Speakers
Ejaz Ahmed is professor and Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science. Before joining Brock, he was a professor and head of Mathematics at the University of Windsor and University of Regina. Prior to that, he had a faculty position at the University of Western Ontario. Further, he is a Senior Advisor to Sigma Analytics (Data Mining & Research), Regina.
He is an internationally known scholar and an established researcher. My research interests concentrate on big data, predictive modeling, data science, and statistical machine learning with applications in many walks of life. His research has been supported by a variety of grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada since 1987, the Canadian Institute of Health Research, Ontario Centre for Excellence (OCE) and other sources throughout my academic career. Importantly, his NSERC grant was renewed in 2017 for another five years, with “Outstanding (O)” in all three categories. According to that year’s competition statistics, only two applications overall from ALL small universities received a ranking of “OOO” or higher.
University Professor, Department Chair,
Program Director, and Science Diplomacy Practitioner
University of Delaware
Saleem H. Ali is a Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware.
Prof. Ali previously served as chair in Sustainable Resource Development and professor of sustainability science and policy at University of Queensland in Australia. He also was a professor of environmental studies at the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Natural Resources, and founding director of the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security. He was also formerly on the adjunct faculty of Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies and the visiting faculty for the United Nations mandated University for Peace (Costa Rica).
Prof. Ali’s primary research interests have been in the causes and consequences of environmental conflicts in the mineral sector, and the process of using ecological factors to promote peace. Some of Prof. Ali’s former research appointments include a visiting fellowship at the Brookings Institution’s research center in Doha, Qatar; a Public Policy Fellowship at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, a Baker Foundation Research Fellowship at Harvard Business School and a parliamentary internship at the U.K. House of Commons. He has teaching experience in courses on environmental planning, conflict resolution, industrial ecology, research methods and technical writing.
Before embarking on an academic career, Prof. Ali worked as an environmental health and safety professional at General Electric, an Associate at the Boston-based consulting firm Industrial Economics Inc., as well as a consultant for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Health Canada.
Prof. Ali received his doctorate in Environmental Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an M.E.S. in environmental law and policy from Yale University, and his Bachelors in Chemistry from Tufts University.
Dr. Ali is a citizen of the United States of America by birth; Pakistan by parental lineage; and Australian by naturalization.
Michelle joined OZ Minerals in March 2022. As Technology Executive, she is accountable for ICT, including digital, robotics and automation, Mining Technology and Transformation. Michelle has more than 20 years’ experience in the mining and manufacturing sectors with a focus on business improvement and change management.
Most recently, she was CEO of Dassault Systems GEOVIA software division where she led a growth strategy across the company’s Natural Resources sector, delivering next-generation solutions through geologic modelling and mining engineering software applications.
Prior to this, Michelle was Chief Innovation Officer at Barrick Gold.
She is also the Chair of Global Mining Group and a Board Member of technology start-ups Railveyor and Off World.
Associate Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) and the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies
Brock University
Julia Baird is a Canada Research Chair in Human Dimensions of Water Resources and Water Resilience and an Associate Professor in the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre and the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies.
She also holds an Adjunct Senior Lecturer position at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia.
Julia’s research focuses on water governance and resilience at the collective and individual levels in contexts including flooding, ecological restoration, and agricultural systems.
She leads the Water Resilience Lab at Brock. Julia is the 2020 recipient of the Canadian Water’s Next Academic Leader award and the Brock University Faculty of Social Sciences Early Career Researcher award.
Sustainability Specialist & Regional Mgr – Australasia, Whittle Consulting
Industry Fellow, U of Queensland, Sustainable Minerals Institute
Philip Bangerter graduated from the Otago School of Mines in 1981, with an honours degree in mineral processing. He worked as a metallurgist between 1982 & 1986 in Tin and Mineral Sands operations. In 1987 he embarked on a commercialisation career, which has encompassed process equipment sales, sales management, technology commercialisation, IP management and R&D.
In 2001 Philip joined Hatch and undertook a variety of roles in technology commercialisation, water treatment and more specifically in development of the company’s Sustainable Development frameworks, tools and application of sustainable design practices in projects. His various roles included Global Director for Sustainability as well as being responsible for Hatch’s technical and research alliance relationships with the CSIRO, The University of Queensland and the CRC for Sustainable Resource Processing.
In 2016, Philip left Hatch to start his own consultancy in innovation, technology, facilitation and commercialisation in the Circular Economy. At Whittle Consulting he is the Sustainability Specialist & Regional Manager – Australasia
Gerard Barron is on a mission to help wean humanity off fossil fuels and transition to a circular resource economy. He is a seasoned entrepreneur with a track record of building global companies in battery technology, media and future-oriented resource development both as a chief executive and strategic investor. He became involved in the early strategic development and financing of DeepGreen during its formation in 2011 and stepped into the role of Chairman & CEO in 2017.
Gerard is leading DeepGreen’s three-part strategy to first inject a sufficient supply of four virgin metals (Ni, Mn, Co, Cu) into the system to enable the green transition, then track and recycle the four metals that DeepGreen injects, and ultimately work through the rest of the periodic table to circularize the remaining metals. If DeepGreen succeeds, mining virgin ores—whether in land or in the ocean—will become a marginal human activity as we meet most of our metal needs by recycling a shared common stock of metals.
Martin Beaudoin Nadeau completed his bachelor’s degree with honours in Forest Sciences: Specialization in International Forestry at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He also earned a master’s degree in Agroforestry and an MBA Global Business at Université Laval in Quebec City. He studied for one year in Costa Rica at the University of Costa Rica to enhance his knowledge of tropical ecosystems, which led him to work as a professional on projects in soil protection and conservation, plant diversity, and soil fertility in many tropical agroforest and forest ecosystems.
Martin Beaudoin Nadeau has also been working for several years in the development of new, sustainable, and low-cost green phytotechnologies for the restoration, remediation, return to production, and quick reforestation of degraded lands, including mining sites, using the least possible amount of organic, chemical, and mineral inputs. He is an expert in forestry, agroforestry, and ecological restoration on degraded lands with experience across Canada, Latin America (Costa Rica, Ecuador, Haiti), and Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, South Africa, Zambia).
Martin Beaudoin Nadeau is an executive board member of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA): Chapter Quebec.
Gary A. Bolles writes and lectures around the world on the future of work learning, and organization. He is the author of The Next Rules of Work: The Mindset, Skillset, and Toolset to Lead Your Organization Through Uncertainty (Kogan Page, 2021) and has nine courses on LinkedIn Learning with a total of over one million learners, including “Learning Mindset” and “Learning Agility”.
As Chair for the Future of Work for Singularity University, Bolles helps people understand the impact of exponential change on the world of work and education. As a partner in the consulting agency Charrette LLC, he helps organizations, communities, educators and governments develop strategies to meet the needs of tomorrow’s workers and learners. And as a co-founder of eParachute.com, he helps job-hunters and career changers with programs inspired by “What Color Is Your Parachute?”, the world’s enduring career manual.
