BOARD CHAIRMAN

EVANS DARKO-MENSAH

Ing. Evans Darko-Mensah is the CEO and Lead Consultant at REFAST Consulting Ltd., an established Marine and Environmental consulting firm based in Tema, Ghana.

He is a Professional Engineer (Marine) and Corporate Member of the Ghana Institution of Engineers with over 40 years of work experience, both at sea and in-shore management positions. As a Ghana-government gazetted marine surveyor, he has been involved in various aspects of Marine Surveys, Cargo Surveys and Inspections, control and compliance with Marpol Protocols, IOPP regimes and Health and Safety in ships, Port Environments and in Industry and also an Examiner of Engineers.

He is also a leading Environmental Consultant who has specialised as Team Leader/Project coordinator in major Environmental assessment projects including World Bank, DFID, JICA and other donor-funded projects. He has significant experience in dealing with relevant institutions such as Funding Agencies (World Bank, DFID etc), EPA and Local Institutions, to ensure timely completion of assignments. He has been involved in the Strategic Environmental Assessments for both the Offshore and Onshore Oil and Gas developments in Ghana.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

MACDONALD VASNANI

MacDonald Vasnani is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Consolidated Shipping Agencies Limited (Conship). He is an accomplished executive with extensive experience in logistics, shipping and freight forwarding. Conship is headquartered in Ghana, West Africa and maintains a presence with partners and agents in over 2000 locations worldwide.

In April 1996, MacDonald Vasnani started Conship as a local customs house agent in an office the size of a 40-foot container in Tema, Ghana. Today, it can boast of five (5) structured branches.

His motivation for starting Conship has remained the same since its inception: “Do the right thing and do it right the first time”. This mantra has been instilled in all staff over the years and it characterizes the way business should be conducted. Transparency, compliance and adherence to corporate governance have been the driving force in making Conship one of the most preferred companies in the sub-region.

Friends of MacDonald Vasnani, who affectionately call him “Vas”, describe him as an upright man who is an honest and devout Christian. His leadership and team-driven strategies have earned Conship numerous freight and logistics contracts over the years and have earned Conship the stature of a leading logistic company in the Oil and Gas industry worldwide.

His foresight and leadership strategy has engineered the divestiture of Conship’s operation into different but related areas such as:

Marine and Husbandry.
Logistics and Project management.
Oil and Gas Related services.
His contributions to the industry have earned him several awards including:

Honorary Doctorate degree in Business Administration specializing in Oil and Gas from the Commonwealth University in 2015.
Upstream CEO of the Year, in 2015 and 2016.
In Ghana, Dr. MacDonald Vasnani is considered one of the foremost experts in the freight forwarding and logistics industry including Oil and Gas upstream services. For this reason, he has and continues to serve on several national consultative boards and committees.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

LINDA VASNANI

Linda Vasnani is a strategic high‐performing freight forwarding logistics professional with more than nineteen years of experience in Air and Ocean cargo. She possesses exceptional technical and organisational skills and is an expert at relationship‐building with clients and various teams within the organization. She is skilful at assessing needs, generating options, and implementing solutions in collaboration with clients and stakeholders. Linda is well‐versed in all phases of recruitment and hiring, including defining job roles, assessing needed skills and qualifications, and evaluating candidates for the Conship husbandry division. Over the years, she has built experience in managing projects from the requirements gathering/needs identification phase through to completion.

With a team of dedicated professionals, she oversees the daily operational success of the following divisions under Conship:

Marine and Husbandry.
Logistics and Project management.
Oil and Gas Related services.

Her unique leadership style and systematic approach to every project have contributed to the successes achieved by Conship, transforming into numerous awards over the years.

Some of which include:

Service Company of the Year in the Oil and Gas Awards.
Offshore Logistics Firm of the Year

BOARD MEMBER

ESINE OKUDZETO

Ms. Esine Okudzeto is a partner and heads one of Sam Okudzeto & Associates’ corporate/commercial law groups. Her focus is on Mergers and Acquisitions, Capital Markets, Oil and Gas Law, Corporate Law, Commercial Law, Labour Law, Intellectual Property and Arbitration.

Esine has performed due diligence for several international clients, advising these clients on mergers and acquisitions in Ghana. Esine played a leading role in a Fortune 500 company’s acquisition of Unilever Plc’s oil palm business in Ghana. Esine was also the lead transactional advisor for the creation of a joint venture Public-Private Partnership to set up a cargo hub, warehouse and handling service at Kotaka International Airport.

In the aforementioned transactions, Esine was instrumental in the negotiation and drafting of licensing agreements, the drafting of shareholders’ agreements, leases, company regulations and contracts, the registration of trademarks, and the registration of leases, as well as providing legal advice on tax and Labour issues.

BOARD MEMBER

BEN NARTEY

Ben Nartey had his accountancy training at the then Institute of professional studies, Now University of Professional Studies (UPS) and has worked with various organizations.

In the 1980’s he partnered a World Bank official attached to the Ghana Highways Authority, to conduct a nationwide operational audit which yielded a significant improvement in the presentation of the end of month reports to the Headquarters. On the merging of three governmental organizations in the ports, it became imperative for these merged bodies to operate a harmonized tariff. He worked with a team to produce a tariff document which became the reference point for most West African ports.

As credit controller for the Tema Port, he instituted monitoring systems that helped reduce debts significantly.

Until recently, he was the Chief Operating Officer of Consolidated Shipping Agencies Limited, and played a leading role in all the successful tenders that the company participated in.

He brings on board his wealth of experience in the Port industry.