energy availability, policy and pricing. He is also the Co-Chairperson of the BUSA gas energy sub-committee.
Mr. Human provides strategic consulting and advisory services to private sector and government clients on gas energy strategy, capital projects, broad spectrum supply chain optimisation, logistics & distribution, procurement strategy & strategic sourcing, commercial negotiations & contracting, and organisational restructuring.
He is qualified and experienced in the strategic management across all supply chain disciplines, commodities trading, route-to-market and infrastructure developments in the FMCG, petrochemical, manufacturing, mining and logistics sectors across markets in Africa, United Kingdom and Middle East.
Paul Eardley-Taylor is responsible for Standard Bank’s Oil & Gas sector coverage activities for Southern Africa (11 countries), across upstream, midstream, downstream and services clients.
Paul has 22 years of energy corporate and investment banking experience, covering the Oil & Gas and Power & Utilities sectors and has been based in Africa for over 12 years. Since 2013, Paul has developed a particular expertise in Mozambique’s LNG and gas developments, supplemented by other regional developments.
Paul holds degrees from Birmingham University; London University and Henley Management College and has completed Harvard Business School’s Global Energy Seminar.
Kieran Whyte is a partner and head of Baker McKenzie's Projects Practice Group in Johannesburg. He has over 32 years' experience in the energy and infrastructure sector. Kieran's energy experience includes power generation, oil and gas, with a particular focus on renewable energy and clean technology, coal baseload and gas, in South Africa and Southern Africa. In the infrastructure sector, he has experience in road, rail and social infrastructure transactions. Kieran is seasoned in matters concerning PPP and concession agreements, project strategy and structuring EPC contracts including standard and bespoke forms of contracts, operation and maintenance contracts, fuel purchase and sale agreements and related matters. He is also experienced in advising clients from various sectors across the full spectrum of the project value chain.
Kieran's recent experience includes preparing a report for the African Development Bank for the study on Enabling Infrastructure Framework for Oil & Gas in Africa, which included a desktop study and in-country meetings with key public and private stakeholders. Initial countries reviewed included Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia. He has advised on a number of PPAs, as well as the corporate and financial aspects of the development of gas pipelines across Southern Africa.
Emeka Chinwuba is a partner in the New York office of Baker McKenzie and a member of the Banking, Finance and Major Projects Group. His experience includes general bank finance transactions (including acquisition financings, investment grade financings and asset-based lending transactions), project finance transactions in infrastructure and power projects including for renewable energy projects, brownfield asset acquisition transactions, parking and toll road concession transactions and US public private partnership transactions. His work has covered complex financing projects in the United States, South America, Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Emeka has worked for an extended period in the United Arab Emirates advising on the development and financing of renewable energy projects in the MENA region, and in connection with the development and financing of an over £2 billion 690 megawatt offshore wind farm project in the United Kingdom. In 2010, Emeka served as a volunteer prosecution attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in connection with the trial of genocidiares involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.