Bolles is the former editorial director for six technology publications, a serial entrepreneur and a former Silicon Valley executive. Bolles is dedicated to helping individuals, organizations, communities and countries to collaborate on effective strategies to ensure that all people can have access to meaningful work and lifelong learning opportunities.
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Brock University
Technical Advisor, Destiny Copper
Ian Brindle was born in Bolton, UK. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. After working for a year at UMIST, he moved to Canada and Brock University, where he receive his M.Sc. in synthetic chemistry. In 2002, Ian received the degree of D.Sc., the highest earned degree, from UMIST.
Ian was a long-time professor of chemistry at Brock University and became the University’s Vice-President, Research. He is the author and co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and several book chapters, largely in the field of analytical chemistry.
A major breakthrough that Ian made in the early 1990s was the elaboration of the technique, known as hydride generation, that improved the determination of elements, such as arsenic, antimony, bismuth, selenium, tellurium and other elements. A technique that he used, particularly in the determination of arsenic, used the amino acid, cysteine, to improve the determination and reduce chemical interferences other elements. This reagent was named the “Brindle Reagent” by Professor Julian Tyson in his review of Ian’s work.
Ian is also a serial inventor. His name is attached to four patents which illustrate the range of his inventive thoughts: (1) A method to remove methoxypyrazine taint from wines; (2) The Multimode Sample Introduction System, a device that is designed to combine the conventional sample introduction system with a system for the generation of volatile hydrides from elements, such as arsenic, selenium, etc. (the patent was purchased by Agilent Technologies for $1 million); (3) Pressure pulse chromatography, a device to improve the separation of organic compounds at low cost; and (4) A process for producing granular copper.
He is married to Jill; they have three children and live in St. Catharines, Ontario.
Board Chair, Clareo
Board Chair and Co-Founder, Development Partner Institute (DPI)
Co-Founder, The World Innovation Network
Peter Bryant is a recognized thought leader on ESG and sustainability; the energy transition and the criticality of the minerals value chain; and broadscale innovation and digital transformation. He speaks on these topics extensively at leading conferences and for organizations, most recently speaking at COP26, the 2022 Future Minerals Forum (FMF) in Saudi Arabia, and CERAWeek 2022. He spoke at to 1,750 global oil and gas leaders at the Baker Hughes 2020 Annual Energy Forward Meeting, and keynoted the New Zealand Prime Minister’s 2019 Just Transition to Net Zero Emissions Summit.
Peter is the Board Chair and Managing Director of innovation and growth strategy firm Clareo, and Co-Founder and Board Chair of the Development Partner Institute, a non-profit focused on improved social, economic, and environmental outcomes for communities from resource development projects. He sits on the Board of Advisors for two leading VC Funds, Chrysalix and Foundamental, along with various emerging tech companies, including Lilac Solutions, Symboticware, and Safe.AI. In addition, he has served on the Innovation Councils for multiple mining and energy companies.
He has advised many leading companies around the world, including Anglo American, BHP, Rio Tinto, Teck Resources, JCI, BP, GE O&G, Baker Hughes, Castrol, Edison International, and Goldcorp. He is an invited participant in the joint Rockefeller Foundation and Brookings Institute 17 Rooms program, focused on accelerating the 17 UN-established Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He is also a regular participant at WEF’s annual Mine Ministers Summit and the FMF Ministerial Roundtable. Peter co-authored The Growth Champions –The Battle for Sustained Innovation Leadership, published in 2012.
Peter’s opinion pieces have been published in the Journal of Petroleum Technology, Mining Global, and Chief Executive, and he is often quoted in the Wall Street Journal. He has also been interviewed by Bloomberg and CNBC Arabia.
Peter immigrated to the U.S. in 1996, from New Zealand by way of Australia. He currently lives in Southern California and has two daughters, one a junior at SMU and the other a sophomore in high school. You can read his recent personal features in VoyageHouston’s Canvas Rebel and Kia Ora Magazine.
Peter holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. He holds a CA from the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is a co-founder of The World Innovation Network (formerly The Kellogg Innovation Network).
Director of Sustainable Resources, RESOLVE
Executive Director, The Devonshire Initiative
Carolyn is the Director of Sustainable Resources at RESOLVE. In this role, she is also the Executive Director of the Devonshire Initiative, a multi-stakeholder forum that brings together stakeholder groups to improve development outcomes. Carolyn is also a part-time MBA instructor in the Global Mining and Metals department at the Schulich School of Business.
Carolyn is a social performance practitioner with 10 years’ experience leading collaborative problem-solving and research projects in the resources sector with affected communities, companies, governments, and civil society organizations.
She has a Master of Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business, a Graduate Certificate in Community Relations in the Extractive Sector from Queen’s University, Accreditation from the Partnership Brokers Association, and an Honours Bachelor of Arts from McGill University. Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Carolyn has lived and worked in many countries. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two kids.
Renata Cardoso has extensive experience in corporate sustainability and climate change strategy in the global mining and metals industry.
Prior to Electra Battery Materials, Renata spent 15 years with Vale, based both at headquarters in Brazil and in Canada, assuming management positions in Climate Change and Sustainability functions.
In her last role as Low Carbon Manager with Vale Canada, she oversaw the development of a decarbonization program in several countries.
Now as Electra’s VP Sustainability and Low Carbon, Renata leads the development of the company’s ESG credentials to supply ethical, low carbon and traceable materials for the electric vehicles market.
Sadie Carlson has worked on a wide range of sustainability consulting projects, ranging from the mining sector to urban planning, and big tech. She provides a fresh perspective to her work which comes from her experience in environmental policy, South American urban development, and sustainable architecture.
Currently, Sadie is with McLennan Design, a studio of Perkins&Will, where she develops corporate sustainable philosophies conducts carbon and material analysis and manages environmental certifications. Sadie studied Architecture and Sustainable Environments at the California Polytechnic State University and studied Graduate and Undergraduate Architecture and Urban Development at Pontificia Universidad Catolica, in Santiago Chile. While at PUC, Sadie developed a close relationship with community members in vulnerable neighborhoods through her research with Laboratorio 9×18, which has been awarded the recognition “Inspiring Practices” by UN Habitat.
In addition to her Consulting work, Sadie is a member of the Climate Committee for the American Institute of Architects, Washington Council, where she collaborates with other sustainability experts in the built environment and with Washington State Legislation to develop sustainable state policy.
Tapiwa is a dynamic chemical engineer, who is passionate about sustainable development in mining and has about 10 years of experience across sustainability, strategy consulting, mineral economics and market analysis.
Tapiwa has spent the last 4 years with the Minerals to Metals Initiative at the University of Cape Town dedicated to research and innovation focused on the sustainability of key mining sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa, integrated mine closure approaches and post-mining development. Before transitioning into research and innovation, Tapiwa served as an executive for 6 years at a boutique consulting firm providing sustainability strategy management, advisory analytics and mineral economic models for key Platinum Group Metals (PGM) and base metals industry clients in Africa.
Tapiwa holds a BSc and Masters both in chemical engineering, from the University of Cape Town. Through her current work with the Minerals to Metals Initiative on strategic projects which focus on the development of post-mining economies and mitigating mine closure risks, she is undertaking research towards a PhD on integrated approaches to post-mining development.
