Team
The Barak Fund advisors have an average of 13 years of experience in trading, international banking and private equity investment in Africa. All have specialist expertise and proven track records in the agricultural sector. The Fund advisors developed their skills at respected organisations such as Standard Bank, Absa, Barclays and Rand Merchant Bank and since 2001 they have delivered an average Return on Capital of 26%.
Barak Structured Trade Finance Fund
Jean Craven (Chief Executive Officer)
Jean Craven was Head of the Soft Commodities desk at Standard Bank of South Africa, a leading emerging market bank with branches in 18 countries in Africa. Jean and his team setup the first independent commodity valuation service provider in Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya. This allowed Standard Bank to approach their commodity finance business with a market risk angle giving them superior product relative to other international banks. Standard Bank developed the first three year Jatropha financing product giving them an advantage in the new developing bio-fuels market.
Prior to joining Standard Bank, Jean head up the commodity trading team at Rand Merchant Bank, At Rand Merchant Bank (part of The FirstRand Bank Group), his team completed the first successful US$1 billion grain securitization in the world. The team set up the third largest crop insurance company in Africa to mitigate weather risk on grains production assets. Jean obtained his accounting degree from the University of Stellenbosch.
Prieur du Plessis (Chief Investment Officer)
Prieur has more than 10 years of experience in the commodities trading and financial services arena. His career includes head of structured trade and commodity finance at Absa Corporate and Merchant Bank, a subsidiary of Barclays Bank Plc. Prieur managed the treasury operations of Rand Merchant Bank's commodities trading desk, before moving into a structured commodity finance deal-making role at the bank.
During his tenure at Rand Merchant Bank he was a key member of the team that completed the first successful grain securitisation in the world and led the team that established the third largest crop insurance company in Africa. He then joined Standard Bank South Africa as Head Originations Soft Commodities. He led the Standard Bank team responsible for the launch of a three-year Jatropha production finance product, the first bio-fuel finance product of its kind and also developed the first Sharia-compliant commodity backed product for Standard Bank South Africa. Prieur is a qualified chartered accountant and completed his articles with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Ziyaad Jhetam (Chief Operating officer)
Ziyaad has spent the last 10 years at various financial institutions in South Africa including Peregrine Capital (Pty) Ltd and Standard Bank.
He joined Peregrine Capital (Pty) Ltd, a leading hedge fund asset manager in South Africa, as its Financial Manager and grew to become its Financial Director including responsibility for risk management, compliance, administration, operations, settlement, investor liaison and the full financial management functions of the business.
At Standard Bank, Ziyaad was Chief Financial Officer for a significant cluster of businesses within Standard Bank of SA Ltd's Corporate and Investment Banking division. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant who completed his articles with an international firm of registered auditors and accountants called Deloitte.
Barak Commodity Derivative Fund
Birju Patel (Analyst)
Birju joined Louis Dreyfus Commodities South Africa in 2006 as a derivatives trader, trading mostly South African Agricultural Futures contracts.
In 2008 Birju was appointed by the Export Trading Group, a multinational trading company based out of Singapore covering 34 countries with a turnover in excess of USD600m, to head up their global derivative trading operations and manage their southern African presence. His duties covered trading in agricultural, energy financial and metal derivatives as well as indices.
Ketan Patel (Analyst)
Ketan was born in Kenya and moved to the United Kingdom to undertake his higher education. He joined the Export Trading Group, as a shareholder in 1986 operating from their London office where he managed the export of goods from the United Kingdom.
Ketan sits on the board of various companies covering the commodities sector in East Africa, a five star hotels group and a pan-African information technologies group.
Sean Shiels (Analyst)
Sean joined the Export Trading group in 2009 as a junior analyst covering agricultural derivatives, metals and energy.
Sean has been exposed to the South African Equities market since 2002 and completed a six week Internship at JP Morgan Johannesburg in 2009, working in the Equity Trading division. Sean graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2008 with a Bachelor of Business Honours Degree majoring in accounting and finance. He has successfully completed all three CFA levels.
Jean Craven (Head of Investor Relations)
Jean Craven was Head of the Soft Commodities desk at Standard Bank of South Africa, a leading emerging market bank with branches in 18 countries in Africa. Jean and his team setup the first independent commodity valuation service provider in Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya.
This allowed Standard Bank to approach their commodity finance business with a market risk angle giving them superior product relative to other international banks. Standard Bank developed the first three year Jatropha financing product giving them an advantage in the new developing bio-fuels market.
Prior to joining Standard Bank, Jean head up the commodity trading team at Rand Merchant Bank, At Rand Merchant Bank (part of The FirstRand Bank Group), his team completed the first successful US$1 billion grain securitization in the world. The team set up the third largest crop insurance company in Africa to mitigate weather risk on grains production assets. Jean obtained his accounting degree from the University of Stellenbosch.