Gulf Keystone announced the appointment of Julien Balkany as a non-independent Non-Executive Director representing funds managed by Lansdowne Partners Austria GmbH with effect from 3 July 2023. Julien Balkany has extensive experience as an investor and board member in the international oil & gas industry. He is currently Managing Partner of Nanes-Balkany Partners, a group of investment funds that focuses on the oil & gas industry, which he co-founded in 2007.

Since 2014, he has been Chairman of the Norwegian oil & gas exploration and production company Panoro Energy ASA. He has also been Non-Executive Director of several other private and publicly listed oil & gas companies including Norwegian Energy Company (Noreco), Gasfrac Energy Services, Toreador Resources, and Amromco Energy. Julien began his career as an oil & gas investment banker and studied at the Institute of Political Studies (Strasbourg) and at UC Berkeley.