Tapiwa and her colleague recently represented the University of Cape Town at the Innovation and Research Battlefield at the 2022 Mining Indaba and received the first prize award for their presentation on the potential use for regenerative agriculture for the development of post-mining economies to support community livelihoods beyond mining. Tapiwa is also currently on the technical advisory committee of Gecamin’s Planning for Closure Congress (2021 to present) where she contributes to global dialogues on mine closure and post-mining development, and she also served as Vice President of Ernst and Young Cape Town Toastmasters which is a global organisation focused on dynamic leadership training and communication.
Senior Vice President, Markets
Executive Director, Markets Institute
World Wide Fund (WWF)
Jason Clay leads the work of WWF-US on Markets and how companies manage supply chains and the Markets Institute whose goal is to identify and create awareness about global issues and trends on the horizon for food and soft commodities and then build consensus about how to best anticipate them. Dr. Clay launched WWF’s work on agriculture, livestock, aquaculture, finance and reshaped our work with the private sector and on fisheries. During his career he has worked on a family farm and in the U.S. Department of Agriculture; taught at Harvard and Yale; and spent more than 35 years working in human rights and environmental organizations.
In 1988, Dr. Clay invented Rainforest Marketing, one of the first fair-trade ecolabels in the United States, and was responsible for co-creating Rainforest Crunch and more than 200 other products with combined sales of $100 million. From 1999-2003, he co-directed a consortium with WWF, World Bank, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and National Aquaculture Centres of Asia/Pacific to identify the most significant environmental and social impacts of shrimp aquaculture and analyze better management practices that measurably reduce them.
He then co-convened (with the IFC and others) multi-stakeholder roundtables of producers, investors, buyers, researchers and NGOs to identify and reduce the social and environmental impacts of such products as salmon, soy, sugarcane, cotton, shrimp, beef and palm oil. Dr. Clay leads WWF’s efforts to work with companies to improve supply chain management, particularly with regard to ingredient sourcing, GHG emissions, and water take and effluent, and with industries or entire sectors to transform their overall performance.
Dr. Clay is the author of 20 books, more than 500 articles and 1,000 invited presentations. His most recent books are World Aquaculture and the Environment, Exploring the Links between International Business and Poverty Reduction: A Case Study of Unilever in Indonesia, and World Agriculture and the Environment. In addition to his role at WWF, Dr. Clay is National Geographic’s first ever Food and Sustainability Fellow. He also won a 2012 James Beard Award for his work on global food sustainability. Dr. Clay was awarded Tuft University’s Jean Mayer Global Humanitarian Award in 2013.
Dr. Clay studied at Harvard University and the London School of Economics before receiving a Ph.D. in anthropology and international agriculture from Cornell University.
Laura Clinton is the Executive Director of Mining Matters. Since completing her studies in the Specialist Environmental Science Program at the University of Toronto, Laura has focused on Earth science and mineral resources education.
She has authored award-winning outreach publications, led efforts to develop educational resources, facilitated hundreds of instructional development workshops for educators and youth across the country, and supported the education and outreach efforts of others.
She has worked with the Ontario Mining Association, Royal Ontario Museum, Ontario Science Centre, the Canadian Geoscience Education Network and EdGEO. Laura brought her passion for Earth science education to Mining Matters in 2002. She works to ensure the organization’s programs in mineral resources education continue to thrive and grow.
Vincent and Eleanor Shea Professor
The University of Virginia School of Architecture
Principal, Somatic Collaborative
Felipe Correa is a founder and managing Partner of Somatic Collaborative. Through Somatic Collaborative Correa has directed a wide range of applied research and design projects across multiple spatial contexts in the Americas, Asia and Europe.
He is currently the Vincent and Eleanor Shea Professor at the University of Virginia (UVA), where he served as chair of the Department of Architecture from 2018-2022. Prior to joining UVA, Correa was Associate Professor and Director of the Urban Design Degree Program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD). Correa is also c o-director of the South America Project, a trans-continental applied research network that proactively endorses the role of design within rapidly transforming geographies of the South American Continent. He is the author of multiple books including “Beyond the City: Resource Extraction Urbanism in South America (University of Texas Press, 2016), “Mexico City: Between Geometry and Geography “(Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2015) and “A Line in the Andes” (Applied Research and Design Publishing 2014) which won first prize at the Pan American Architecture Biennale. His most recent book, “Sao Paulo: A Graphic Biography” a bilingual edition that traces the history of the city’s urban form was released in 2018 by the University of Texas Press.
In addition, he has lectured and exhibited at many universities and conferences, including Cornell University, Columbia University, Tulane University, University of Pennsylvania, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador, The National Arts Club, and the Pan-American Architecture Biennale, among others. His work, research, and writings have been published in journals, including Architectural Design, Architectural Record, Harvard Design Magazine Topos and Volume.
Correa received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Tulane University, and his Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the GSD.
Director and Consulting Business Executive
Co-Founder & Board Member
Development Partner Institute (DPI)
Mark is an experienced business executive with more than 45 years leading high performance teams in projects, operations, marketing, business development, strategy, and finance. He is a qualified mining engineer and has a practical working knowledge of most of the commodities produced and sold across the globe. He has had direct line experience and responsibility for mining and industrial businesses across six continents, producing more than 30 different commodities for a broad range of markets and applications.
Most recently he was the Chief Executive of Anglo American, a FTSE 30 globally diversified mining company working with 100,000 employees. In his 9 years at the helm of Anglo American, Mark led a significant transformation in the performance of the company. In addition to delivering industry leading improvements in safety, health, and environment, he has also guided the organisation in doubling of productivity across the business, driving an average annualised Total Shareholder Return (TSR) of 22% for those 9 years. This performance was the best of the major diversified miners over the same timeframe. The business was also recognised for its leadership in new technology programs through its “FutureSmart” program, which also underpinned its leading working in sustainable business practices.
Mark is currently employed as a non-executive director with 2 major industrial companies and is actively involved in Private Equity projects while dedicating time to both charitable and industry professional representative organisations.
Prior to joining Anglo American, he held the position of Chief Executive Officer at AngloGold Ashanti based in South Africa, and before that he was the Chief Operating Officer for Inco and then Vale’s global Nickel business, based in Canada. Prior to his Vale role he held senior executive positions with the Normandy Group, Sons of Gwalia, Western Mining Corporation, Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines and CRA [Rio Tinto]. Mark has completed several published papers and presentations and has been a very active promoter for the minerals industry over his long career.
Mark is the Co-Founder and a current board member of the Development Partner Institute, a member of the UK Home Secretary’s Business Against Slavery Forum, a member of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council, emeritus member of the Advisory Board at Columbia University’s Center on Sustainable International Investment, member of the International Advisory Committee at the Kellogg Innovation Network (US), independent director and chair at The Power of Nutrition, a member and chair of International Advisory Committee at the Global Foundation, and is a representative or member of institutions including TotalEnergies, Laing O’Rourke Construction Company, Fundação Dom Cabral (Brasil).
