EMFI founder and Managing Director John Works has more than 22 years of experience in the international oil & gas industry as an oil company investment banker, corporate executive, and deal lawyer. Mr. Works has an exceptionally strong blend of strong academics and real world experience. His recent professional efforts have focused primarily on the Far East and West Africa, and historically on Russia , Central & Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa , and Latin & South America. Mr. Works formed EMFI to fill an underserved sector of the oil & gas financing industry.

Before forming EMFI, in 2001 Mr. Works served at Senior Vice President & Head of International Producer Finance at Shell Capital, The Shell Group's venture capital affiliate, in Houston , Texas . Mr. Works directed Shell Capital's restructuring effort of its international investment portfolio including M&A tenders of its troubled international deals. Prior to Shell Capital, from 1999-01 Mr. Works was President & CEO of The Rompetrol Group in Bucharest , Romania , Romania 's largest privately-owned oil & gas company. In addition to his day-to-day responsibility for management and operations of Rompetrol, Mr. Works was instrumental in growing the company's annual revenues from $6 million to over $600 million in 2 years. From 1997-99 Mr. Works was Senior Vice President & Deputy Head of Project Finance Advisory at ABN Amro in Amsterdam where he originated and executed international oil & gas project advisory and finance transactions involving the bank and capital markets, multilateral and export credit agencies, and mergers & acquisitions.

From 1996-97 Mr. Works was Vice President, Emerging Markets, Former Soviet Union, at J.P. Morgan's investment banking unit in London where he was responsible for client relationships and transaction execution for oil & gas projects in Russian and Central Asia . From 1990-96 Mr. Works was Vice President & Legal Relationship Manager in J.P. Morgan's New York office for the bank's business units involved in U.S. & global project advisory and mergers & acquisitions assignments where he assisted in analyzing, structuring, drafting, negotiation, and closing U.S. and international mergers & acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, and recapitalizations. Mr. Works began his career in 1982 as a corporate finance attorney with several Wall Street firms including Shearman & Sterling and Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York where he researched, analyzed, structured, drafted, negotiated, and closed U.S. and international project financings, public and private debt & equity offerings, mergers & acquisitions, restructurings, recapitalizations, and loans.

Mr. Works was educated at the University of Denver College of Law (J.D. 1982), the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Certificat d'Etudes Politiques 1978), the Universite de Paris-IV (Sorbonne) (Certificat de Langue Francaise 1977), and the University of Kansas (B.A. 1977). Mr. Works is a U.S. national and is fluent in English and French.

Download a pdf reprint of an interview with John Works in Bucharest Business Week, Nov. 27, 2001 (482kb)

BRUCE BARNFIELD
Director
London, England

Mr. Barnfield brings over 20 years of experience in financial analysis, investment management, and corporate finance, earned mainly in London and continental Europe .

Mr. Barnfield was most recently Director and London Investment Officer of Shimoda Capital Advisors Ltd., a U.S.-based investment firm specializing in resource stocks and private equity opportunities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia . Prior to Shimoda he consulted to a start-up emerging markets investment bank in London , and served as Corporate Development Director of a shipping company. From 1992-97 Mr. Barnfield acquired and turned around a specialist derivatives broker before selling it to a German competitor. He turned it to profit by diversifying into institutional stockbroking, and also undertook corporate finance commissions in a wide range of industries.

Before making the move into direct management, Mr. Barnfield had worked in the international departments of Smith New Court and W. Greenwell & Co. At Greenwell's (later Greenwell Montagu Securities Ltd.) he was involved in a number of corporate projects, including rights issues, new issues, and a complex synchronized listing on two European stock exchanges. His principal analytical achievement was in identifying a £385m 'black hole' in the capital expenditure of a UK privatization candidate, the nature of which had eluded both the Government department responsible and its retained brokers. Mr. Barnfield trained initially as an investment analyst in London with Laing & Cruickshank, specializing in the Engineering and Aerospace sectors. While there he wrote the first stockbroking study of British Aerospace, prior to its privatization.