Henry Julius Butame Akale is the Principal of Akale & Company, a leading Cameroonian Chartered Accounting firm. He is also the Principal of the Akale Professional Institute. Henry is a member of the Rotary Club International, a Board member of the South Africa Friendship Society(CASA) and was a vice president of the American Chamber of Commerce of Cameroon. Among their clients, Akale & Company has served as consultants to the Office of the Prime Minister of Cameroon, and a number of leading domestic and foreign enterprises. He received his LLB., with Honours, from the University of Yaoundein 1978 and was issued a practicing license from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) in 1984. He maintains an active involvement in civic life with a number of charities and not for profit institutions. He most values his service in St. Joseph Parish Catholic Church, Bonendale, in Douala, Cameroon.
Amb. Theodore R. (Ted) Britton, Jr. (ret.) served as US Ambassador to several Caribbean States. He was Dep. Asst. Sec. for Research and Technology and Asst. to the Sec. for Intl. Affairs at the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 1977, he became President of the United Mutual Life Insurance Company. In 1989, he received the HUD Distinguished Service Award. From 1981-1989, he was Co-Chairman of the US-China Agreement on Housing and Planning and Executive Secretary to similar agreements with Mexico, Canada, Japan and the former USSR. During the same period, he served two years as Chairman/President, Group on Urban Affairs, of the OECD (Paris). Among his many honors, he has served as President of the American Baptist Convention, is currently honorary consul general of Albania and is a member of the Board of Trustees of People to People International. Ted is also an, "Ambassador for Peace" of the South Korean- based Universal Peace Federation and was a member of its Middle East Peace Initiative to Israel and Palestine in 2007. He graduated from New York University in 1952 and from the American Savings and Loan Institute with Standard and Graduate Diplomas. He is a veteran of the US Marine Corps and is a Life Member of its Third Marine Division.
John James, founder and Chairman is an investment and operating manager with more than 30 years experience. John attended Howard University and the Wharton School. As a portfolio manager at CitiGroup and Bankers Trust NY he managed in excess of $500 million of equity and fixed income assets for a number of Fortune Global 100 corporations in aerospace, energy, finance, and airlines. He has lived and worked in West Africa for a number of years and financed or managed a number of ventures in manufacturing, entertainment and publishing.
Nikolay K. Kolev, is a Senior Advisor at JD James & Company, based in Europe. Nick specializes in
relationship management , strategic advisory sservices and transaction development. Nick did
his undergradute work at Carnegie-Mellon (Operations Research) with an MBA from the
Wharton School, and an LLM from the University of Pennsylvania Law school.
Nick has worked in Capital Markets, Fund Management, Risk Management, and Structured
Products. He was the Chief Investment Officer of Karoll Finance, the founding Deputy Managing
Director of TCX Investment Management Company (TCX), Senior Treasury Officer at African
Development Bank (AfDB), and Consultant at Inter-American Development Bank.
At TCX, Nick established and managed the Trading operations. TCX, a highly-innovative start-
up initiative with numerous reference investors, such as AfDB, EBRD, IADB, IFC, KfW, and
JBIC, trades the longest-maturity cross-currency swaps in global emerging markets with the
objective of promoting local-currency financing. Nick was Statutory Director and ALCO Deputy
Chairman.
At AfDB, Nick was in charge of private placements, swap trading, and buybacks. Nick
originated/managed the issuance of ground-breaking supranational bonds: the first bonds
denominated in GHS (“Deal of the Year” by The Banker), KES, and NGN, and the first bond
settled in ZAR. Nick sat on the Currency Risk, Interest Rate Risk, and Projections working
groups of ALCO.
He began his career in South Africa as a Derivatives Structurer at Deutsche Bank, Nick is a
registered JSE Trader and SAFEX Dealer, and holds the ICMQ of the Securities Institute
(London).
Michel Claude Lokolo, PhD is Senior Advisor, Energy/Infrastructure with JD James & Company. Dr. Lokolo was formerly Dir. of Petroleum and Gas with the Ministry of Energy, Republic of Cameroon. He also served or advised the World Energy Council, African Development Bank and United Nations among other regional and multi-lateral entities. A member of the Groupe Français des Zéolites and received the Honor Medal of the City of Lyon (France) among his many awards. Dr. Lokolo has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Physics from College Liebermann (Douala) and a Ph.D. from University Claude Bernard (France). He also graduated from the I. M. Gubkin Moscow Institute of the Petrochemical and Gas Industry.