President and CEO
RESOLVE & Regeneration
Stephen D’Esposito is the President and CEO of RESOLVE and a solutions strategist. Trained as a policy advocate, he helps partners envision, design, and implement innovative solutions to sustainability challenges. Stephen’s work covers all of RESOLVE’s issue areas, with a focus on natural resources, energy transition, and sustainable development. He is the founder and CEO of Regeneration, a restoration start-up that provides biodiversity, community, and climate positive minerals for the energy transition, green tech, and sustainable brands.
Stephen began his public policy work in the mid-1980s with the New York Public Interest Research Group, founded by Ralph Nader and Donald Ross. He served as National Field Director and Deputy Director of Greenpeace USA, where he played a central role in building Greenpeace USA into one of the country’s largest environmental organizations. He then led the Greenpeace International Executive Committee based in Amsterdam. His work there on the Brent Spar campaign led many corporations and NGOs to rethink their approach to stakeholder engagement and shareholder advocacy.
In the decade prior to joining RESOLVE, Stephen was President and CEO of EARTHWORKS, a nongovernmental policy organization focused on mining, oil and gas issues founded by Stuart L. Udall (former U.S. Secretary of the Interior) and J. Michael McCloskey. At EARTHWORKS, Stephen focused on fostering corporate and NGO partnerships to address environmental and human rights challenges.
At RESOLVE, Stephen works with leadership in companies, nonprofits, foundations, and community groups both internationally and locally to make concrete progress on challenges like the need to accelerate the energy transition, build a restoration economy to support biodiversity, and respond to and prevent natural resource conflicts. He co-created and chairs RESOLVE Enterprises, an incubator for mission-aligned start-ups.
Stephen serves on a number of boards; he chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Mining and Metals, and is a frequent keynote speaker and advisor to foundation, nonprofit, and corporate boards.
Aidan Davy joined ICMM in June 2007. As COO, he is responsible for strategy development and implementation, and provides strategic support across all ICMM’s programmatic work. He led the work to develop ICMM’s Mining Principles – which define good practice environmental, social and governance requirements for the mining and metals industry – and is responsible for ICMM’s work on mining standards, sustainability reporting and tailings management. In past strategy cycles, Aidan led ICMM’s work on environmental resilience, social performance, and governance and transparency.
Aidan has 35 years of cross-sectoral experience on sustainable development issues, working with a range of private, multi-lateral and not-for-profit organizations, including the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation in Washington DC.
For the first decade of his career, Aidan primarily worked on environmental issues, within an international consulting company, a multinational manufacturing company and at the World Bank. He then shifted his focus to social responsibility and accountability issues, with a strong emphasis on the extractive industries for almost two decades. As COO, he is connected into all of ICMM’s work on environmental matters, social responsibility, governance and innovation.
Daniella Dimitrov has more than 25 years of experience in building, leading and operating businesses in mining and financial services and has held various executive
roles with a focus on strategy, finance, operations, corporate development and governance.
Daniella’s previous roles include President and CEO, Interim CEO, CFO of multi mine gold/copper producers and a $2B+ mine developer, partner at a mining
investment bank, Executive Vice-Chair of an iron ore developer, Chief Operating Officer of a national wealth management and capital markets firm.
Since 2010, Daniella serves and has served as a director of a number of companies in the natural resources, energy and chemicals industries.
Daniella was chosen as one of the Top 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining for 2016, was a Canada Board Diversity Council – 2016 Diversity 50 Candidate and
has the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Directorship Certification, an Executive MBA from Kellogg School of Management and Schulich School of
Business and a law degree from the University of Windsor.
Daniella is a noted speaker on topics including talent management, capital markets and ESG.
Daniella is currently a director of Nexa Resources (and a member of its Sustainability & Capital Projects and Audit committees) and a trustee of Chemtrade Logistics
(and a member of the Responsible Care and Compensation and Corporate Governance committees and Chair of the Audit committee).
Associate Professor, Department of Geology and at the
Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Mining & Exploration
Lakehead University
Amanda graduated with her PhD in Earth Science from Dalhousie University in 2009.
Before starting as an assistant professor in the Geology Department at Lakehead University in 2012, she had the opportunity to work under the direction of Dr. Ed Gregorich at the Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre in Ottawa as a Visiting Fellow.
Amanda’s research focuses on soil organic matter cycling in agroecosystems, the boreal forest and the Arctic.
She is particularly passionate about using stable isotopes and soil organic matter separation techniques to better understand how management practices and environmental change affect soil organic matter stores.
Charles Dumaresq is Vice President, Science and Environmental Management with the Mining Association of Canada (MAC). He joined MAC in 2015, assuming a lead role on MAC’s work related to tailings management. He played a key role in reviewing and updating MAC’s world-leading guidance on tailings management. He was a member of the Advisory Group for the Global Tailings Review that developed the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, released in August 2020. He was also a lead author of the International Council on Mining and Metals’ Tailings Management Good Practice Guide, released in May 2021. In addition, Charles led the development of MAC’s Guide on Climate Change Adaptation for the Mining Sector, also released in May 2021.
Charles is also engaged on other regulatory and environmental aspects of mining, including effluent and water quality, and monitoring and mitigation of effects on the aquatic environment.
Prior to joining MAC, Charles worked for 22 years with Environment Canada, Canada’s federal environmental regulatory agency. He was a subject matter expert on mining, working on regulatory and policy development, reviewing environmental assessments of mining projects, and leading the development of best practice guidance for metal mining.
A geologist by training, he has a master’s degree in Earth Sciences. He conducted graduate research examining tailings geochemistry and water quality impacts associated with early 20th century silver mines in northeastern Ontario.
Lana Eagle is an Indigenous relations strategist advising companies on how to better engage and work with Indigenous communities and to find a pathway forward through a Reconciliation framework. In 2017 she was elected to the Board of the Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) BC, where she is the founder and co-chair of AME’s Gathering Place.
She is a Program Advisory Committee Member for Mining and Mineral Exploration at the BC Institute of Technology. She is a Director on the Board of Geoscience BC and recently has been elected to the board of PDAC. Most recently Lana was appointed to the Board of Kodiak Copper.
Lana is a sought-out speaker and lecturer on the topic of “Indigenous Engagement and Reconciliation in Canada”, as well as “Diversity and Inclusion.” Lana is a member of the Whitecap Dakota First Nation in Saskatchewan.
CEO, FarExGeoMine Ltd.
Director (Franco-Nevada, Centamin, Eldorado Gold & Aclara)
Chair, Rethink Mining Ventures
Dr. Catharine Farrow is a Registered Professional Geoscientist (PGO) with more than 26 years of mining industry experience.
She serves as a director of Franco-Nevada Corp., Centamin plc, Eldorado Gold Corporation and Aclara Resources Inc. She is also CEO of FarExGeoMine Ltd., a private consultancy company.
She is also active in the mining industry in both private companies and academia. From 2012 to 2017, she was Founding CEO, Director and Co-Founder of TMAC Resources Inc.
