Gulfsands Middle East

Mr Kroupeev has 25 years’ experience working within the exploration and production sector. After University in Moscow and MBA at London Business School, he began his career working for Dana Petroleum plc as a Director in 1994. In 1995, Mr Kroupeev founded Waterford Finance and Investment Limited (“Waterford”). Waterford is a natural resources focused vehicle, specialising in the financing of oil, gas and other energy related projects.

He has been directly involved in the capital raising for natural resource projects and in acquiring, restructuring, developing and divesting such assets. Waterford has a number of substantial shareholdings in oil and gas companies with operations in Europe, Africa, Australasia and Former Soviet Union countries, and holds a 57.75 per cent. interest in the Company. He was appointed a Non-Executive Director of Gulfsands in October 2016.

Mark Cutis is a seasoned banking and capital markets executive with extensive global market experience spanning 40+ years. He has actively managed portfolios as CIO and CEO on behalf of both private as well as multilateral (EBRD) and sovereign wealth funds (ADIC) in multiple geographical locations.

Most recently, he was CEO of Abu Dhabi Global Market, the international financial centre of Abu Dhabi. Prior to that, he was Group CFO, and Chief Advisor of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (2018 – 2021), and immediately prior to that was the founding CIO of Global Special Situations at Abu Dhabi Investment Council (2008 – 2018) now part of Mubadala. He has also run investment managers and financial institutions in London, Tokyo, and New York and has had work stints in Frankfurt and Moscow as well.

Mark holds a BA in Monetary Economics and History from Emory University and an MBA in Finance from Wharton Business School.

John Bell is a Chartered Engineer with over 30 years experience in the energy sector having worked at Vice President or Managing Director level at BP, Equinor AS and Suncor Energy (Syria).

He has spent a large part of his career in the Middle East, as well as time in North Africa, FSU, the Americas, the UK North Sea, Scandinavia & the Caribbean. Mr Bell has a First Class Honours Degree in Engineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland and studied Executive Leadership at Haas Business School, University of Berkeley California. Previous public company directorships include Gulf Keystone Petroleum, Tethys Petroleum where he was Executive Chairman and Aminex where he was Non Executive Chairman. He was appointed as a Non Executive Director of Gulfsands in 2014 and then appointed Managing Director in 2016.

Rodolfo Rustria is a seasoned professional with more than 20 years of hands-on experience and a demonstrated track record in the fields of semi-conductor manufacturing, healthcare, energy, oil and gas as well as in financial services of a Freezone (International Financial Centre). He spent most of his career in the United Arab Emirates where he was involved predominantly in healthcare and major investments in the energy and financial sectors.

His most recent inclusion is with HCM Advisory an investment management and consulting company as Managing Director, prior to that, as a Team Leader at the National Health Insurance Company of Abu Dhabi (Daman), managed the office of the Group CFO at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and the office of the CEO of ADGM Authority in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).

Rodolfo holds a degree in Commerce major in Business Administration from the University of Santo Tomas as well as a degree in healthcare from Capitol Medical Centre Colleges.

Terence Allen is a veteran investment banker of over 50 years experience. He has been based in the UAE since the 1980s. After a period as Global Treasurer and Head of Investment Banking for National Bank of Abu Dhabi, he was the founder of the investment bank Allied Investment Partners PJSC , and later Gulf Islamic Investments LLC. Terence has enjoyed many board positions past and present in various financial institutions.

Currently he holds position as Chairman of Lloyds (Emirates) Insurance; Chairman of Brooks Overseas Holdings Ltd.; Director of Azzurra Capital Management LLC; Director of Mastronardi International Green Ventures LLC and Director of Worthy Partners Ltd.

Terence is a certified Arbitrator for the Gulf Co-operation Council.