Tullow Oil PLC has announced the constitution of a Tullow Ghana Advisory Board to provide strategic guidance and advice on its operations in Ghana and the delivery of its 10-year business plan. 

The Advisory Board will also provide counsel on managing key relationships in Ghana and will assist with Tullow Ghana’s key objective of delivering shared prosperity to its host communities and the host country.

The independent members of the Tullow Ghana Advisory Board are Phyllis Christian, Chief Executive Officer of Shawbell Consulting; Elly Ohene-Adu, Independent Consultant & Digital Financial Services Specialist; and Alex Hutton-Mills, Managing Director at Lincoln International LLP. Rahul Dhir, Tullow’s CEO, and Wissam Al-Monthiry, Tullow Ghana’s Managing Director, will attend all meetings of the Advisory Board with other senior Tullow executives joining meetings as appropriate. 

Commenting on the appointment of the Advisory Board, Wissam Al-Monthiry, Managing Director of Tullow Ghana, said:

“The Tullow Ghana Advisory Board will bring a depth of experience and expertise in support of our business in Ghana where we will continue to be a committed long-term investor. I look forward to working with the Advisory Board to further advance our business and interests in Ghana.” 

PROFILE OF THE BOARD

Phyllis Marie Christian 

Chief Executive Officer, ShawbellConsulting

Ms. Phyllis M. Christian is a seasoned Lawyer, with an extensive professional and experiential track record in the provision of legal, business advisory, institutional reform, and other professional services to organizations in Ghana and internationally. She is currently the CEO of ShawbellConsulting, a hybrid firm of lawyers and management consultants founded in 2002 with expertise in the provision of Legal, Governance, Institutional Development and Restructuring, Operational Systems and Processes, Strategic Planning, Policy Formulation, Regulatory Reform, Public-Private Partnerships and Capacity Building services to private sector organizations, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and NGOs.

Ms. Christian’s professional career has spanned several industries and sectors including Oil and Gas, Power and Renewable Energy, Mining and Minerals, Cocoa, Transportation and Ports, Financial, Justice, and Health sectors since her call to the Ghana Bar in 1981, after graduation from the University of Ghana in 1977.

She worked with multinational firms including Ernst and Young in Ghana, now EY, and Fidelity Investments in the USA, and was a Senior Legal Officer at the Ghana Cocoa Board prior to that.  As a Legal Consultant, Phyllis has served global clients such as Transocean, Tap Oil, and Amazon International (Amazon.com) in Ghana.

She has also provided professional services to strengthen key government institutions including the Petroleum Commission, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, and the National Petroleum Authority. Through her work, she has been engaged with Development Partners such as the AfDB/IFC, World Bank, DFID, EU, DANIDA, UNDP, GIZ, USAID, CIDA, and the Open Society Initiative. 

Phyllis is an avid proponent of indigenous participation in business, who has been listed as a leading legal practitioner in the International Who’s Who of Corporate and Energy Lawyers, leading ShawbellConsulting to win three awards for best legal and consulting firm within Ghana’s oil industry.

She has also held governance-level positions and was appointed Statutory Advisor to the Board of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund in 2015. Phyllis has also served on the Boards of the Ghana Water Company, Community Water and Sanitation Agency, Prudential Bank, the Institute of Democratic Governance, and is Chairperson of the Ethics Committee of the Ghana Football Association.

Ms Christian acquired International Law qualifications from her postgraduate study in the UK, and holds continuing educational credentials in Negotiating International Transactions, Negotiating Engineering Contracts; Financial Management, Value for Money, and Public-Private Partnership Transactions, among other disciplines.  

Elly Ohene-Adu 

Independent Consultant & Digital Financial Services Specialist 

Elly Ohene-Adu is a Digital Financial Services specialist with expertise in Financial Services, Payment Systems Regulation and Oversight, and Financial Inclusion policy formulation. Elly has nearly four decades of experience in central banking and financial services having worked with the Bank of Ghana where she specialized in payment system policy design, implementation and oversight.

She is accredited with the passage of ground-breaking regulations which allowed non-banks to issue electronic money thereby setting the path for the increase in financial account ownership and financial inclusion in Ghana.

As a consultant, Elly has worked with the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), Bankable Frontiers and Associates (BFA), Better Than Cash Alliance (BTCA) and Central Banking Publications Limited (CBP). Under the auspices of BTCA, she developed Ghana’s first ever Digital Payments Roadmap published by Government in 2020. Elly has served as a resource person on discussion panels by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the Smart Campaign and SWIFT. As a subject matter expert on financial inclusion, she has had speaking engagements with AFI, CPFI, CFI-Accion, CGAP and BTCA amongst others. She is currently a member of the boards of Ghana Interbank Payment & Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) and Bank of Africa Ghana Limited. She is also a Senior Technical Advisor with the UNCDF’s Better Than Cash Alliance (BTCA).

Mrs. Ohene-Adu is a member of the Financial Inclusion Forum Africa and the Chair of its National Advisory Council. She has an MBA from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, a Postgraduate Diploma in Banking and Financial Services from Boston University, and a BA Hons in Economics and English from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Alex Hutton-Mills 

Managing Director, Lincoln Pensions Ltd

Alex is a Partner in the Cardano Group, a specialist asset management firm, and a Managing Director at Lincoln Pensions Ltd (owned by Cardano), which he co-founded in 2008. He has over 20 years’ corporate finance experience and specialises in advising employers, capital providers and UK DB pension scheme trustees on the financial aspects of corporate transactions involving DB pension schemes. He has also acted as an expert witness for The Pensions Regulator.

Alex has extensive experience in UK pensions matters and their impact on corporate finance transactions, in particular, M&A, capital markets and restructuring transactions.  He has advised on multiple transactions across a variety of industries including UK and cross-border public and private M&A, debt and equity capital raisings, joint venture arrangements and refinancing and / or restructuring transactions.

Previously at Citigroup, Alex was part of the Global Special Situations and Insurance & Pensions Structured Solutions Groups, acting as a principal, investing in a variety of situations in EMEA on Citigroup’s account.

Alex qualified as a solicitor at Norton Rose working on corporate finance and restructuring transactions before moving to Shearman & Sterling, the Wall Street law firm, and subsequently onto Citigroup.

He is a Senior Adviser to Lincoln International, the global mid-market investment bank, and is a trustee director of GOAL, a $200m development aid charity headquartered in Ireland, providing essential financial and operational aid in some of the most challenging jurisdictions and circumstances.