Dr. Farrow has served on the Board of a number of not-for-profit and government Advisory Boards. She is Chair of Rethink Mining Ventures
She has been honoured as one of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining (2015 and 2018) and is a past recipient of the William Harvey Gross Medal of the Geological Association of Canada (2000) and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Acadia Alumni Association (2020). Dr. Farrow obtained her BSc (Hons) from Mount Allison University, her MSc from Acadia University and her PhD from Carleton University. She also holds the ICD.D designation.
Aaron has over 20-years of treasury, trade finance and risk management experience, 18 of those with Anglo American in South Africa, Singapore and the UK. He was appointed Assistant Group Treasurer in May-2019, leading a team of eight people in the UK and Brazil responsible for managing the cash, debt and foreign exchange needs of the Anglo American Group operations in the UK, Latam, Australia and Canada.
Most recently, he and his team have been focussed on embedding ESG-linkage into parts of the Group’s debt portfolio. First, via a $100m 10-year loan with the IFC linked to the jobs and education goals of Anglo American’s Sustainable Mining Plan, the first of its kind in the mining sector focussing exclusively on social development factors.
This was followed by the recent issuance of a debut sustainability-linked bond (SLB), which included targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fresh water abstraction and to support job creation in host communities, a first by a miner in euros and the first SLB from the large diversified mining community.
Aaron has degrees in financial mathematics and economics from Wits University, South Africa, and an MBA from the Judge Business School at Cambridge University, UK.
Olenka Forde is a Senior Environmental Geoscientist with Regeneration Enterprises, a start-up created by RESOLVE to turn legacy mine sites into environmental and community assets while producing critical minerals for society. In her role she works with the team to assess potential sites and to strategize re-mining and regenerative solutions.
She is passionate about identifying and solving problems. Olenka applies her technical background with an interdisciplinary lens to address environmental issues in the mining and oil and gas industries. She enjoys building connections across disciplines and sectors, finding common threads in uncommon themes to solve complex problems and spark systemic change – which is exactly what drove her to Regeneration Enterprises.
Olenka completed her PhD in Hydrogeology at the University of British Columbia and Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Morwick G360 Groundwater Research Institute. Her doctorate work is widely cited and is used to improve environmental monitoring in the oil and gas sector. She also volunteers her time to support numerous organizations including, the Science Advisory Board for Contaminated Sites in BC and Groundwater Relief.
Frank Fueten obtained his PhD in Geology from the University of Toronto in 1990 and has been a professor at Brock University since 1989. As a structural geologist with an interest in microstructures, Frank’s initial work as a field geologist transitioned into microscope-based research. This led to the development of the computer-controlled rotating polarizer stage in 1997 and the development of software, including AI-based mineral identification, for it. Since 2004 Frank’s research focus has been to understand the geological history of Valles Marineris, Mars, one of the largest structural features in the solar system. This work combines the use of Digital Terrain Models and imagery and has focused on enigmatic sedimentary deposits within the chasms which can exceed 10 km in height.
Frank’s research has primarily been funded by NSERC Discovery grants since 1990. He has been a member of the NSERC Discovery Grant Committee, an invited scientist at the Universite de Nantes (France) and given invited talks in several European Universities as well as in Brazil. In 2013 Frank was invited to join the European Space Agency’s Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) Science Team as a Co- Investigator. Frank is currently chair of the Department of Earth Sciences.
Over the span of 17 years, Allison has built an international career focused on mining sector governance and international development; with a key emphasis on delivering positive social and environmental outcomes for societies and companies. Her work has involved engaging directly with a range of stakeholders, including communities, government, civil society, companies, military, INGO’s and IFI’s across Europe, Africa and Asia.
Allison has worked with local, national, and global leaders to transform the extractive resource sector, with particular emphasis on transparency (Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative) management, systems, laws, regulation, taxation, and effective dialogue. The focus of which has always been People, Planet and Practices. She has served in organisations at a national and international level, including the World Bank, Department for International Development (DFID) and the Tony Blair Institute (TBI). She has worked as the lead advisor to support many governments to generate social and economic growth from mining. She has worked for the governments of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Rwanda.
Allison is an experienced and passionate facilitator. She has a track record of delivery in supporting government and a diverse range of stakeholders through highly politicised environments and reform processes.
Allison holds degrees in Law and Sociology and an MSc in Political Science of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
A serial entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in developing cleantech technologies for processing and recycling of resources, Ahmad is the CEO, President, and co-founder of Cyclic Materials. Ahmad is among the early co-inventors of Jetti Resources Inc. technology and is a Board of Advisory member of Li-Cycle Corp (NYSE: LICY).
With dedication and a strong passion for a sustainable environment, Ahmad Ghahreman leads the company’s vision to transform the rare earth elements market with ethical, economical, and sustainable sourced metals available for the global market.
Ahmad Ghahreman has earned his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the University of British Columbia and has co-invented more than 15 patents.
Professional with corporate and entrepreneurial experience in the mining industry gained over 30 years working in Australia, United Kingdom, Chile, and the USA. Credited with leading corporate transactions that resulted in the development of over 30 million ounces of gold reserves (Pueblo Viejo, Turquoise Ridge).
Co-founded and listed Fortune Valley Resources (FVX-V) through an IPO on the Toronto Venture Exchange before successfully executing an exit strategy through a merger with Orosur Mining (2006-2010). Held executive and management positions during an 11 year career with Placer Dome (1995-2006), including EVP Corporate and Business Development for Placer Dome Americas (2001-2006) and Manager Strategic Planning at Zaldivar copper mine (1995-1998). Prior to 1995, worked for Outokumpu Metals & Resources as a Financial Analyst (1991-1995) and Gold Mines of Kalgoorlie as a Project Geologist (1987-1990). Director of Americas Tailings Inc. (www.americastailings.com).
Recognized as a Qualified Professional (QP) member of the Metallurgical & Mining Society of America (MMSA) with special expertise in Mineral Valuation, Finance. Holds a BSc. in Geology from King’s College (1984), an MSc. in Mineral Exploration from the Royal School of Mines (1985) and an MBA from Imperial College Business School (1991) in London.
Jean Paul (JP) Gladu was the President and CEO of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) for approximately 8 years.
Mr. Gladu has over 25 years of experience in the natural resource sector including work with Indigenous communities and organizations, environmental non-government organizations, industry and governments from across Canada.
Mr. Gladu also serves on the board of Noront Resources. He was appointed as the Chancellor of St. Paul’s University College Waterloo in 2017 and served on the board of Ontario Power Generation as well as past Chair of Mikisew Group of Companies.
Mr. Gladu has a forestry technician diploma, an undergraduate degree in forestry from Northern Arizona University, an Executive MBA from Queens University and the ICD.D from Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Anishinaabe from Thunder Bay, Mr. Gladu is a member of Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek located on the Lake Nipigon, Ontario.
Paul Gruner is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (TNDC) which is the economic arm of the Tahltan Nation.
Paul is a senior executive leader with 15 years of experience in delivering business results in partnership with Indigenous stakeholders. He has a dynamic range of experience in strategic leadership, mergers and acquisitions, business development, strategic partnerships, financial management, project management, corporate governance, contract negotiations, capacity building and job creation for citizens, and environmental, social, and corporate governance.
