Carlyle appoints new energy investment team

Van Poecke was a co-founder of Petroplus, the Netherlands-based oil refining and marketing business that filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

A consortium of GPs including Carlyle bought Petroplus in a €620m take-private in 2005, which saw the private equity backers acquire a 95.05% stake. Van Poecke and Petroplus's other founder, Willem Willemstein, also invested in the company. In 2006, Carlyle and co-investor Riverstone Holdings exited Petroplus in a €1.8bn flotation of the company.

Van Poecke left Petroplus in 2007 and formed AtlasInvest, an investment company focused on the energy sector, specifically the oil and gas industry. He will begin his duties at Carlyle with the new team at the end of May.

Carlyle's new energy investment team also includes Paddy Spink, Joost Droege and Joao Saraiva e Silva. Spink has 35 years of experience in Africa, Latin America and Europe, and will become operating executive within the team.

Droege and Silva are to become managing directors of the new energy investment team. Droege has 25 years of experience in Europe. Silva has worked in the African and European markets for 14 years and has been chief financial officer at PetroJava, an oil and gas player that focuses on south east Asia, since 2011.

The team will focus on oil and gas exploration and production, oil field services and refining as well as marketing in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. Van Poecke, however, commented that Africa and Europe will be the team's main focus.

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