Bruce Niven became chief investment officer at Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures this year but has worked at the unit for more than two years. He was previously director of clean-tech venturing and corporate development at Japan-based trading and investment company Itochu. Before that he was founder and managing director of mass interactive events application company Telepathix and a project manager at Omega Partners Strategy Consultants. Niven studied engineering and management at Oxford University in the UK. He is a chartered financial analyst.

He said: “The aim is to develop [Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures] into a large-scale, world-class corporate venturing programme. Key challenges as I see it are scaling the venture capital model.”