Paul has experience in transformation strategy that strengthens organizations and builds them into sustainable, profitable entities that have the leadership and resiliency to operate for generations. Along with his vast working experience Paul also has been involved with several boards including: Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB), Future Skills Centre Advisory Board, NWT / Nunavut Chamber of Mines, Dadan Sunivut (Subsidiary of APTN) and Da Daguay Development Corporation
Ronne Hamerslag was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Nordic Iron Ore in July 2022.
Before joining Nordic Iron Ore Ronne held managerial roles within Boliden’s raw materials supply operations and their procurement organization. Prior to that, he held several operational and business leadership roles in international operations, mainly from Ericsson and other IT companies. Ronne also has experience as an independent contractor, in private equity investments and at various start-ups and board positions.
He is a Board Member of the subsidiary Ludvika Gruvor AB and a Board Member of Mahvie Minerals AB
He earned an M.Sc. in Metallurgy and Materials Technology at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm and started of his career as process engineer for hot rolling of seamless tubes at Ovako.
Greg Hanna is an Award Winning, Serial Entrepreneur and who has secured multiple institutional investors as long-term partners in his businesses including Barclays Capital (UK); Hannover Re (Germany) & ABSA Bank (South Africa) he has also executed several sizeable exits over the course of his career.
In 2015 Greg relocated his family from Johannesburg, South Africa to Niagara, Canada and Co-Founded Destiny Copper Inc which was originally incubated out of Brock University. The breakthrough clean technology that Destiny Copper has developed is a low energy, cleantech copper extraction process that produces high purity copper (99%Cu) with almost no electricity. Essentially chemistry is replacing energy in the Hydrometallurgical extraction process.
Everyone acknowledges that the world needs more copper as it makes its quantum shift to the Circular, Electrified Economy. However, until now there hasn’t been an environmentally sound process to produce this Critical Metal which is so crucial to power the shift to EV’s, solar & wind power generation and the Green Revolution. Destiny has the “solution”!
Dr. Hennige’s research has centred around the impact of climate change and pollutants on marine organisms and ecosystems, with particular focus on tropical and cold-water coral reefs.
He was a contributing author in the 2019 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC), a contributing author to the 2nd World Ocean Assessment (UNESCO), and lead editor of a United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) report on the Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Marine Biodiversity. Dr. Hennige is also on the steering group for the MASTS Dynamics and Properties of Marine Systems theme, and Biogeochemistry Forum.
He studied Marine and Environmental Biology at the University of St. Andrews before taking a Ph.D. at the University of Essex examining acclimation and adaptations of corals across environmental gradients. Following this, he went to the University of Delaware (USA) to research harmful algal bloom photophysiology in a variety of environments, and mechanisms underlying tropical coral bleaching. He then moved to Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh to conduct the first long-term experiments on cold-water corals in a changing ocean. He was then awarded a NERC Fellowship to examine the impact of climate change to tropical and cold-water corals. In 2016 he moved to the University of Edinburgh, where he co-directs the Marine Systems and Policies MSc. Programme. His fieldwork throughout his career has included expeditions from the UK and Norway for cold-water corals, to destinations such as Indonesia and the Maldives to study coral bleaching.
Editor Americas, Mining Journal
Editorial Consultant, Skarn Associates
Founder, Colombia Gold Symposium
Paul has more than twenty years’ experience in the mining sector in investor relations, communications, research and news reporting roles.
Paul has twelve years’ experience in the Colombia gold sector including investor relations roles with Continental Gold, Gran Colombia Gold and Mineros.
Paul founded the successful Colombia Gold Symposium in 2016 and has written for industry-leading publication Mining Journal since 2015. Previously, Paul spent five years in Chile reporting and analysing the copper sector for CRU and Metal Bulletin.
Paul received a BA in Business Administration from the University of the West of England, UK; and a MA in International Relations from the University of Chile, Santiago Chile. He is fluent in English and Spanish.
George Hemingway serves as Managing Partner and head of the Innovation and Growth Practice at Stratalis, where he advises CEOs, Boards and heads of state on the future and how to conquer uncertainty. Through his work, he has collaborated with the world’s leading mining companies to set their future visions and re-imagine what is possible from industrial enterprises.
George is considered one of the leading futurists in the mining industry, having delivered over 100 keynotes on uncertainty, innovation and the future at venues ranging from the World Mining Congress and SME to S&P Global, NASA and the Pentagon and at leading universities and organizations worldwide. He is a published author and a monthly columnist on the future of industry and disruption and has been named a Top-10 leader in mining technology, with his work having won numerous awards, including the Robert E. Murray Innovation Award from SME and two Mining Journal Innovation awards.
Mr. Hemingway has advised leading companies across multiple industries such as Vale, Anglo American, Agnico Eagle, Teck, BHP, Banco Popular, PepsiCo, BASF, AIG, Pearson, Blue Cross, Circuit City, The Gap, Cliffs Natural Resources, Henry Schein, Butterball, Tesco and the New England Journal of Medicine, to name a few. His focus is on enabling leading companies to outperform in uncertain markets by moving to a future-focused strategy and through the challenging of long-held notions. He has pioneered the use of Futurecasting and uncertainty-based management with many of the leading mining companies and has helped set the vision for and execute multiple transformation efforts in the most challenging of areas, including in GHG reduction, tailings dams, underground safety and “Mine of the Future” programs.
Before joining Stratalis, Mr. Hemingway ran his own growth strategy consulting firm, served as head of consulting for BASF, as a strategist engaged on Chairman and CFO directed initiatives at AIG, a member of the leadership team at Vivaldi Partners and within A.T. Kearney’s strategy practice in New York. Previously to this, he was the CEO of a publicly traded 1400+ person operation in Central and Eastern Europe. He serves on the boards of MoonMark and the Chamber Orchestra of New York as well the Lassonde Institute at the University of Toronto and has served on the boards of the European soccer club Budapest Honved and pharmaceutical enterprise, Riemann.
Mr. Hemingway holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS from the Stern School of Business at NYU and is the holder of US and EU patents in design.
PhD in Metallurgy with broad senior level experience in the mining and metals industry. She is currently Senior Advisor to Hatch. She ran Hatch Peru until 2012 and Hatch Europe until 2017, and over 15 years created new and innovative opportunities that expanded the business in new regions (Australia, South America, Europe & North America). She developed a concept called “Designing Sustainable Prosperity (DSP)”; a topic that is attracting interest from mining companies and investors. This approach represents a new way of doing business which leaves behind a positive sustainable economy with an improved environment and quality of life in mining regions.
Before joining Hatch, she was the CTO for Novelis, where she was a key member of a corporate leadership team participating in all aspects of the business.
Doris was Chair for the 2022 CIM Convention. She was also a Board Director on the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce in London and is now on the Board of Directors of PDAC.
Bio – coming soon.
Abraham Jalbout finished his PhD in Chemistry at the age of 19, having a career in both academics and also new technology-based ventures. As a scientist, with several hundred publications and multiple patents his interests are always geared towards a fundamental approach to solving mining problems.
