Kelli Kachur is an Australian Solicitor in the M&A, joint venture, projects, and equity space. She is the founder and Managing Director of Kachur Legal – a law firm based in Western Australia that offers on-demand and virtual legal services to in-house counsel and other law firms in the oil, gas and energy industry.
Kelli has been an active member of the AIPN since law school when she served on the AIPN Student Club Committee at the University of Western Australia. But her interest in the petroleum industry began much earlier when she was doing her Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Alberta in Canada.
After graduating from UWA, Kelli began working as a Solicitor and Associate at Norton Rose Fulbright where she developed her legal skills in the oil, gas and energy industry and continued her membership with AIPN.
In 2015, she was appointed as a Committee Member of the AIPN Australia-Pacific Chapter.
Kelli, along with the support of the Australia-Pacific Committee, advocates fostering business and networks within the Asia-Pacific region, as well as getting students and young professionals involved in the AIPN.
Throughout Kelli’s career, she has been supported and mentored by other AIPN members – particularly, Jodie Hatherly and Shirley Watson (INPEX), Sean Rush (Spindletop), Amelia Jalleh (Repsol), and early in her AIPN days, Kimberley Reeder (BP).
When Kelli isn’t negotiating and drafting contracts or getting deals done, she enjoys spending time at the beach with her partner Rob and their dog in their hometown of Dunsborough, as well as sampling local wines in the picturesque South West region of Australia.
João Verne Oliveira is a Portuguese/Angolan legal counsel supporting BP’s upstream activities in Angola and in other African countries. João focuses his activities in upstream contracts and in providing support to BP’s tax and procurement & supply chain management teams. João holds a degree in Law from the University of Lisbon, an LL.M in Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Law from the University of Houston and an Executive (Masters Level) Diploma in Global Business from the University of Oxford (Said Business School).
Apart from serving on several drafting committees, João is currently serving as the Alternate Chapter Director for AIPN’s Africa Regional Chapter while at the same time being one of AIPN’s country representatives for Angola. He was one of the recipients of the AIPN Student Scholarship (2011) and he served as Vice President for the AIPN Student Club at the University of Houston during his time at the university.
João teaches Petroleum Geopolitics and Environmental Law Applicable to the Oil Sector at Agostinho Neto University (Angola) in their Oil and Gas Law and Business LL.M program. João is regularly invited to speak at other universities, conferences, and congresses regarding oil & gas matters and he has contributed articles/chapters to several books on these topics. João is also one of the founding members of the Lisbon-based energy Think Tank “EnerXXI – Think Tank de Energia”.
An avid art and record collector – mostly Jazz, Krautrock, Indie Rock and Electronic/Synth-Pop – João is also involved with a number of charity initiatives in Angola aiming at social change through the empowerment of individuals.
