Phillip grew up in Jos and is a founder/partner of Amaya Capital, an active investor in businesses in Africa. Amaya is the founding investor of Azura Power, an Africa-focused power generation business, and also in Seven Energy, a gas infrastructure business, where Phillip served as interim Chief Executive until the end of 2016.  Mr. Ihenacho was also founder of the London-based investment banking firm Afrinvest (UK) Limited, where he was involved in capital raising and acquisition advisory mandates in Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote d'Ivoire, on behalf of telecommunications companies, oil and gas companies, and financial institutions.  Prior to Afrinvest, Phillip worked with McKinsey & Co. in New York, London, Stockholm and Johannesburg.  Mr. Ihenacho is on the Africa Council of The Nature Conservancy, one of the largest conservation organisations based in the US, and is also a trustee of the Tusk Trust, a UK based, conservation organisation.

Junaid holds a degree in Economics & Business Politics from Cornell College, USA.  He worked with Credit Transactions and Investment Company Limited in the petroleum industry on the supply/export of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Base Oils, Aviation Fuel, and Premium Petroleum Spirit (PMS), to Nigeria’s Pipelines & Products Marketing Company/ NNPC.  He was also involved in the time charter & operations of a 30,000mt vessel to the Marine Transport Division of NNPC.  More recently he worked in telecoms where he ran a VSAT company providing Wide Area Networks (WAN), Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) to corporate organizations nationwide. He currently runs Ceres Recruitment Ltd focusing on the Oil & Gas and Telecoms sectors and a car leasing company providing fleet management services. He has served on the boards of United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), UBA Trustees Limited, First Securities Discount House Ltd (now First Securities Merchant Bank Ltd) and EMTS (Etisalat).

Tunde grew up in Ibadan and is Tropical Forest Conservation Specialist with 25 years’ experience in implementing conservation projects in Nigeria and elsewhere globally.  He is working with UNESCO and Nigerian organisations for the World Heritage Site nomination of Cross River National Park.  Tunde was a Partner at a consultancy company in the UK called ERM managing the social aspects of EIAs for companies in oil/gas, mining, power and agriculture, for which he developed management systems and resettlement action plans.  He helped projects to comply with international environmental and social standards to access international finance.  However, his true passion is forest conservation and now he works full-time for the ANI Foundation.

General Olajide is a childhood friend of Philip Ihenacho and grew up in Jos.  Jide had a long and successful career in the Nigerian military and rising to the rank of Brigadier General before retirement in Feb 2016. Jide has a BSc in Physics and a Masters’ in Public Administration and Strategic Studies in Defence, Security and Disaster Management from the University of Yaoundé. He has been the recipient of the Forces Services Star, Meritorious Service Star and Distinguished Service Star and Corps Medal of Honour, Field Command Medal as well as the United Nations Medal. Jide Laleye is now Head of Security and Logistics at Azura Power West Africa. Since 2017, he will support the Gashaka Project with activities such as overseeing the re-training of the rangers and their deployment across the park.