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Gordon Keep, Chairman, Director
Gordon Keep is currently the Executive Vice-President of Fiore Financial Corporation, a private merchant banking firm, and has extensive business experience in investment banking, and creating public natural resource companies. Prior to joining Fiore Financial, Mr. Keep was Managing Director of Corporate Finance at Endeavour Financial, from January 2001 to July 2007. From September 1997 until March 2004, he was Senior Vice President and Director of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Mr. Keep also served as the Vice President, Corporate Finance in the Natural Resource group of Yorkton Securities Inc from April 1987 until October 1997.
Jim Walchuck, President & CEO, Director
Jim Walchuck (BSc., PEng) is a mining professional with more than 28 years of national and international experience in the minerals industry, including work in North America, Slovakia, the UK, Ghana, and Tanzania. As the president and CEO of Tournigan Gold Corp, Walchuck raised $45,000,000 in 2006 for the purpose of developing Tournigan’s two key assets and helped increase Tournigan’s market cap from $20M to approximately $200M over a one year period. Mr. Walchuck was the Manager Mining for Barrick at the Bulyanhulu Gold Mine in Tanzania from 1999 to 2002. There he oversaw the building of a multi-million-ounce, high-grade underground mine in 24 months and achieved over 2 million man-hours without a lost-time accident. Prior to his 6-year involvement with Bulyanhulu (first as Sr. Project Manager with Sutton Resources then as Manager Mining for Barrick), Mr. Walchuck was Manager of Mining and then Manager - Corporate Operations for Royal Oak Mines. This was preceded by a 5-year term as Chief Mining Engineer for Tarkwa Goldfields in Ghana. A member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario for 28 years, Mr. Walchuck holds Bachelor Degrees in both Science and Engineering.
John Reynolds, Director
Since 2006, a senior strategic advisor with Lang Michener, LLP; from 1997 to 2006 Member of Parliament for West Vancouver – Sunshine Coast
Rob McMorran, CFO, Corporate Secretary, Director
Rob McMorran is the president of Malaspina Consultants Inc., an accounting and administrative management services business serving junior public companies since 1997. He also currently serves as the CFO of Terra Ventures, , a junior mining and exploration company focused on acquiring and developing uranium assets primarily in the Athabasca Basin. Mr. McMorran obtained his Chartered Accountant designation in 1981 while articling with Coopers & Lybrand's Vancouver office. In 1982 he left C&L and joined Denison Mines Limited's Coal Division where he spent five years primarily working on the Quintette Coal Project located in northeast B.C. In 1987 Mr. McMorran joined Cheni Gold Mines Inc., a TSE listed junior precious metal company as the corporate controller, where he spent ten years, eventually being promoted to President/CEO. Mr. McMorran has held numerous board positions and senior officer appointments since starting Malaspina, including his tenure as the Chief Financial Officer of the highly successful Canada Dominion Resources Group of flow-through limited partnerships.
Tyler Cran, Director
Tyler Cran has a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Finance from the University of Alberta. He has been President, director and chairman of audit committees on numerous public companies over a 40 year career in business, mainly in the energy and natural resource sector.
Brian G. Thurston, Director
Mr. Thurston, HBSc (Geology) is a mining executive with over 16 years of exploration management and operational experience working on projects in North and South America. He is President, CEO and director of Raytec. Previously, he formed part of the initial geological exploration team that evaluated the land holdings of Aurelian Resources Inc. in Ecuador in 2002, and held the position of Country Manager for Aurelian Ecuador S.A. de C.V. in 2004 and 2005.
Jamie Schwitzer, Director
Jamie Schwitzer holds the office of Vice-President with Westcap Mgt. Ltd. Mr. Schwitzer has nearly 15 years of investment management experience during which he has developed and implemented rigorous and detailed due diligence processes applicable to a wide range of sectors and investment instruments. Prior to joining Westcap Mgt. Ltd., from 2007, Mr. Schwitzer was a partner with Victoria Park Capital, a private equity firm managing a $400-million-plus portfolio of investments. From 2000 - 2007, Mr. Schwitzer was an investment manager with Crown Capital Partners, a specialty finance company involved in subordinated debt, mezzanine and equity financings across life science, manufacturing, retail and oil and gas sectors. His background also includes managing money market and fixed income investments, public equities, currency trading and asset/liability management with Crown Life Insurance Company. Mr. Schwitzer holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, and is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Saskatchewan. Mr. Schwitzer also serves as a director of a number of private Canadian companies involved in technology, value added processing and agriculture.
Hamad Al-Wazzan, Director
Hamad Al-Wazzan is the Chairman and Managing Director of Arabian Motors Group and the Al-Wazzan Group of Companies headquartered in Kuwait. A 1979 graduate of Kuwait University, Mr. Al-Wazzan and his partners have a proven track record in the development of a variety of construction, petrochemical and natural resource projects in Europe and the Middle East. More recently, Mr. Al-Wazzan has focused his attention on acquisitions in the North American mining sector. Mr. Al-Wazzan participated in $5 million of the offering and has invested an aggregate of $7.5 million in Encanto convertible debentures.
Aref Kanafani, Director
Aref Kanafani is a resident of Montreal and a graduate of McGill University. He received his Masters of Business Administration degree from Oxford University, England. For the past 7 years Mr. Kanafani has acted as the Senior Principal Advisor to the Al-Wazzan Group of Companies. Mr. Kanafani's career has been concentrated on strategic acquisitions and investments in petrochemical, infrastructure construction and natural resource projects.
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