SA experts share insightsSpecialists share expertise at PPP conference Two South Africans with extensive experience of public-private partnerships will speak at a conference in Windhoek today. STAFF REPORTER Having facilitated numerous public-private-partnership initiatives across the continent, South African experts John Gibbs of PricewaterhouseCoopers and David Humphrey of Standard Bank will share their insights into making public-private partnerships successful at the first ever PPP conference today.
Humphrey joined Standard Bank in October 2009, and is the global sector head for power & infrastructure, client coverage. He is responsible for developing the bank’s involvement in the growth of this core sector in Africa, and helping clients expand their activities into or within Africa. Humphrey has had a career in asset-based project finance deals in Europe and Africa, and has specialised in rail and telecoms. He has recently been involved in projects in Mozambique, Congo and Sierra Leone.
Humphrey was formerly employed at the Strategic Rail Authority and then Babcock & Brown in the UK, specialising in rail finance. He was involved in many of the major projects in the late 1990s and 2000s, including the West and East Coast Main Line developments in the UK, and investment in the rolling stock market in Europe, including the purchase of Angel Trains from RBS in 2008. David holds a MA in History from Merton College, Oxford University.
Gibbs is an advisory partner based in Johannesburg where he has particular responsibility for PwC’s infrastructure & finance business across Africa with a focus on project finance and public-sector procurement.
In his 25-year career in infrastructure Gibbs has worked for public-and private-sector clients across the globe. He has particular experience of applying PPP techniques to complex multi-service contracting environments including waste management, power and utilities, and health services. As a lead financial adviser, Gibbs has played a central role in the design, tendering and successful negotiation of a significant number of major PPP transactions.
Gibbs has worked extensively in southern and eastern Africa and is currently one of the lead advisers to the Department of Energy in South Africa on the Renewable Energy IPP programme, now in its fifth round of competitive capacity allocation. He is also advising the government of Sierra Leone on a major hydropower project, the government of Kenya on the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway PPP and the provincial government of KwaZulu-Natal on health and accommodation PPPs.