Gagan Gupta

In 2008, he joined Olam Gabon, where he became country manager in 2010. He was then successively appointed director of the group's operations in Central Africa, director of business development of Olam International and subsequently co-founded Arise.[3][5]

In Gabon, after the implementation of large-scale projects in agribusiness under Public-Private partnerships, Gagan Gupta initiated in 2010 the Gabon Special Economic Zone (GSEZ), a PPP in the infrastructure sector between Olam International Ltd. (40.5%), Africa Finance Corporation (21%) and the Gabonese Republic.[2]

With Olam Gabon, he also undertook other infrastructure projects, including a rural electrification program and the management of the Libreville airport. He also initiated the Owendo Mineral Port (OMP), inaugurated in August 2016, and the New Owendo International Port (NOIP), which has been operational since June 2017.[6]

In 2018, Olam Gabon and its subsidiaries were the country's largest employer of Gabon with 17,500 employees.[2]

In 2018, thinking that infrastructures and industrial ecosystems were the main levers of Africa's economic development, Gagan Gupta undertook to deploy GSEZ's business model in West Africa. He did it with Arise, a pan-African company that designs, finances, builds and operates industrial zones, roads, ports and other critical infrastructures.[7]

At the end of 2019, Arise's activity was restructured in three separate entities:[8][9] Arise Ports & Logistics (P&L), dedicated to ports logistics operations, Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms (IIP), focused on the development of industrial ecosystems, and ARISE Infrastructure Services (IS) for all other infrastructure operations.[10] Arise P&L currently operates three ports in Gabon: Libreville Mineral Port, Owendo Mineral Port and New Owendo International Port;[11] the Nouakchott Container Terminal in Mauritania and the San Pedro Multipurpose Industrial Terminal in Côte d'Ivoire. Arise IIP owns and operates industrial zones in Gabon (Nkok), Benin (Glo-Djigbé) and Togo (Adétikopé). Arise IS consists of three assets in Gabon: GSEZ Infras, Aéroport de Libreville (ADL) and Société Autoroutière du Gabon (SAG). SAG, or Gabon Motorway Company, secured a contract to build the Transgabonaise, a large-scale road infrastructure project which is set to cross the country from West to South-East by 2023.[12]

Each entity was set up as a joint venture with strategic partners who brought expertise in their domain :

• Arise P&L is a joint venture between AP Moller Capital (43%), Olam International Ltd (31%) and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) (26%).[13][14]
• Arise IIP is owned by AFC (50.5%) and Olam (49.5%).[15]
• Arise IS has three shareholders: AFC, Olam and Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC) of Gabon.

At the individual asset level, partnerships have been struck with global investors, including private equity fund Meridiam, which has stakes in Arise P&L's Container Terminal in Nouakchott, Mauritania and Arise IS's Société Autoroutière du Gabon (SAG), or French-investment fund Stoa Infra & Energie which recently became a minority-shareholder of the Owendo port in Gabon, managed by Arise P&L.[7][16]

• Executive Committee member, Olam International.[17]

Gagan Gupta was nominated twice at the 2012 African Business Awards for his work with Olam in Gabon in the categories of Investor of the Year and Award for Innovation and given highest civilian order award by Government of Gabon.[18]