Today is International Women’s Day and we are thrilled to spotlight Martine De Beer, New projects and Commercial Manager EMEA, in the Role Model campaign pioneered by Equals.
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Chris started his career in HSE while serving in the Royal Air Force, which he continued after leaving the service and working for the Ministry of Défense, specializing in oil and gas storage and construction.
He left the public sector in 2012 and continued his career in the private sector, joining VTTI as projects HSE manager, where he worked on oil and gas projects in Kenya, Cyprus, UAE, South Africa, Croatia and Nigeria before joining GPS.
He joined the GPS Group in December 2018 and is subsequently the HSE Director responsible for all of the GES Group’s construction and development projects as well as providing guidance and support to existing operations.
Chris has maintained a high level of HSE performance over the last 32 years in both the public and private sectors, by his focus on caring about the people and their families that may be impacted by business operations and subsequently protecting them and the organisations he represents.
Martine has over 15 years’ experience in various commercial and management roles within the storage industry.
After finishing her MBA, she started as a trainee at Vopak, where she joined the Commercial team of the Chemical Terminals in Antwerp for five years. Martine subsequently joined VTTI, being part of the Management Team of their Amsterdam terminal and thereafter became responsible for the Commercial and Customer Service activities in the ARA region. After five years, Martine started her own consultancy firm. She contributed to the successful realization of several projects at Vesta Terminals, VTTI, MarTest Cambrian and Vattenfall, ranging from operational excellence to contract management.
Martine joined GPS in 2017 as the General Manager of the GPS Amsterdam terminal and has thereafter fulfilled the role of New Projects and Commercial Manager EMEA for GPS, and GES since its formation. Her areas of expertise include project sourcing and execution, including permitting, project management and operational excellence.
Graham started his career in the commodities sector, first at Marc Rich and then as a co-founder of Trafigura, where he led the oil trading team until his retirement.
More recently, he was a Senior VP for international trade at TNK-BP and, for eight years, Chairman of Puma Energy. In addition to his role with GES, Graham is also a Senior Advisor to Oliver Wyman and is an active investor in the renewable energy sector, having sat on the board of a number of successful start-ups.
Graham joined as independent Non-Executive Director of GES in 2021.
Andy holds a first class Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Birmingham. Andy has over 40 years of oil industry experience which he started in 1975 when he joined Shell as a refinery process engineer firstly in the UK and then in Germany.
Andy gained experience in operations, logistics and supply chain management before he moved to Shell’s London headquarters in 1991 where he was deeply involved in Shell’s downstream strategy and in the globalisation of supply and trading activities. In 1998 Andy joined the downstream MandA team and was responsible for a number of multi-billion dollar deals.
For the last 7 years of his Shell career Andy led the international business development team for Shell Trading. On retiring from Shell in 2013 Andy joined Bluewater PE as a consultant. He co-founded GPS in 2016 and was its executive chairman until the end of 2020 when he became a Non-Executive Director.
Yujun joined GPS Group in February 2017. Her primary responsibilities currently include financial modelling, due diligence, and execution support for M&A activities.
Prior to joining GPS, Yujun was a Specialist with American President Lines (“APL”), where she was involved in financial planning & analysis, due diligence, and asset management of APL’s global operations department.
Before APL, Yujun was a Senior Executive with both global and Asia regional headquarters of NYK Line. In NYK, she worked on global procurement and cost control, management reporting, as well as various process optimization projects.
Yujun holds a BSc (Hons) in Maritime Studies from Nanyang Technological University. She is also a member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants.
Mohd Soffiee is an Electrical Engineer with over 40 years’ experience in Oil and Gas, mostly in LNG and gas pipeline transmission projects. He spent over 26 years with Petronas and had also worked for Woodside and VTTI. Soffiee joined GPS Group in June 2017 and is now supporting GES in its Asian development efforts.
Soffiee was involved in Peninsular Gas Transmission PGU 2&3, MLNG Tiga Bintulu, Idku LNG Egypt, Pluto LNG Australia, Iran LNG, Shell Australia (downstream assets), Ain Sokna Refrigerated LPG Egypt and Chemaweyaat Abu Dhabi.
Soffiee’s roles in the above projects included feasibility studies, FEED, Detail Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Commissioning and Operations (PGU 2&3 and MLNG Dua) of the assets. In VTTI, Soffiee was involved in BD for terminal projects in Myanmar, Penang, ATB, Indonesia, Australia, and Vietnam.
Pal has spent his career working in finance and in the energy private equity space.
He joined Global Petro Storage Group (“GPS”) in January 2019 and is currently focusing on GES’s M&A activities, primarily outside of Asia.
Pal was previously with the energy specialist private equity fund, Blue Water Energy, and has gained experience in the oil and gas upstream and midstream sub-sectors, including Blue Water Energy’s investment in GPS in January 2016.
