Leadership

The people behind Nelum

Deep experience across physical commodities trading, international trade law, and institutional-grade financial technology.

Chief Executive Officer

Helen Chikezie

Helen Chikezie manages the global operations, strategic direction, and commercial execution of Nelum across the EMEA, APAC, and LATAM regions. Based in London, she oversees the firm's multi-jurisdictional compliance frameworks and physical commodity trading structures.

Ms. Chikezie is a qualified lawyer, holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA), and doctorate in international trade law. She operates as a principal commodities trader and export specialist. Her background combines international trade law with structured finance, enabling the execution of complex cross-border transactions within highly regulated environments.

She holds primary export licences across key African jurisdictions and maintains direct origin and counterparty relationships with premier refiners and institutional importers in Dubai. Under her direction, Nelum integrates physical supply chain management with institutional risk mitigation to facilitate high-volume global trade.

Chief Technology Officer

Christopher Barklem

Christopher Barklem directs Nelum's global technology strategy, infrastructure architecture, and digital risk management systems across the firm's EMEA, APAC, and LATAM networks.

Mr. Barklem has over two decades of enterprise technology experience, beginning his career in systems engineering at Sun Microsystems. He subsequently transitioned to financial technology, leading the world's first personal financial management product at Strands (Strands Finance).

Prior to joining Nelum, Mr. Barklem operated as a senior product and technical consultant to retail banks and central financial institutions across Europe. His expertise encompasses the design and deployment of secure, compliant, rich onboarding experiences, automated regulatory compliance systems, and distributed ledger security on blockchain technology. At Nelum, he is responsible for the scaling, security, and systemic integration of the firm's global trading infrastructure.

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