What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past twelve months?

I led the full legal and commercial workstream for a complex US$60mn deepwater oil and gas appraisal project, providing end-to-end support across contract strategy, risk management, and regulatory engagement. This included expedited drafting and negotiation of multiple oil and gas service agreements, a technically complex drilling contract and bespoke financing support structures including complex tripartite escrow contracts.

I also led negotiations and documentation for the placement of a comprehensive $300mn well insurance policy with both local and international underwriters, an essential risk-mitigation tool for the project. All contracts and financing support structures were completed within compressed timelines to meet critical operational deadlines, ensuring legal frameworks supported commercial imperatives under significant time pressure.

Furthermore, I directed the completion of a multi-million-dollar divestiture of the Group’s interest in a joint venture with an international oil and gas services company. This included managing negotiations, overseeing the full documentation process, and aligning the transaction with the Group’s broader strategic portfolio objectives.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

The legal function always plays a critical role during periods of instability or crises. In such moments, speed, efficiency, and continuous availability are paramount. Traditional working hours often become secondary, as lawyers must be consistently accessible to shape executive decision-making and provide real-time guidance. This immediacy offers comfort to management and other stakeholders, reinforcing the view that the organisation remains firmly on course despite volatility.

My priority in a crisis is to convene with the core crisis-management team to map out the full spectrum of legal and operational risks. These typically include regulatory exposure, potential sanctions, contractual breaches, negative media coverage, stakeholder disputes, and possible litigation. Once the risks are identified, I work with the leadership team to rank them by severity and likelihood, ensuring that management focuses its attention where the impact is most material. From there, I move into a phase of proactive mitigation. This may involve direct engagement with regulators to clarify the organisation’s position, outreach to key partners or lenders to maintain stability in relationships, or collaboration with the communications team to craft a press statement that pre-empts misinformation or manages emerging narratives. Early controlled communication is essential to protect reputational capital and maintain stakeholder confidence.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

The experience that stands out most distinctly in my career is helping to build an indigenous Ghanaian E&P company from inception by establishing its legal and compliance function. I moved in-house after advising the company, while still in private practice, on its acquisition of the deep-water licence from the Government of Ghana. Transitioning from external adviser to the architect of the internal legal function was both exciting and intensely challenging.

This role required me to design governance structures from a blank slate, develop standardised contract templates and operational policies, and lead negotiations across several milestone activities, including a major seismic acquisition campaign, a multi-well drilling programme, and the company’s first project finance facility.

I also had to navigate regulatory and partnership relationships at the highest levels, manage cross-border disputes, and simultaneously maintain close involvement with operational and strategic decision-making. The shift from private practice to in-house fundamentally reshaped my perspective. In private practice, we often described certain issues as “commercial matters” once the legal analysis was complete. In-house, the lawyer has no such luxury.

You must engage directly with the commercial implications, provide insight that informs strategy, and operate as a partner to the business, even when final decision-making rests with commercial executives. That level of immersion builds a broader professional muscle: you evolve not just as a legal adviser but as a commercial and strategic leader. This journey has shaped how I see myself today. With the depth of experience gained in legal structuring, governance, operational strategy, financing, regulatory engagement, and dispute management, I operate not only as a lawyer but as a commercial and strategy executive, one who brings a holistic, enterprise-wide perspective to every challenge.