On February 27, the Export-Import Bank of the United States announced 28 names across two mandated advisory committees. The press release was buried under tariff headlines. That’s a mistake.
For anyone tracking the US–DRC Strategic Partnership Agreement, now 88 days old, these are the most consequential personnel appointments since the SPA itself.
EXIM is not a think tank.
It is a $135 billion-authorized export credit agency that has already deployed $10 billion to launch Project Vault, the US strategic minerals stockpile.
It recently approved its largest-ever deal, $4.7 billion for Total Energies’ gas project in Mozambique’s insurgency-hit Cabo Delgado province.
Its chairman told the Financial Times the bank would invest $100 billion in critical minerals and energy. EXIM doesn’t write policy papers. It writes checks.
And these 28 people will tell it where.
The Advisory Committee: Three Signals
Bob Diamond of Atlas Merchant Capital chairs the 17-member Advisory Committee. Former Barclays CEO. Co-founded Atlas Mara in 2013. He now sets the agenda for every discussion about where EXIM deploys capital in emerging markets.
The committee’s composition maps directly onto the SPA framework.
Energy dominance. Four of the seventeen seats go to energy. Nuclear Energy Institute, NuCore Energy, GE Vernova, ClearPath. The DRC’s mining belt faces a 780 to 1,300 MW power deficit that the SPA does not address. If EXIM starts financing US-manufactured turbines, solar arrays, or transmission infrastructure for SAR operators, the investment calculus changes overnight. GE Vernova’s Roger Martella sitting on this committee is not incidental. GE turbines are already in Inga II.
Defense-industrial crossover. Mike Gallagher from Palantir (Head of Defense, former congressman) and Matthew Kroenig from the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center. This is Pax Silica made institutional: minerals as defense inputs, not commodities. Palantir on an EXIM committee means supply chain traceability and provenance verification are now embedded in export credit decision-making.
Infrastructure scale. Lars Hickey from Wabtec (locomotives, rail systems) and Mark Campbell from Bechtel Enterprises. The Lobito Corridor DRC rail concession goes to tender in April 2026. Two union seats ensure the Africa pipeline is framed as American jobs, which is the political cover for billions flowing into African infrastructure under an “America First” administration.
The Sub-Saharan Africa Committee: Where the DRC Conversation Happens
Florie Liser chairs it. As President of the Corporate Council on Africa, the largest US-Africa business lobby, she now shapes both CCA’s agenda and EXIM’s Africa advisory. When a US mining equipment manufacturer asks EXIM about financing a DRC sale, and that manufacturer is a CCA member, Liser is in both rooms.
Reuben Brigety deserves the closest reading. Biden’s ambassador to South Africa, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs. In January 2025, he launched Busara Advisors, the first US advisory firm focused exclusively on Africa, covering extractives, critical minerals, energy, and transport. He is building in the private sector exactly what the SPA framework demands. He now advises EXIM on where American capital goes in Africa.
Dan Runde of CSIS, Washington’s most influential voice on DFC reform and Lobito strategy, provides the intellectual framework. Ayo Sopitan of Metalex Commodities brings commodity trading. V Shankar of Gateway Partners brings emerging market PE from Dubai.
What This Tells Us, and What It Doesn’t
EXIM is not waiting for the SPA to prove itself. The advisory apparatus is being built during the SPA’s first 90 days, before a single implementation test has passed. Capital deployment is running ahead of governance reform. This is not new. This is how Sicomines happened.
The DRC is not specifically represented. The SSA committee covers 49 countries. Nobody in the room tracks CAMI registry discrepancies, Gécamines beneficial ownership chains, or the difference between a mining permit in Haut-Katanga and one in Tanganyika. The advice will be strategic, not granular. For investors who act on it without operational verification, the gap between EXIM-validated opportunity and DRC ground reality could be expensive.
The Sicomines precedent is absent from the conversation. Neither committee includes civil society or DRC governance expertise. Sicomines promised $6.2 billion, delivered $822 million, and left $685 million unaccounted for. That happened because speed outran accountability.
Whether EXIM’s advisory apparatus reinforces the SPA’s transparency promise or shortcuts it is the question that matters most.
Three Questions That Remain Open
Does Project Vault require a SAR designation? The $12 billion stockpile’s procurement managers, Mercuria, Hartree Partners, and Traxys, are already sourcing from the DRC. If SAR designation becomes a procurement requirement, it’s commercially essential overnight. If not, the SAR framework is advisory theatre.
Can EXIM finance energy in the DRC mining belt?
EXIM finances US exports. A US-manufactured gas turbine sold to a DRC power developer fits the mechanism. If EXIM can finance Cabo Delgado, the DRC risk-profile objection weakens considerably. The question is whether this energy-heavy committee pushes the bank toward that exposure.
Does the advisory ecosystem create demand for DRC-specific analysis, or false comfort? Every US firm that asks Brigety or Liser about the DRC will get macro guidance. The operational detail requires depth; no pan-African firm produces from Washington.
The Powering Africa Summit on March 19–20 in Washington, where Jovanovic appears alongside Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, DFC, and the DRC’s own electricity regulator, is the first major convening after these appointments. The machine is being built. The question is whether it’s being built carefully enough to last.