The Group Executive Leadership

President/ Group CEO

Abdulrazaq Isa

Abdulrazaq Isa is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Waltersmith Group of Companies.

He is a seasoned entrepreneur and astute international businessman with over 30 years of experience in business, financial services and the oil & gas industry.

He started his career in banking, gathering over 15 years first with African International Bank Nigeria Ltd, then Chartered Bank Nigeria Plc (now Stanbic IBTC) and co-founded Safetrust Savings & Loan Ltd (now a subsidiary of Sterling Bank plc). He established Waltersmith with interest in several sectors of the economy including Oil and Gas Upstream and Midstream, Real Estate, Hospitality, Agriculture and Manufacturing.

He specializes in strategy and enterprise transformation and has participated in several international negotiations for asset acquisition and joint venture project financing in the Oil and Gas industry. Under the leadership of Abdulrazaq, Waltersmith successfully commenced commercial export from the Ibigwe field in 2008 and has grown production from 500 bopd to its current production of 7,000 bopd. In 2013, Waltersmith was awarded the Marginal Oil Field Special Award for its outstanding contribution to the growth and development of the Nigerian Marginal Field Programme. The company was awarded 80% stake in an Oil Block (EG-23) in the 2019 Oil and Gas Licensing round in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea following its participation in the competitive bidding process. He consistently pursues his vision to transform Waltersmith into a fully integrated energy company. In 2020, Waltersmith won the awards for Refinery Project of the year and Future Industry Leader.

Abdulrazaq is a member of several professional bodies including the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Energy Institute (EI) and the Institute of Directors (IOD). He is a Board of Trustee member of the Independent Petroleum Producers Group of Nigeria (IPPG) and is the Second Vice Chairman of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS). He also serves on the board of a few companies and in involved in philanthropic activities aimed at supporting the improvement of science education in Nigeria.

Chief Investment Officer, Waltersmith and Associates

Ayokunle Okusanya

Ayokunle Okusanya is an accomplished and highly respected Finance Executive. Attuned to providing sophisticated commercial advice at the most senior levels, he leads the Investment Function of Waltersmith and Associates, the parent Company of the Waltersmith Group with strategic perspective, finance and investment  expertise.

Ayokunle is currently the Chief Investment Officer of  Waltersmith and Associates, the holding company of the Waltersmith Group.

He reinvigorated the finance function with a well-executed strategic roadmap, regaining the credibility of the balance sheet as a reliable measure of the health, viability and sustainability of the company. He impressively raised >US$350M for a variety of sophisticated projects, astutely arranged short-term credit lines and financial instruments to support cash flow requirements. Specifically, he led the finance and project management team that raised the financing and delivery of Waltersmith’s 5,000 bopd refinery project. He also managed the development of the company’s new Head Office in Ikoyi, Lagos.

Ayokunle has an admired commercial leadership background in Nigeria, spanning economics, accounting, and financial economics, professional Advisory experience in Audit, Tax, Banking and Finance, and executive level responsibilities within the Oil and Gas industry.

Ayokunle attended Cardiff Business School, Wales completing a M.Sc. Financial Economics and Ogun State University, Nigeria completing a B.Sc. (Hons) Economics. He is a member of the  Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria having qualified as an Associate Chatered Accountant. He is an avid reader focusing on the Business/Finance field and sees himself as a considered and effective decision-maker.

Group Chief Operating Officer

Alex Osho

Alex Osho joined Waltersmith in December 2019 as Chief Financial Officer and has over 14 years’ experience in buy- and sell-side M&A, capital raising, restructuring, project financing and private equity advisory. Prior to joining Waltersmith, Alex served as Associate Director & Head of Advisory & Equity Capital Markets at FBNQuest Merchant Bank where he led the US$1billion restructuring of a large commercial bank and also advised the Nigerian government on the privatization of key power assets. Alex also previously worked at Barclays where he was Vice President (Africa Investment Banking, Oil & Gas, Power & Utilities and Emerging Markets M&A) and advised a Nigerian upstream oil company on a key asset acquisition. He was instrumental to deepening Barclays’ oil & gas and power & utilities coverage in West Africa.

Alex also previously worked as Vice President (Investment Banking) at FBN Capital, as Corporate Finance Manager at Oando Plc and as financial advisory Senior Associate at KPMG where he started his career. Over the course of his career, he has advised several private and public sector clients across multiple industries including oil & gas, power, financial services, consumer, financial services and infrastructure. Some of his key transaction experience include: Aiteo’s US$2.65billion acquisition of OML 29; Green Energy’s farm-out of a 40% interest in the Otakikpo field to Lekoil Limited; Oando’s US$1.5billion acquisition of ConocoPhilips assets in Nigeria; Oando’s US$100million financing of the Apapa single point mooring (SPM) and midstream jetty project.

Alex holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting (first class honours) from the University of Benin, Nigeria, graduating as the best student in the department and faculty. He also holds an MBA (with Distinction) from INSEAD where he graduated on the Dean’s List. He is also a CFA charter holder, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and a winner of several ICAN national merit awards.

CEO, Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited

Oladapo Filani

Oladapo Filani is an accomplished petroleum engineer with over two decades of experience in the energy sector.

An exceptional and highly driven senior E&P professional he has handled several business & technical leadership roles, leading multidisciplinary and multicultural teams with roles spanning; Strategy & Planning, Operations, Portfolio Management, Gas Commercialization, and Asset Development Management. Oladapo is a strategic thinker, certified speaker, and coach with excellent emotional intelligence and the capacity to handle complex technical and business-related issues while empowering teams and promoting efficiency, collaboration, and innovation in a fast-evolving industry.

Oladapo began his career at Addax Petroleum in April 2000, where he served in various capacities until December 2018, when he left as Senior Manager, Planning & Gas Development. During his time at Addax Petroleum, Oladapo held various Technical and Business related, including Senior Reservoir Engineer; Head Field Development; and Manager, Technical Planning. Prior to joining Waltersmith, Oladapo served as Asset Development Manager at Eland Oil and Gas and until recently DGM Corporate Strategy and Business Delivery with FIRST E&P Development Nigeria Ltd.

An Alumnus of the prestigious London Business School, Oladapo has a first-degree B.Sc. (Hons) in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and an MBA in Oil & Gas Management from Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, Scotland.

He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the Nigerian Society of Engineers

Group Chief Project Officer

Rowland Ogundu

He has 30 years working experience in the Oil & Gas Industry in Nigeria, having worked with Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited for 19 years, Waltersmith 7 years and Western Geophysical 4 years in different capacities from Project Engineer/Interface Coordinator, Lead Pipeline, Survey Engineer & Project Surveyor.

In his early days after graduation, he worked in the exploration industry with Western Geophysical between 1989 and 1993, before joining SPDC in 2004. While in SPDC, he successfully participated in the engineering design work and construction of a 300km pipelines, flowline, remote manifolds and a central processing facility for SPDC – Gbaran Integrated Oil and Gas Project in Bayelsa State.

In Waltersmith, he is the manager in charge of operations and also the Project Manager Waltersmith‘s 5000/day Modular Refinery. He is an asset to the exploration and production industry in Nigeria. He graduated from Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt in 1987 and he is a member of International Facility Management Association and several professional bodies.