Our Leadership

Tunde Banjo

Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer

Ayotunde Olumide Banjo is a distinguished upstream oil and gas executive, energy lawyer and corporate leader with more than three decades of experience spanning petroleum exploration and production, corporate governance, commercial negotiations, regulatory compliance and executive management. As Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TAR ENERGY, he provides strategic leadership for the company’s growth, investment initiatives, business development and long-term upstream expansion across Nigeria and West Africa.

He holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ibadan, is a member of the Nigerian Bar, earned a Master’s degree in Petroleum and Mineral Law, Policy and Economics from the University of Dundee, and has completed a PhD in Energy Law and Policy at the same institution.

His distinguished career includes senior executive and legal leadership roles across Nigeria’s petroleum industry. He served for more than a decade as Company Secretary and Legal Adviser at Amni International Petroleum Development Company Limited, where he played a key role in corporate governance, commercial transactions and regulatory compliance. He later served as Head of the Gas Compliance Unit and Subject Matter Specialist at the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, contributing to the implementation of national gas and local-content policies.

In addition to leading TAR ENERGY, he serves as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Genesis Hydrocarbons Limited and is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NESGAS, where he has championed indigenous participation, strategic partnerships and sustainable value creation within Africa’s energy sector.

Recognized for his executive leadership and industry contributions, Ayotunde Banjo was named among Nigeria’s Top 10 Best Performing CEOs in 2026 by TELL Magazine and has received national recognition as one of the business leaders advancing Nigeria’s energy and industrial development.

As Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TAR ENERGY, he leads the company’s corporate strategy, upstream investment programme, business development, government and stakeholder relations, commercial negotiations, strategic partnerships and long-term vision of building a leading indigenous exploration and production company committed to responsible resource development, operational excellence and sustainable growth.

Robert Bakre

Chief Operating Officer — Operations & Asset Development

Robert Bakre is a qualified geologist with an MSc in Sedimentology from Birkbeck College, University of London. He began his professional career with Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria as a Well-site Geologist Trainee before proceeding to the United Kingdom for postgraduate study. He also attended the Owner President Management Program at Harvard University.

Robert has more than 30 years of experience in the exploration and production sector of the oil and gas industry. His technical and operational achievements include pioneering the deployment of Ocean Bottom Node technology in Africa, first in Angola and later in Nigeria; conducting a landmark regional pore-pressure study across the Niger Delta; initiating a Niger Delta Regional Pressure Study to support deep-drilling exploration and reserve growth; and helping pioneer the maiden voyage and survey of Polarcus Seismic Company in Nigeria.

Over the last decade, he has played a leading role in establishing and developing the operations of foreign exploration and production companies, oilfield service companies and other businesses in Nigeria. His experience spans exploration strategy, subsurface evaluation, pressure studies, seismic operations, asset-development planning, operational readiness, technical due diligence, stakeholder engagement and corporate leadership.

At TAR ENERGY, Robert leads operations, asset-development planning, technical evaluations, project-execution readiness and the advancement of upstream opportunities. He also serves as an Oil & Gas Strategic Growth Partner with M-L Infrastructure.

Robert is a member of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain, the Geological Society of London and the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists.

Deji Orebiyi

Executive Director — International Business & Partnerships

Deji Orebiyi is a results-driven executive with more than 20 years of cross-functional experience spanning geology, geotechnical engineering, engineering consulting, upstream energy, enterprise technology and international business development. He holds an MSc in Engineering Geology from the University of Manchester and degrees in Economics and Geology from Kingston University London.

He began his career as a Research Geologist Trainee with Shell Petroleum Development Company in Warri, Nigeria. He later worked in the United Kingdom as a Geotechnical Engineering and Instrumentation Consultant supporting Fugro, WSP Global and Jacobs Engineering on site investigations, ground-engineering, instrumentation and monitoring assignments.

Deji has undertaken extensive technical studies of the exploration and production potential of the Niger Delta and Dahomey Basin, including petroleum-system evaluation, source-rock characterization, subsurface risk assessment and pore-pressure analysis of source-rock intervals. This work strengthened his understanding of basin evolution, hydrocarbon generation, exploration risk and the commercial potential of prospective acreage.

He subsequently transitioned into enterprise technology and served as a Principal Cloud Architect and senior technology consultant supporting Chevron and multinational organizations across Houston, Texas and the West Coast of the United States. His work included cloud modernization, digital transformation, enterprise architecture and operational-resilience programmes.

Deji is the Chief Executive Officer of Lambda Consult and currently serves as Executive Director — International Business & Partnerships at TAR ENERGY, where he leads international growth, investor engagement, technical partnerships, strategic alliances and cross-border opportunity development. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.