Leadership

Alf Christian Thorkildsen brings extensive leadership experience from the energy and offshore drilling sectors. Previous roles include more than 10 years as partner at the Norwegian investment company, HitecVision, CEO and CFO of Seadrill, and CFO of Smedvig ASA. Mr. Thorkildsen began his career at Larsen and Hagen Shipping and then spent two decades in senior roles at Shell. He holds a business degree from Handelsakademiet and an MBA from Arizona State University. 

Kurt Waldeland has experience from a range of roles across the financial and investment industry. He most recently served as a partner at the Norwegian investment company, HitecVision. Previous experience includes Hayfin Capital Management, a leading alternative asset management firm headquartered in London, where he was part of the Maritime Funds team, and Investment & Business Development at Breakwater Capital/Celsius Shipping in Copenhagen and Monaco. Mr. Waldeland began his career as an equity research analyst at Arctic Securities, covering the maritime transportation sector. He holds an MSc in Financial Economics from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH). 

Kjell Erik Jacobsen has more than 30 years of cross-sector industry expertise and broad experience in building and scaling companies across the energy sector. He currently serves as Senior Partner and Chairman at EV Private Equity, which he joined in 2008. He previously served as President and CEO of Smedvig ASA and President and CEO of Seadrill Management AS (Seadrill Ltd). Mr. Jacobsen has also served on the Board of Directors of companies within offshore wind and environmental technology, including as founding board member of Inwind and Chairman of APP. He holds an MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH). 

Ståle Rodahl has served 30 years in the financial industry as a hedge fund manager and in various executive positions in the Investment Banking industry in New York, London and Oslo for companies such as Alfred Berg, ABN Amro and ABG Sundal Collier. Mr. Rodahl holds an MSc with a major in Finance from the Norwegian Business School (BI) with additional programs from London School of Economics (LSE) and NASD, New York. 

Marcus Chew is the CEO of Energy Drilling. He has over 25 years of experience in the offshore and rig building industry. Mr. Chew began his career with Keppel FELS, where he served as Naval Architect, Project Engineer, Project Manager, Marketing Manager, and General Manager Engineering. He successfully built and delivered several multi-million offshore projects including the Petrobras P-18 production semi-submersible and Saga Varg FPSO. In 1997, he joined Smedvig (now Seadrill) as Director of Business Development and Projects, overseeing the successful delivery of a new fleet of 10 modern tender rigs. Mr. Chew holds a Diplôme d’Ingénieur from École Centrale de Nantes in France and has completed a postgraduate PMD program at Harvard Business School. 

Lefki Savvidou joined SeaBird Exploration as a Finance controller in 2012. At SeaBird, she is the appointed Company Secretary for all Cyprus entities and has a wide range of responsibilities. This includes corporate tax filings, compliance filings and reconciliation of vendor statements and balances. Prior to joining SeaBird, Mrs Savvidou worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers Cyprus at the Tax & Legal Department.  

Pantelis Evangelou has extensive experience with more than 34 years as a partner at PwC where he held several leadership roles, including head of the Tax and Reporting Strategy division in Cyprus as well as head of PwC’s Paphos office. In addition, Mr. Evangelou has been a member of the Cyprus Association of Directors and served on the board of Directors of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  

Savvas Savvides is currently a Director with the accounting and audit firm CC&A Ltd in Cyprus. Prior to this, he served as a CFO within the hospitality industry and spent 10 years with PwC in Cyprus, where he held the position as Manager within Corporate Compliances Services in the Company’s Paphos office. Mr. Savvides holds a degree from Northumbria University and has been certified as an accountant.  

Zhao Beijia joined Pioneer Logistics Holdings Pte. Ltd. in 2023, having previously served as Chief Risk Controller at Hong Kong ChaoShang Group Ltd. (2021–2023) and Chief Risk Officer at FAW International (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd. (2019–2020). She began her career in 2006 at China Shougang Int’l Trade & Engineering Corp. and has since held various roles in shipping companies. Ms. Beijia holds a bachelor’s degree in Maritime Law from Dalian Maritime University and completed part-time postgraduate studies in Economic Law at Renmin University of China. 

Tan Ching Chin is CFO at Pioneer Logistics Holdings Pte. Ltd., which he joined in 2019 from the position Executive Assistant to the CEO of Glory Wealth Group Pte Ltd. Chin joined Glory Wealth Group Pte. Ltd. in 2015. Prior to this, he was an Associate Director of NTan Corporate Advisory Pte Ltd from 2009-2015. Chin has over 10 years of experience in the shipping industry. Chin has a Bachelor of Commerce (Majoring in Accounting and Finance) from the University of Melbourne (2004 to 2006) and CPA Australia (2014).