Sam Malin grew up in British Columbia, Canada. Mostly this was in Victoria, the capital, but he also spent several years in the small northern community of Terrace. Sam was schooled at Glenlyon Preparatory School and St Michael’s University School. He gained an honours degree in Geological Engineering from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada and undertook graduate studies at the University of Cambridge in England. His early career saw him working with Dome Petroleum in Calgary and later at Arthur D. Little in London and Standard & Poor’s/DRI in Paris. Later, he was affiliated with Deutsche Energy-Consult in Bad Homburg, Germany, and PKF in London. During this time he worked energy expert under a number of international development programmes sponsored by the EU and other multilaterals and international development agencies. He is an occasional lecturer with the Oxford College of Petroleum Studies and has also spoken at Cambridge University’s Judge Institute of Management.
Sam Malin is a major player in Madagascar and the wider Western Indian Ocean region. Having been involved in the world’s fourth largest island since 1994, Sam founded both Madagascar Oil and Madagascar Consolidated Mining (MCM) in 2004 and remains a significant shareholder of both. As CEO, he built the former, which is developing Madagascar’s giant Bemolanga and Tsimiroro onshore heavy oil fields, into a billion dollar company on track to develop its multibillion barrel oil reserves. Negotiations started by Sam in 2005 have led to the recent agreement with Total bringing Total in as a farm-in partner and operator with the ultimate aim of bringing the Bemolanga field into large scale production.
As Chairman, Sam steered Red Island Minerals, MCM’s holding company, into an agreement with Australia’s Strait’s Resources, which in early 2008 took a stake in Red Island Minerals. He also oversaw the launch of an appraisal and development programme that should see its main asset, the Sakoa Coal Field in large scale production for the first time since the first half of the 19th century. In a testament to the sensitivity shown to environmental and socio-economic concerns, the World Wide Fund for Nature is involved in this project which should result in a decrease in the burning of forests for fuel wood for use for home cooking and heating.
Sam is the Chief Executive Officer of the Avana Group of companies which he founded in 2006. Avana focuses on Madagascar, the Seychelles and the wider Western Indian Ocean region. Avana also has interests in West Africa. Its projects cover property, Biofuels, minerals and oil and gas exploration. Sam and Avana are active in supporting the economic and social development of the region, supporting knowledge transfer, poverty alleviation and micro-development initiatives and working with appropriate NGOs. Avana strives to minimise and offset the environmental impacts of its operations and to ensure that it makes a strong net contribution to regional economic development and social welfare.
