Louis Lodewyk Coetzee, BA, MBA
Non-Executive Chairman
Louis Coetzee has 27 years’ experience in business development, promotion and financing in both the public and private sector. In earlier years, he concentrated on exploration and mining ventures where he has founded, promoted and developed a number of junior mineral exploration companies based mainly on Tanzanian assets. Over the past seven years, he has focused his attention on developing a comprehensive portfolio of energy projects in Southern Africa and the United Kingdom.
Louis has tertiary qualifications in law and languages, project management, supply chain management and an MBA from Bond University, Australia, specialising in entrepreneurship, and business planning and strategy. Over the course of his career, he has worked in various project management and business development roles, mostly in the mining and energy sectors.
Pieter Krügel, ACA, BFP, CA (SA)
Chief Executive Officer and Executive director
A qualified and registered Chartered Accountant by profession, Pieter holds extensive qualifications that include a post-graduate degree with honours in accounting science from the University of South Africa. He is a highly experienced and entrepreneurial leader with over 14 years of financial, senior management and executive experience. His journey is marked by successful tenures in multiple management and leadership positions with various leading companies globally, where he has leveraged his experience in capital markets and funding, M&A, corporate restructuring, complex operational and financial management, and strategic planning. He holds memberships to a range of credible, affiliated professional bodies, most notably the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), making him a driving force in the profession.
He has been intimately involved in the flexible-power market in the UK and MED’s founding since 2018, and he was also part of the core team that led to the successful IPO of MED in 2021, before taking over as CEO of MED during 2022.
Paul Venter
NON-Executive Director
Paul Venter has 35 years’ experience within the mining and power-generating industries. He spearheaded the projected development of an integrated open-pit mine, 4 by 150 MW power plant and 200-kilometre transmission complex in Mongolia prior to successfully rebranding and leading the developing of Ncondezi Coal into an integrated open-pit mine with 2 by 150 MW power plants and 93-kilometre transmission complex.
In recent years, Paul established Mast Energy Projects Limited and contributed to the successful sale of a 60% equity interest of Mast Energy Projects Limited to Kibo Energy PLC. Between 1982 and 1998, Paul was a certified financial accountant of South Africa. Furthermore, he holds an MDP in Mining from the University of South Africa and an honours degree in Business Administration from Potchefstroom University, South Africa. From 2009 to 2012, he was a director and the Vice-President of Energy Operations at Canadian-listed Prophecy Coal Corp and from 2012 to 2015, he held the position of Chief Executive Officer of Ncondezi Energy, an AIM-listed company (AIM: NCCL). Paul is the former CEO of Mast Energy Developments.
Dominic Traynor
NON-Executive Director
Dominic Traynor is a London-based company director and solicitor who specialises in equity capital markets, as well as a partner at Druces LLP, one of London’s oldest law firms. At Druces, and formerly at niche capital-markets firm Ronaldsons LLP, he advised on the structuring and listing of more than 30 companies on the main market and Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
In addition to this, he is a director of fintech investment group Prism Group and its associated WizzFinancial payment service companies and LSE-listed battery metals company Critical Mineral Resources, and was a founding director of Australian-Saudi electric-vehicle battery materials company EV Metals Group PLC and AIM-listed construction materials company SigmaRoc PLC in addition to sitting on the boards of a number of other companies. Dominic also has extensive experience in corporate governance and graduated from the College of Law, York, before receiving his LLB from Durham University, England.