Prior to Blue Water Energy, Pal was an Investment Banking Analyst in the EMEA Diversified Industries & Real Assets team at J.P. Morgan in London.
Pal holds an MSc in Finance from Corvinus University Budapest and also a Masters in International Management from the National University of Singapore (CEMS MiM).
Mani has around 15 years’ experience working in various O&G and chemical supply chain roles in developing and optimizing cost effective supply chain infrastructures for oil majors, shipping companies and O&G storage terminals.
After graduating from University Technology Petronas in Malaysia with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he went to work for Shell Malaysia, where he was part of the downstream supply chain optimization team.
Mani subsequently joined MISC Berhad, a shipping subsidiary of Petronas and worked in a small team to develop (building) the chemical fleet for MISC’s Chemical Business Unit. He led the commercial DD for MISC while acquiring the 50% stake in VTTI from Vitol ($850mm) in 2010.
Upon acquisition of VTTI by MISC, he joined VTTI in 2012, in BD, working on numerous projects in Africa and LATAM. During his career in VTTI, he developed projects for VTTI in the USVI, Pakistan, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and notably the Burgan Cape Terminal in South Africa.
Mark Synnott, a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, started his career with BP before moving to Horizon Terminals and then VTTI. He joined the GPS Group in December 2016 as the Technical Director responsible for the Group’s construction and technical aspects of development works as well as providing technical advice to existing operations. At GES, he is responsible for overseeing all technical matters of the Group, including executing projects, technical support of business development efforts, and supervising major procurement and maintenance plans.
Over a period stretching nearly 30 years, Mark has been directly responsible for developing close to 5 million m3 of storage across the globe, having spent significant time in the Far / mid-East, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
Mark has extensive experience in Project Development and Implementation, including all aspects of the Design and Construction of Oil and Gas Storage Facilities, including the jetties/pipelines that serve them.
Sim Seow Wah is the CFO at GES Group, where he manages the company’s finances, corporate functions, and banking relationships. Sim is also the CFO of GPS.
Prior to GPS Group, Sim served as treasurer for VTTI, the global oil storage terminal operator. He joined VTTI at the start up stage, was instrumental in the growth of the terminal portfolio, and was responsible for arranging multi-million-dollar bank financing, to fund the expansion of VTTI. He also played a key role in taking VTTI public in 2014, and subsequently bringing VTTI to the US Private Placement market for a debt refinancing deal in 2015. Sim also held leadership roles in Vopak and ABB Lummus.
He holds a BS in Accountancy from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and an MSc in Finance from Erasmus University in the Netherlands.
Alan has over 25 years’ experience in M&A and corporate finance. As Chief Investment Officer of GES, Alan is responsible for arranging the funding, execution and structuring of projects in GES’s strong pipeline.
Alan joined GPS in Singapore in January 2019 as Corporate Finance Director, where he has the same responsibilities as his GES role. For the previous 10 years, Alan worked for private equity owned businesses in Corporate Finance and CFO roles, including Apollo Towers, a large telecom infrastructure business in Myanmar, where Alan was Head of Corporate Finance.
Prior to that, Alan was a private equity investor for over 15 years with Dubai International Capital, Prudential and 3i. He has led and managed numerous PE investments, acquisitions, and fundraisings with a transaction size of up to $1bn.
Alan has lived and worked in Asia and the Middle East for over 20 years. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and a graduate of the University of Strathclyde.
Eric is the Executive Chairman of GES Group and Chairman and CEO of GPS Group, of which he was a cofounder in early 2016.
Eric has nearly 40 years of storage and logistics experience. Eric started in the storage and logistics industry directly from university in 1982 in GATX in the US, learning terminal operations and engineering. After obtaining an MBA, his career developed commercially and as a leader. He spent 8 years establishing Vopak’s joint ventures in both Shanghai and Malaysia.
Eric was recruited as COO of the VTTI Group in 2007, where he was based in Holland and was responsible for the global operations of the Group across Argentina, Belgium, Latvia, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Kenya, Russia, the UAE, and the USA. In 2009 he became the Managing Director of VTTI Asia.
Peter has over 20 years’ experience in various commercial and senior management roles within the energy commodity sector, focusing on storage and logistics.
After graduating from Delft University of Technology with a master’s degree in engineering, he worked for Vopak in Rotterdam, where he was part of the business development team for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Peter subsequently joined Mercuria, one of the world’s largest independent energy trading companies, and worked in a small team to build out its midstream asset portfolio, including the storage terminals that were named as “Vesta Terminals”, of which 50% was divested to Sinomart KTS Development Ltd (part of Sinopec) in 2012.
After having held several senior roles (including Managing Director of the largest terminal of Vesta located in Antwerp, and Chief Commercial Officer for the group), Peter was appointed CEO and was responsible for leading the company, until he left to join GPS Group, where he is responsible for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, a function which he currently retains in parallel with being the CEO of GES.
