First blood

Catching the trades winds …

I turned over to the dark side of the force very early in my life. I was 22 years old and worked as a bodyguard for the Saudi Arabian Royal family in Cairo. After almost one year on the job, two New York security professionals convinced me going independent by incorporating my own agency. First Security International. It was a short-lived experience as obviously I was too young for such a venture and while it was no economic disaster I had to realize that my time was yet to come.

Survival

Many years later, fate again forced my hand in the year 2000. At that time I went to law school in Paris and earned a living as a tour guide. Life was hard and one day what had to happen eventually came to pass. Together with a German fellow tour guide, we faced joblessness which pushed us to create our own tourism service agency, myBIM Ltd and Reiseleiterring, a tour guide organizer for operators. Utter need was the motivation behind going entrepreneurial as at the time I concentrated on law school. It was a tough time and business did not come easy to us but we eventually succeeded in attracting enough business to generate comfortable income for both of us.

In 2005 I ceded my participation in Reiseleiterring and laid myBIM dormant as I had returned to Vienna and joined EconGas.

Resurrection

As unlikely as it seems, EconGas proved to be the ultimate challenge for an entrepreneurial heart. In 2008, when it already became clear that I was an enterprising spirit at heart EconGas entrusted me with reorganizing Business Development. I had one big objective – breaking the LNG logjam the company found itself in through the demise of the Iranian projects and the resulting shortfall in LNG supply for GATE.

I was given ultimate freedom in how to pursue my goals as long as they did not conflict with the OMV Code of conduct for upstream operations.

Afterlife

My efforts for EconGas culminated in the creation of NeXtLNG Ltd. in 2011. NeXtLNG was designed to be a business development outfit which would facilitate LNG liquefaction ventures with a focus on Sub Saharan Africa. As such it was arranging feed-gas supply, EPC and EPCM as well as Project Finance for LNG project leads.

Late 2011 cooperation with EconGas ended due to a change of direction in the OMV top management. NeXtLNG turned to be a LNG consulting company since. In 2013 NexXtLNG was merged into my new consulting firm “Methanumorphosis”

Excursion

Very late in 2011 I joined a Miami based fuel refining start-up as COO. I was essentially charged with building the organization from Business Plan to first investment. But LNG continued to play to large a role in my life so I am back with NeXtLNG which I had never really left.

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