Austin is the Founder and Executive Chairman of AA Holdings.
A Geologist by training, Austin spent over 40 years in the Nigerian oil and gas sector and was Managing Director of Platform Petroleum Limited. In 2010, he became the pioneer CEO of Seplat Ltd, a company he co-founded.

Under his leadership, Seplat was dually listed on the London Stock Exchange and Nigeria Stock Exchange. He retired as CEO of Seplat in 2020 and remains on the Board. He is also the Chairman of the AA Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to creating social-economic change in education and healthcare.

He is a fellow and past President of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and a recipient of the Aret Adams Award.

He is the author of “Politics, Economics & the Nigerian Petroleum Industry” and co-author of “Nigerian Petroleum Business, A Handbook”. He won the 2013 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Master class category for Nigeria and the West African Sub-region.