Ethelbert Cooper’s lengthy career in Africa’s natural resources sector extends back to the late 1970s.
During the subsequent decade, he successfully directed a series of initiatives which resulted in the indigenisation of Liberia’s largest industrial project – the LAMCO iron ore venture at Yekepa and Buchanan - which had originally been established in the 1960s by major American and Swedish mining interests. Mr Cooper lead negotiations which resulted in the friendly transfer of the 25% stake of America’s Bethlehem Steel Corporation in this project to a special-purpose national company, and the ultimate assumption of total ownership and management control of the former LAMCO project by the same national company.
In the present day, Mr Cooper leads African Iron Ore Group, a company which is assembling a portfolio of prospective assets In West and Central Africa.
In the oil and gas sector, Mr Cooper was the principal founder of Afren plc, a London Stock Exchange FTSE 250-listed pan-African oil and gas exploration and production company which recently had a market capitalization of nearly US$3 billion. He plays an important ongoing role in guiding Afren’s expansion as the company’s Strategic Adviser.
Mr Cooper is also Founder of African LNG Holdings Limited, now owned by London-listed Gasol Plc, and he continues as Special Adviser to Gasol’s Board. In addition, Mr Cooper founded and advises a newly-established Swiss mutual fund, styled as the African Energy Resources Fund; and he has directed the launch of the new Afgen venture, which provides clean and cost-efficient gas-fuelled solutions to alleviate Africa’s chronic and increasing shortages of electric power.
Reflecting his strong personal commitment to addressing the continent’s social and economic issues, Mr Cooper is a founding member and Chairman of the Liberian International Development Foundation. He is also a founder and director of the US-based African African-American Foundation, and a member of the Advisory Board of the WEB Du Bois Institute of African Studies at Harvard University.