Shiv Shankaran Nair

Early life

Nair was born in August 1961 into the Nair family, in Kerala, India. He finished his schooling at the Don Bosco College. He then obtained a Post Graduate degree in Business Studies, specializing in political risk, from the Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow.

Early career (1990 - 2003)

Nair started his career as a sovereign debt dealer at the Equatorial Bank plc. in London. In 1990 he became Head of procurement at the Nigerian Government’s procurement arm in London, known as the ADPLA.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nair became the first foreign advisor for the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan. At the time Turkmenistan was regarded as one of the least developed former Soviet republics.

In the years following this appointment he worked in different advisory roles with numerous governments of other Central Asian FSU countries. These included Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Azerbaijan. These on going roles, allowed Nair to establish close connections with the new leaders of these countries following the breakup of the Soviet Union. During this period he also became fluent in Russian.

Energy advisor (2004 – present)

Nair’s career since 2004 has been heavily involved in China’s expansion into Africa and Latin America. He has been linked to some of the largest Chinese funded infrastructure projects in Africa, and was later dubbed “China’s secret weapon in Africa” by The Economist magazine.

In 2008, The Malta Independent ran a story which stated that Nair had acted as mediator in the sale of Oman’s share of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium to Transneft of Russia for USD710million. In his advisory role it was reported that he was a close friend of Kalmykian President and FIDE Chairman, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is known as a key Kremlin fixer and protege of President Vladimir Putin. Nair never commented publically on the advisory role.

In 2011, Nair met with President Juan Santos of Colombia, with mandates from the presidents of China Railways and China Harbour. In the meeting he conveyed a Chinese offer to finance a $6 billion USD railway line connecting Colombia's Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It was later reported that the offer was declined after pressure from the United States.

In the same year, Nair was involved advising Poly Energy, a subsidiary of the China Poly Group Corporation, in an abortive takeover bid for the Kurdistan focused Turkish E&P company Genel Energy. Poly Energy’s offer of 2 billion USD, was outbid by Vallares, a company owned by Nat Rothschild and former BP CEO, Lord Brown.

In Nair’s recent career he was named by The People’s Daily as the secret mediator in a dispute between the Government of Niger and CNPC of China, over the Agadem block.

In 2013, Nair was appointed advisor to the Government of Malta on FDI. Nair was said to have played an important behind the scenes role, that led to Malta being awarded the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) for a second time in a decade. Transcripts of illegally intercepted conversations that were made by the Sri Lankan government during CHOGM were leaked to The Sunday Leader. The Mauritian Prime Minister, Navin Ramgoolam, who was to host CHOGM 2015 pulled out of the running due to disagreements within the Mauritian coalition government at the time. Nair was tipped off by sources close to the Mauritius PM and alerted the Maltese PM, who wrongfooted several African states also vying for the honour and secured CHOGM 2015 for Malta. Nair was said to have influenced South African support, changing their vote from Botswana to Malta. The change in support led Botswana to withdraw from the running and Malta won the final vote unanimously.

Controversies

In 1997, Nair was the non-executive director of a British company given an administrative debarment by the World Bank, for operating a cartel on Bank funded projects and was restricted from participating in any World Bank contracts for his role as the company’s director. Nair flatly denied the allegations and attempted to take the World Bank to court. However, the Bank refused to attend any court hearing citing Diplomatic Immunity. In 2000 the Isle of Man Financial Services Commission obtained a court order freezing the assets of the company, which had been sanctioned by the World Bank. The freeze order was subsequently overturned by the Isle of Man High Court of Justice, as the World Bank refused to present any documentation justifying their debarment of the company. Nair claimed that this was a clear vindication of his position, that the allegations against him were without merit.

In 2013 his role as energy advisor to the Maltese government came under scrutiny from the opposition. As an advisor to the government of Malta, he was responsible for fast tracking the gas purchase agreement between Malta and Qatar and also initiating major Chinese investments into Malta. The Maltese opposition accused Nair of having a close personal relationship with The Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat and were also critical of the fact that he did not declare his World Bank exclusion.

The accusation led to Nair receiving press coverage from the opposition led media in Malta, including nationalist MP Simon Busuttil, who called for Nair’s dismissal. The Maltese Prime Minister stated in the media that he refused to be pressurised into terminating Nair’s contract.