THE TEAM
The Buffalo Energy team comprises a diverse range of experiences and skills; from power development and management, strategic policy and governmental engagement, through to the successful execution and management of businesses in frontier markets in Africa.
A highly energetic, knowledgeable, and ambitious operations team based in sub-Saharan Africa enables Buffalo Energy to provide clients and stakeholders with a hands on approach, ensuring projects are deployed to time and to cost.
Operations
Charlie Troughton
Director - Zambia
Charlie is a founding director at Buffalo Energy. He previously worked in the Sustainable Development Division at the UK's Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem). He has worked on a number of high profile and key market design policies such as Electricity Market Reform (EMR), the Future of Retail Market Regulation programme and assessing the Labour Party’s Fair Pricing Policy before the 2015 UK General Election. He is passionate about energy systems, particularly the deployment of renewables around the world. He has lived and worked in Zambia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia and the UK.
Charlie has a masters degree in History from the University of Edinburgh, and started his career as a Management Consultant. He is Prince2 (project management) qualified.
Will Dryer
Director - Zambia
Will is a founding director at Buffalo Energy. He spent the last 8 years at the forefront of the renewable energy revolution. Previously at Lightsource Renewable Energy, he helped transform the company into Europe’s largest and most successful solar developer. He was responsible for negotiating over 1.1GW of solar Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), notably executing Europe’s largest ever PPA in Summer 2015. A natural entrepreneur, Will started his first company aged 18, before gaining start-up experience in the carbon trading and biomass sector in London. Will has travelled extensively across Africa over the past 15 years, and is both commercially astute and passionate for all things renewable.
Will has a masters degree in Environmental Science from the University of Edinburgh.
Trevor Matthews
Chief Financial Officer - United Kingdom
Trevor previously worked in the Investment Banking division at BMO Capital Markets. At BMO, Trevor spent 3 years in London working in the Natural Resources group, where he worked on a variety of EMEA Metals & Mining and Oil & Gas transactions, and 1 year in Toronto working in Leveraged Finance, where he gained experience raising high-yield debt for clients seeking to fund acquisitions across a range of industries. Trevor’s experience in M&A, debt financing and general corporate finance will assist the Buffalo Energy team as it continues to grow.
Trevor has a masters degree in English Literature and History from the University of Edinburgh. He is also a CFA Level III Candidate.
Advisory
Anthony de Normann
Chairman - United Kingdom
Anthony has extensive experience running start-ups, developing renewable energy assets and investing in sub-Saharan Africa.
He is a Founding Director of Jemm Capital, a private credit fund investing directly into businesses in sub-Saharan Africa via African Century. African Century invests in diverse businesses in the region. He is also a Founding Director of Constantine Wind Energy which has grown to be the largest owner of small (sub 1 MW) wind turbines in the UK with approximately £50m of assets at cost. Anthony is a Founding Director of Stansol Ltd and Morisol Ltd, two companies which have installed a number of medium sized solar PV arrays (1.5 – 5 MW) in the UK. He started his career as an Officer in the British Army, including tours as a Special Forces Officer and to the British Military Mission in Germany. Following this, he joined GEC Marconi and lead a Management Buy Out of a Vehicle Telematics Unit which was sold successfully in 1999.
He graduated from Bristol University with a BA Hons in Modern History, and holds a MBA from INSEAD Business School.
Dr Melfort Campbell OBE
Adviser to the Board - United Kingdom
Melfort founded his first business in the energy industry in 1985. Since then he has run, owned or invested in several specialist engineering businesses in energy, marine, defence and process industries.
Melfort built Imes Group to a £20m specialist engineering group operating globally in the energy and marine environment. Imes Group has provided services to the off-shore wind sector since its inception in the UK. Since selling one of the main subsidiaries in 2009 he has focused his business interests on marine, oil and gas, defence and renewable energy.
He also has a number of advisory and non-executive roles in the energy sector. Amongst them, he co-chairs, alongside the Energy Minister, the Scottish Government Advisory Board on energy. Previously he was Chairman of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Scotland, and co-chaired the Innovation Scotland Forum, focused on the Scottish Government’s innovation agenda with a particular focus on renewable energy. He also chaired the Scottish Government Expert Commission on Oil and Gas and is a visiting Professor of Engineering at the University of Strathclyde.
In recognition of his services to industry, he was awarded an OBE in 2003.