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The team
CITAC's team members are highly enthusiastic about their work. The combined knowledge and experience of our team represents decades of close involvement in every aspect of the energy industry in Africa. All of our personnel have previously worked for Major Energy Companies, Oil Trading, Marketing and Finance Companies and have considerable experience in the energy industry in Africa, as can be seen from their résumés. All of CITAC Africa LLP's permanent employees and the majority of CITAC's associates are fully bilingual in French and English
Members:
Our team
Mark Elliott
Chairman
Mark has 35 years of oil business experience, with an emphasis on trading and refining in Africa. He has worked in the UK, the USA, West Africa, Algeria, Italy and France. His experience includes work with Vitol, Chevron, Gulf Oil, Booz-Allen & Hamilton and Total.
Gary Still
Executive Director
Gary has 25 years of oil business experience in the marketing of Aviation fuels and Oil products gained by trading in Africa. Gary has worked in the UK and West Africa with Trafigura Ltd., Channoil and Shell International Trading & Shipping Co.
David Bleasdale
Executive Director
David has over 20 years senior management experience in downstream oil spent with the Total group, including refining, retail, wholesale/consumer/specialities sales & marketing, distribution and trading. For 6 years he managed Total’s worldwide Marine Fuels and Lubmarine divisions in Paris, prior to which he directed Logistics and Commercial Sales at Total UK. David also headed up product trading for Total in both Europe and Singapore during 10 years in the Trading & Shipping division. He has extensive financial, strategy and audit experience.
Elitsa Georgieva
Manager, Consulting Services
Elitsa has degrees in Economics and Political Science and M.Litt in Middle East Security from the University of Aberdeen. She has experience in consulting services and has worked as an oil market fundamentals analyst, refining sector analyst and macroeconomics analyst for ISI Emerging Markets (a Euromoney company), Petroleum Economics Ltd. (PEL) and KBC Process Technology.
Richard Augood
Database/ICT Manager
Richard is responsible for developing and maintaining CITAC's award-winning Africa Downstream Database, and also contributes to consultancy projects and CITAC's regular reports. Before joining CITAC Richard spent seven years working for Platts, as well as acquiring 4 years dealing room experience at a major Italian bank. Richard speaks English, French and Romanian.
James McCullagh
Consulting Analyst
James’s main responsibilities relate to crude and product market analysis, import parity pricing and oil product demand forecasting – all with a focus on West and Central Africa. He is a major contributor to CITAC’s Sub-Saharan Africa Oil Market Reports and other CITAC publications. James joined CITAC from a marketing consultancy where he worked with major French companies from a range of sectors. He also has wide experience of North Africa.
Marie Shaw
Finance Manager
Marie was born in France and moved to the UK in 1998 after completing her studies in Literature at the University of Toulouse. She is bilingual in French and English and also speaks Spanish, Italian and Japanese. Before joining CITAC Marie worked as a management accountant and Finance Manager for a consultancy company. She is presently studying for ACCA accounting qualifications.
Karen Chevalier
Sales & Marketing Coordinator
Karen has a marketing and communication degree obtained at Brussels University and she worked several years in the publishing industry, within a European association. In conjunction she created her own consultancy company specialised in event management. She worked on behalf of numerous clients, including communications agencies and associations at international level. Karen was born in Belgium and she speaks French, English, Dutch and Italian. In 2010, she moved to England and joined CITAC.
Solenn Duval
Administrative Coordinator
Sol was born in France and moved to the UK in 2005. She has an International Marketing and Management degree and a Trilingual Personal Assistant Diploma. She is trilingual in French, English and Spanish. Before joining CITAC, Sol worked in a business school as an Office Manager. She is in charge of the administrative part such as travel arrangements, organisation of training courses and workshops and General administrative work.
Associate consultants
Suzanne Taylor
Business And Training Consultant
Suzanne has 12 years of experience in the oil industry. She worked in the London trading office of TOTAL S.A. for six years, including two years specialising in Risk Management with the responsibility for planning and delivering management training programmes. In addition to her oil industry credentials, Suzanne is also qualified as a lecturer in adult education. She is a guest lecturer at the IPE (International Petroleum Exchange).
Neil Fleming
Markets And Training Consultant
Neil has 20 years experience in the energy industry. Neil was the Vice-President of Information and Trading Services at Platts, and previously, Editorial Vice-President. Experienced in project management, market design and price discovery, Neil was responsible for Platts' expansion into the power and gas sectors in Europe, and changes in market pricing, including the Brent-Forties-Oseberg Benchmark. A former journalist, he has worked extensively in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the Middle East.
George Dikker Hupkes
Business Consultant
George has 30 years of oil experience in Marketing and General Management. He has worked with Shell International in both East and West Africa as well as in the Far East. George was latterly Change Manager for Shell Oil Products for the North, West and East African regions.
Hugh Goldsmith
Business Consultant
Hugh has 30 years of oil management experience in marketing and logistics with the emphasis on economically disturbed markets in Africa and the Caribbean. He has worked with Shell International in Togo, Haiti, Uganda, Chile, Kenya, Japan, the UK, Hong Kong and Thailand. Most recently Hugh has been operating as Managing Director of Trigon Energy in Ghana.
David Crabbe
Business Consultant
David has 16 years experience in the energy industry gained with TOTAL in a variety of project management, marketing, planning and analysis roles. This includes three years as a Strategy and Development Executive for Refining and Distribution specialising in assessing investment and divestment opportunities. In addition to his oil industry credentials, David has also project managed the development of fraud detection systems for a UK retailer.
Robert Cosic
Refining Consultant
Bob is a chartered chemical engineer with over 30 years oil industry experience in Fuels and Lubricants. He has held positions in senior business management, corporate and market strategy development, process engineering, refinery planning and HSEQ with Mobil, Amoco, Murco, Elf and Total in Europe and Africa. He is a guest lecturer at the South African Petroleum Industry Association Development Programme and the Minerals and Energy Education Training Institute.
Hubert Charbonneau
Refining Consultant
Hubert has spent all his working life in refining for the TOTAL group. He was in charge of all Total’s refining outside Europe and has detailed knowledge of many African refineries through Technical Assistance contracts. He has also been involved in state-of-the-art refining projects such as synthetic crude upgrading in Venezuela, tar sands refining in Alberta, the Qatar Laffan condensate refinery and refining projects in China. He brings considerable commercial experience to add to his technical refining skills.
Mike Blunden
Technology Consultant
Mike is a chartered chemical engineer with more than 37 years experience in the oil industry. He started his career in the chemical industry before moving to contracting and oil refining. He spent more than 20 years with UOP as a sales manager covering Europe, Africa and major oil companies selling process technologies,catalysts and services.
Careers
Here at CITAC we are always eager to hear from interested individuals with the skills and experience to make a positive contribution to our team.
If you think you have something to offer please contact us and tell us a bit about yourself.