Dr. Jalbout focuses on identifying niche opportunities in the mining industry which involves financial modeling, forecasting and operational optimization in addition to collaboration between institutions, government agencies and the private sector focused on new approaches to decarbonization in the mining industry. Professionally, he has been involved in the development of new technologies, piloting, commercialization, licensing, raising investor funds and arranged successful acquisitions.
Advisor on IP matters at Universities, National Laboratories and the mining industry. Over 300+ research journal publications and 10+ patents/patent applications.
Dr. Andrew Job is the founder and CEO of Plotlogic, a high growth, deep-tech, mining start-up founded in 2018.
Andrew’s passion to make mining safer, and more productive, while working to de-carbonise the industry has led to the creation of innovative technologies, changing the path for the resource industry.
Having already released the world’s first automated underground and open cut mineral mapping systems and a system that can scan core in market leading time, Andrew’s focus in not only on enabling the sustainable delivery of resources, but on mining rehabilitation.
Andrew has over 25 years of experience in the mining industry, from mining engineer to general management to CEO. He has a master’s degree in finance, from the University of New South Wales, a PhD from the University of Queensland, and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the peak mining industry body in Australasia.
Clive Johnson has served as a Director and the President of B2Gold since December 2006 and Chief Executive Officer since March 2007.
Mr. Johnson oversees B2Gold’s long-term strategy and development as well as the day-to-day activities of B2Gold.
Previously, Mr. Johnson was involved with Bema Gold and its predecessor companies since 1977. Mr. Johnson was appointed the President and Chief Executive Officer of Bema after it was created by the amalgamation of three Bema group companies in 1988. He was a driving force in Bema’s transition from a junior exploration company to an international intermediate gold producer.
Mr. Johnson is currently a director of Uracan Resources Ltd.
In 2004 Mr. Johnson received the 2004 Viola MacMillan Developer’s Award from the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and in 2013 he received the Pacific Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Mining and Metals.
Jessica Kahl is the Managing Director of Dream Big Australia and Strategy Lead at Sunwater. She is an award-winning engineer, entrepreneur, diversity advocate, and 2021 Young Australian of the Year Shortlisted Nominee. Jessica is driven to create impact and sustainable value in asset-intensive industries. She coaches and delivers exceptional results by providing visionary leadership, ensuring direction, governance and diversity are central to decision-making. As a chartered professional combining leadership, engineering and business management capabilities, she applies strategic planning to identify, assess, and prioritise growth opportunities across utilities, resources and social infrastructure.
With AICD, MBA and Chartered Engineering qualifications, she has extensive experience in engineering and management across capital-intensive industries such as Infrastructure, Resources and Government. Her commercialisation skills allow her to bring a strategic lens to project development, and a collaborative approach to stakeholder engagement.
As a Strategy Lead in Corporate Development at Sunwater, she is responsible for leading infrastructure development strategies, business cases, delivery programs and regional industry collaborations. Jessica brings a strong background in public and private sector masterplanning, business feasibility and infrastructure due diligence. Her strengths in stakeholder engagement and project assessment enables her to collaborate with commercial and technical stakeholders.
Jessica is renowned in the industry for being a passionate advocate of gender balance initiatives, particularly ones which support women’s development opportunities in engineering. As Managing Director of Dream Big Australia, she has dedicated over 8 years to being a leader in empowering women to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM). To support aspiring leaders in shaping their futures, she deliver a national career development program which advances women’s development and women’s access to employment opportunities. Her success in advancing gender equality is recognised in her 2021 Young Australian of the Year shortlisted nomination, listing in QBM’s Top 20 entrepreneurs under 40, in Engineers Australia’s ‘100 engineers making a difference’ profile, listing in “Engineers at the Pinnacle of the Profession” and as a keynote presenter at the 2019 World Engineers Convention.
Jessica holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Co-Op) (First-Class Honours) from CQUniversity, and was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Medal for Academic Achievement and Community Engagement and the Top Thesis Award at the Graduating Engineers Conference.
Andrew Keith is Principal and Director of Right Tack Consulting a small consultancy providing strategic advice in sustainability, project management and M&A to companies in the resource in infrastructure sectors.
Andrew has a long history of planning and managing design of infrastructure for mining projects, especially in remote locations having spent 12 years managing Aurecon’s Indonesian operations and delivering work for the Indonesian coal and nickel mining industries.
In the context of the challenges of declining head grades, increasing remoteness, and critical importance of license to operate in the 21st Century, Andrew’s passion is for promoting sustainable projects and businesses in the mining industry. He advocates a holistic view on overall sustainability integrated into project and business development from the start rather than retrofitted as an afterthought.
Vincent leads Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Sustainability Directorate, responsible for integrated federal planning, reporting and performance measurement through the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, the Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators and Strategic Environmental Assessments.
He has held leadership roles at Global Affairs Canada, including diplomatic assignments to Paris (Minister-Counsellor Political and Cultural Affairs) and Berlin (Economic Counsellor.) He served as Director and Senior Director, International Affairs, at Natural Resources Canada from 2013-2017, leading international strategic planning as well as development of Canada’s Extractives Transparency Measures Act.
He is a graduate of the University of Ottawa and the École Nationale d’Administration in France.
Dana was born and raised in the northernmost parts of Manitoba in a village named Crayola located just outside of the Gillam township. She later moved to Ontario to pursue a career in mining and seek an education in sustainable architecture.
Dana is in her second year attending the McEwen School of Architecture, bringing knowledge from her experience in the mining industry from 2019 onwards. She worked at Newmont’s Musselwhite mine as a heavy-duty warehouse technician, changing roles last year to work as an environmental monitor for the tailing process created following mining and milling.
She is driven by the thought of reducing climate change, and its impacts, in a way which preserves the world for the generations to come after us.
Dana was raised to think logically and to take only what one needs, and to give back. Coming from the north has influenced her in many ways pertaining to sustainability and the drastic results spurring from environmental issues. Living that far up north means one hunts for one’s food, which is to be saved over the winter. If we continue to destroy the environment these animals live in, we are damaging surrounding communities and their means to survive.
Dr. Birguy Lamizana Diallo is a broad-based development professional with over 25 years of experience working in environmental services institutions. Skilled in Sustainable Development, Environmental Issues, Water Quality, Biodiversity, and Environmental Impact Assessment, she is a strong community and social services professional.
Birguy holds an Engineering degree in Water Resources Management and Ph.D. in Freshwater Ecology.
Currently, Birguy leads the Sahel Initiatives and the Great Green Wall Accelerator (GGW) at the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD based in Bonn. Prior to joining UNCCD, she was managing the Wastewater portfolio at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Birguy has also worked with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), coordinating the West Africa Regional wetlands and water resources programme; with Global Water Partnership as the regional coordinator for Africa Water Development and with the African Development Bank (AfDB) as Technical Advisor for their Water Partnership Programme Trust fund.
Dr. Lamizana Diallo was for 8 years a steering committee member of the CEM/IUCN in charge of Wetlands, drylands and urban ecosystems.
