Michael Hutchinson began his career at Metallgesellschaft Ltd where he worked for 25 years, ultimately becoming the Managing Director in 1985.

Metallgesellschaft Ltd was a metal trading subsidiary of one of Germany’s largest industrial conglomerates. Additionally, Michael was a Board Member between 1986-2006 of the world’s largest market for industrial metal’s trading, the London Metals Exchange (LME).

Since this time, he has held a number of notable board and management roles, including Chairman of Metalloyd Ltd, a major supplier of steel and raw materials to traders, destructors and end-users and Chairman of Wogen Ltd, a speciality metals trading house.

He previously served as Non-Executive Chairman (from 2017-2021) of Bluejay Mining Plc, an AIM quoted mining exploration and development company, where he currently serves as a Non-Executive Director since January 2021.

In addition, he currently serves Chairman of Tiberius Group AG, a commodity trading and investment company based in the canton of Zug, Switzerland.

Ippolito Cattaneo is a UK national with a blend of financial and oil & gas experience, having started his career at Standard Chartered Bank. He has worked for more than five years in the position of Business Development and Investor Relations manager at Zenith Energy Ltd (a Canadian company listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Growth of the Oslo Stock Exchange) during which time he has developed significant experience in the requirements of a multiplicity of regulatory environments, as well as playing an important role in enabling Zenith Energy to implement its development objectives in Africa and in other regions, both operationally and on a corporate level.

He speaks four languages fluently (English, French, Spanish, and Italian) and has a wide network of contacts across the African continent. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Bristol.

Luca Benedetto is an Italian national, trained in Italy as a registered accountant with further education in IFRS accounting and consolidation at IPSOA Milan. He has more than twenty-five years of accounting, auditing and financial administration experience. Luca began his professional career as an accountant and computer programmer responsible for financial software development and worked for the Italian division of IBM as an internal auditor and accountant, as well as providing staff training in these aforementioned fields. He also served for seven years as a financial and administrative officer in a well-known Italian company specialising in the construction of fuel and water storage tanks.

He currently serves as Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of Zenith Energy Ltd., a company listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange and the Euronext Growth of the Oslo Stock Exchange with operations in Italy, Tunisia and the Republic of the Congo.