About African Energy

The founding editor of African Energy, which he set up in 1998 under the banner of the Financial Times’ former FT Energy subsidiary, Jon is author of several books and academic papers on North African history, politics and security, as well as on various aspects of finance and business – notably on issues associated with national energy industries and approaches towards debt.

A fluent French speaker, Jon carried out doctoral research on Algeria’s Mozabite community at University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), which included fieldwork in Algeria. He has a Masters degree in African Government & Politics from the London School of Economics and read politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

Specialist interests include:

The Maghreb: Jon has a long-standing interest in the failure of – and potentials for – regional economic and political integration in the Maghreb region, and how to unleash the potentials of the southern Mediterranean’s big populations and natural resources to build a more stable, prosperous future for the majority.

Algeria: From the development of the nationalist movement to contemporary shifts in ideology and factional balance, Algeria has been at the centre of Jon’s work and life. Interests include Mozabite political sociology, Houari Boumedienne and Algerian football

Morocco: The experience of close friends at the business daily L’Economiste excited Jon’s deep interest in this most complex polity, and exciting business environment.

Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo: How the business elites work in these difficult governance environments, and how national wealth can be put to better use for the majority.

Over the past 13 years, he has worked in every part of Cross-border Information’s business. In 2019 he was appointed managing director. A vital part of this role is driving forward an active programme of business development. To do this, he is engaging with clients and subscribers, both within the African Energy brand and more broadly, and using the results to ensure the company provides maximum value to its customers.

His objective is to maintain Cross-border Information’s status as a leading multi-disciplinary business intelligence consultancy providing high-quality quantitative and qualitative research on Africa and the Middle East.

He reads, writes and speaks standard Arabic, Spanish and some French and is also fluent in Bulgarian. His travel memoir of five years spent in Bulgaria entitled The Good Balkans was published by Wild Man Books in 2009.

 

With a deep understanding of the electricity sub-sector and the political and economic complexities of West and Central Africa, his work has provided our clients with detailed opportunity and risk analyses, demand and supply forecasts and impact assessments, all of which have supported numerous investments in power projects in complex and often opaque markets.

With over a decade’s experience in the industry, David has led many consultancies for both public and private sector clients, including power developers, development finance institutions, private equity firms, and mining companies. David graduated with a degree in politics and a postgraduate degree in international relations.

David read politics at the University of East Anglia and has a Masters in International Relations from the University of Sussex where his research focused on UK-US relations.

Dan has worked with African Energy's consultancy team. Notable projects include the baseline, first and second ‘Monitoring progress in the Africa-EU Energy Partnership’ reports and a planning, advisory and supervisory role in the preparation of the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa's 2012 annual report, Infrastructure Financing Trends in Africa.

Dan graduated with a BSc in economics and physics from the University of Durham in 2010 and with a MA in international relations in the Middle East from the same institution in 2011. Between 2013 and 2015 he undertook a Master Recherche in economics at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne.