African Entrepreneurs Network

ahmed · Site Admin Joined: 29 Jan 2008 Posts: 42 Location: Lagos

Folks,

Here is another great story I'll love to share with you all. Like I said earlier we will be using our Proudly Nigerian forum to discuss Nigerians who have made us proud. We will deliberatley ignore all those who are economic saboteurs, corrupt leaders, and all those who have not made us proud.

We will discuss about people from different fields.

Sports, Technology, Religion, Business, Arts & Entertainment, Politics and Medicine.

Here we start off with the story of Dr. Kase Lukman Lawal

Kase L. Lawal is the chairman and chief executive officer of CAMAC International Corporation and chairman of Allied Energy Corporation in Houston, Texas. He also serves as a member of the board of directors and is a significant shareholder in Unity National Bank, the only federally insured and licensed African-American-owned bank in Texas.
Kase Lukman Lawal
As chairman and chief executive officer of CAMAC International Corporation, Dr. Lawal leads a diverse group of affiliate companies that comprise the second largest African-American owned company in the United States with more than 1,000 employees worldwide. CAMAC’s principal business activities include energy exploration and production, crude oil/natural gas/electricity trading, and transportation services.

In addition, Dr. Lawal also serves as a commissioner on the Port of Houston Authority, the largest foreign tonnage port in the United States, and as vice chairman of the Houston Airport Development System Corporation, the sixth largest international airport system in the world. In 1994, he was a finalist for the United States Business Entrepreneur of the Year and also served on the President of the United States Business Advisory Council. He is a graduate of Texas Southern University with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in business administration, finance and marketing from Prairie View A&M University of Texas. He was most recently awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy from Fort Valley State University.

Background

Chairman and chief executive officer, CAMAC Holdings; vice chairman, Port of Houston Authority Commission

Nationality: American/Nigerian

Born: 1954, in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Education: Texas Southern University, BS, 1976; Prairie View A&M, MBA, 1978.

Family: Married Eileen (maiden name unknown; co-owner, CAMAC); children: three.

Career: Shell Oil Refining Company, 1975–1977, process engineer; Dresser Industries, 1977–1979, research chemist; Suncrest Investment Corporation, 1980–1982, vice president; Baker Investments, 1982–1986, president; CAMAC Holdings, 1986–, chief executive officer and president; Port of Houston Authority Board of Commissioners, 1999–2000, commissioner; 2000–, vice chairman; Allied Energy Corporation, 1991–, chairman.

Awards: USAfrica Business Person of the Year, USAfrica The Newspaper, 1997.

Address: CAMAC Holdings, 4669 Southwest Freeway, Suite 600, Houston, Texas 77027;

Kase Lukman Lawal quietly developed one of the largest African American–owned businesses in the United States by exploiting the oil riches of Africa. The company Lawal founded and led was CAMAC Holdings, an international oil exploration, refining, and trading company with more than one thousand employees in the United States and the Republic of South Africa. In 2002 CAMAC was named the largest African American–owned company on the Black Enterprise 100s list. Analysts described Lawal as a politically well-connected risk taker who aimed to promote black empowerment around the globe.

Independent Beginnings

Growing up in Nigeria, Lawal knew at an early age that he would run a business, but he remained uncertain about his choice of enterprise. Lawal's decision to immigrate to the United States was an easier one even though he had adamant opposition from his father. The senior Lawal feared for his son's safety and doubted his ability to adjust to the American way of education. Eager to be part of the civil rights struggle, Lawal ignored his father's objections and arrived in the United States in the early 1970s. He moved to Houston in 1972 to attend Texas Southern University. On leaving college Lawal worked in the oil industry as an engineer and chemist.

Expanding into Oil

When Lawal began CAMAC (which stands for Cameroon-American) in 1986, the small company traded agricultural commodities such as sugar, tobacco, and rice. Befitting the firm's humble beginnings 80 percent of the company was owned by Lawal, his wife, and three children, the remainder being divided among Lawal's brothers and sisters. CAMAC moved into the oil business in 1989 after Rilwanu Lukman, at the time the president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, urged Lawal to change focus from agriculture to oil exploration, which was much more lucrative. The encounter was a demonstration of Lawal's excellent political contacts in oil-rich Nigeria.

To obtain funds for oil exploration, CAMAC went into partnership with the giant Houston-based oil company Conoco in 1991. While Conoco had money, CAMAC owned the rights to blocks of land in Africa where exploration would take place. In 2002 the partnership was producing more than 20,000 barrels of oil per day. Despite this success Lawal decided to move away from exploration. "We used to produce oil and rely on someone to sell it," said Lawal in 2002. "We decided that we could get contracts and assemble a risk management team that could deal with the volatility of selling oil and gas," he added (Hughes, June 2002).

Exploration and production were the main sources of CAMAC's income, but trading provided the most revenue. As a result of changing in 1998 to an integrated business that provided both upstream and downstream services, CAMAC achieved impressive revenue growth. The company posted revenues of $114.26 million in 1999, $571.54 million in 2000, and $979.5 million in 2001. Upstream services included the exploration and production of oil and gas; downstream services involved the trading and refining of products.

The oil business in the United States faced expensive environmental upgrades to reduce the amount of sulfur in the fuel produced. To avoid this expense, CAMAC in 2002 moved equipment from its Blue Island Refinery in Illinois for reassembly at a newly developed refinery complex in Cape Province (Cape of Good Hope), Republic of South Africa. The object was to refine 13,000 barrels a day. George Beranek, the manager of market analysis at the Petroleum Finance Company, said that the move made good business sense because the equipment could be run where specifications were not as stringent. Lawal denied that CAMAC's standards would be compromised and defended the move as encouraging more blacks to "get involved in the oil industry as entrepreneurs" (Hughes, June 2002).

Active in International Politics

Lawal was highly visible in the Houston community and dedicated approximately 60 percent of his time to public service. As a member of the Port of Houston Authority Commission, Lawal helped to establish the port's Small Business Development Program to award contracts to Houston-area businesses and developed memorandum of friendship agreements with 20 ports, mostly in South Africa and other countries in Africa. By providing management consulting and technical assistance to foreign ports, Lawal helped Houston to maintain its international presence and its flourishing import-export trade. As of 2004 the port of Houston was first in the United States in foreign tonnage and included the nation's largest petrochemical complex. "He's very behind the scenes—he doesn't do things for a lot of fanfare," observed Houston City Council member Carol Alvarado in 2002 (Anderson, August 9, 2002). Lawal was a director of the Cullen Engineering Research Foundation; a member of the United States Trade Advisory Committee on Africa; a member of the boards of directors of Cape Investment Holdings, the Greater Houston Partnership, and the Houston Airport System Development Corporation; and chairman of the Houston Mayoral Advisory Board on International Affairs and Development.

Further Information

Anderson, Lauren Bayne, "Black Entrepreneur Takes Top Honors Only Reluctantly," Houston Chronicle, August 9, 2002.
Hensel, Bill, Jr., "Commissioner Wins Reappointment," Houston Chronicle, June 14, 2003. Hughes, Alan, "A New Leader Emerges," Black Enterprise 32, no. 11 (June 2002), p. 127.

Media Profile
Nigerian's Business Named US Company Of The Year

He has been referred to as an oil baron. He founded and continues to lead the second largest black-owned business in the entire United States.

Nigerian-born Dr. Kase Lawal's Houston-based crude oil and gas exploration corporation, CAMAC International Corporation, has been named as the '2006 company of the year' among African-American businesses, according to a press release from the company and local media reports.

The selection was made by the leading business magazine for African-Americans, Black Enterprise. According to the magazine, CAMAC also ranked as the second biggest US firm owned by a black man, with a gross revenue figure ofnearly $1.5 billion dollars last year.

Lawal, in an email exchange with The Guardian, said "being recognized by Black Enterprise Magazine, the pre-eminent magazine in the United States for African-American business, as the 2006 Company of the Year and the second largest African-American company in the United States, is a tremendous honour for CAMAC International Corporation, particularly since it comes during the midst of our 20th anniversary year in business."

Lawal was recently featured on the cover of the Black Enterprise magazine, where the publication described him as an oil baron.

Commenting on the string of successes of his 20-year-old business,Lawal paid tribute to his family and staff of his firm.

A native of Ibadan, he concedes openly that much of his business acumen can be traced to his roots as a child growing up in Ibadan.

"Through the effective use of strategic partnerships, CAMAC has excelled and blazed new paths that have previously been inaccessible to Africans and other minorities in the energy sector," he said.

"It is my hope that recognition from Black Enterprise demonstrates that entrepreneurial success for Africans and African-Americans is certainly achievable and serves as an inspiration for others to take advantage of the opportunities in the energy sector and participate in the global economy."

A press release from CAMAC said the company won the backing of Black Enterprise's Editorial Board "by demonstrating competitiveexcellence and by being a top producer in the energy industry."

The Nigerian-founded CAMAC earned $1.49 billion in revenue last year and that would bethe second consecutive year the company has made the annual Black Enterprise listin the number two position. CAMAC was in fact number one in 2002.

Lawal received the Company of the Year Award at the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs NationalConference in Dallas, Texas and also took part as a CEO panelist in "Making the BigDeal" panel, which addressed how top companies approach deal making and its benefits to the company's long-term growth.

The statement said CAMAC's principal business include the exploration, production, and the physical trading of crude oilfor markets in Africa and Europe and the wholesale trading of electric power andnatural gas in the United States. Its affiliates have offices in Bogot, Colombia; London, England; Lagos, Nigeria; Port Harcourt, Nigeria; and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Through its South African affiliate, CAMAC provides the first-ever, curb-to-curb school bus transportation services for students in Johannesburg.

Born in Ibadan, in 1954, Lawal, who is also the chairman of Allied Energy Corporation, is a significantstakeholder in Unity National Bank, the only federally insured and licensed African-American-owned bank in Texas, where he serves as vice chairman of the boardof directors.

Among his several philanthropic and charity endeavours, Lawalco-chairs the Hope Lives Here, a $300 million dollar UNICEF campaign against AIDS,with his wife, Eileen Lawal.

Lawal who came to the US for his higher education graduated from Texas Southern University with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and later obtained a master's degree in business administration, finance and marketing from Prairie.

He was most recently awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy from Fort Valley State University here in the US.

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