Director General
Policy and Economics Branch, Lands and Minerals Sector
Natural Resources Canada
As Director General of the Policy and Economics Branch in the Lands and Minerals sector of Natural Resources Canada, Kimberly is responsible for key areas related to Canada’s mining sector. This includes the Critical Minerals Centre of Excellence, the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan and relations with provinces and territories, International Affairs and Trade – including investment attraction and export promotion, Strategic Policy – including innovation, as well as Economic Analysis.
In January 2019 Kimberly joined Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) as a Consultation Director for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX), building on over 20 years of experience working with Indigenous Communities. Subsequently, Kimberly took on the role of Executive Director of the Phase IV Partnerships Office, designed to provide a single window into government with respect to TMX accommodation measures and to address questions, issues and concerns as they arise.
Prior to joining NRCan, Kimberly held several roles at Public Safety Canada, including Director of Crime Prevention and Aboriginal Community Safety as well as Director of Drug Policy. She also has experience in evaluation, program development, working with industry and nongovernmental organizations, as well as federal, provincial, territorial and international relations.
Kimberly is a mother to a teenage boy and a member of the Qalipu First Nation. She graduated from Carleton University with Honours in Law. Over the past 24 years, much of Kimberly’s work has focused on responding to needs and concerns of marginalized Canadians, in partnership with organizations and communities across the country. One of Kimberly’s greatest gifts is her ability to bridge the divide between community and government.
Ben Lawson first came to Indonesia in 1996 for energy related infrastructure projects throughout S.E. Asia. Over the last 2 decades he has represented and/or consulted for many Indonesian and international conglomerates (Fortune 500, 100, 50 and 10 corporations) and has been active in infrastructure, bulk commodities trading, mining, energy (Coal and Oil & Gas), petrochemicals/fertilizers and business development consulting sectors.
In addition to his current role as Director at PT. Sanaman Coal Indonesia (formerly Apple Coal Indonesia), Mr. Lawson is Technical Advisor at both PT. Kendilo Coal Indonesia a Coal Contract of Work (CCOW) company and PT. Intiputera Kanaan, he is Senior Partner and Head of Advisory at Cakrabuana Ventura Indonesia and is Senior Advisor at PT. Petrosea Tbk (affiliates and subsidiaries of the PT. Indika Energy Tbk Group). He is also Head of Trading at Akkadian Resources Pte Ltd, which focuses on coal and metals trading.
Mr. Lawson has been involved in multiple M&A mine transactions and mine development, and has personally produced/purchased and traded more than 30 million tons of various grades of coal, mostly Indonesian origin, over the years. Mr. Lawson was Expert Staff for energy affairs to the RI Minister of Small & Medium Enterprises during Indonesia’s energy transformation period, and was a consultant to the Indonesian Government’s National Development & Planning Board (BAPPENAS) on its public-private partnership (PPP) initiative for infrastructure financing and development. Mr. Lawson was also a consultant to the World Bank for the development of its Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
In addition, Mr. Lawson is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Djakarta Mining Club, one of the largest Indonesian mining organizations promoting exploration, mine development and sustainable mining practices, with a combined 4,000 members and sponsored by several of the largest mining and services companies worldwide.
Mr. Lawson acts as Expert Witness in coal and trade related arbitration cases under International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA),
The Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), Bangladesh High Court and Singapore High Court proceedings.
Anne Lewis is passionate about inclusion and innovation for the north and has over 15 years’ experience in the minerals industry on local, national, and international projects. As Executive Director of Yukon Mining Alliance, she collaboratively developed the globally recognized Invest Yukon brand to connect investors with Yukon’s competitive advantages through innovative capital attraction initiatives. Building on this model, Anne developed the Invest Canada North PDAC project with leaders from Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut’s mineral industry and governments, to highlight and promote the competitive advantages of investing in jurisdictions founded on ESG principles, at the largest annual gathering of the minerals and investment community.
In 2012, Anne founded Yukon Women in Mining and is serving her fourth term as President. In March 2022, Anne was recognized for her creative and innovative approach to pioneering change and empowering women in the Canadian mining industry, by Women in Mining Canada with the 2022 Trailblazer Award. Anne has dedicated a decade to the ongoing advancement of a diverse, inclusive, and progressive minerals sector and the economic empowerment of youth and women in the north’s largest private sector.
Embodying the trailblazing spirit, Anne leads several companies and organizations, in diverse sectors including mining, agriculture, Indigenous economic development, retail and business, women’s economic empowerment, and destination marketing through an event management company. In each role, she champions partnerships that drive equity, inclusion, and diversity, enriching economic and community opportunities in Canada’s north and beyond.
General Manager
Red Lake Operations
Evolution Mining
Kirsty is the General Manager of Evolution’s Red Lake Gold Mine in northwestern Ontario. With over 17 years in the mining industry, Kirsty’s career has spanned mine and project management, mine planning, engineering, geoscience and exploration in coal, gold, iron ore, bauxite and copper-gold. Kirsty’s approach using new technologies and methodologies has been instrumental in implementing new technologies for the definition of geoscience in coal.
Having worked in remote and regional areas, Kirsty is well accustomed to working with people from a wide variety of backgrounds in demanding conditions. Her dedication to the progression of inclusion and diversity in the industry has developed into a passion for supporting women through their careers.
Kirsty has a Bachelor of Science in Geology (Honors), a Masters in Mining Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration. In 2012, she received the Women in Leadership Australia Scholarship designed to develop high-potential female leaders and in 2013, Kirsty was recognized in the inaugural 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining, published by Women in Mining United Kingdom.
With a track record in team leadership, mine development, mine planning and systems establishment, Kirsty has been instrumental in changing the culture across two key sites, improving safety and increasing productivity.
Kirsty loves all things outdoors, has hiked to Everest Base Camp and is known to do anything to get a thrill—including, but not limited to rock climbing and jumping out of planes. She travels extensively and enjoys time with family and friends.
Lucy is the Founder and CEO of Greenscale, a software platform that connects enterprises to lower-carbon procurable purchased goods and services. She is at home in the European climate tech ecosystem.
After founding her first venture at 22, she helped scale Plan A, European market leader in carbon accounting software, as the #2 sales employee under the CCO.
Alongside her entrepreneurial activities, Lucy is a venture scout for Extantia Capital, and a co-author on a report for the Swedish Energy Agency on financing lower carbon innovation.
She is completing an MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise, and the Environment at the University of Oxford.
Mr. Macdonald is a professional geologist with a diverse experience base including exploration geology worldwide and
investment banking.
In recent years he has focused his efforts in exploration and development as a principal of and consultant to various junior
mining companies.
In the past he was in the City of London where he worked in structuring financings and risk management at Macquarie Bank.
In 2007 Mr. Macdonald graduated with an MBA (with Distinction) from Oxford. He completed his B.Sc. in Geology from UBC in
2000.
Mr. Macdonald has a long history of mining exploration work in Yukon, including zinc projects, and originally hails from Ross
River, near the Macmillan Pass Project site. He is a Professional Geologist registered with Engineers and Geoscientists British
Columbia (EGBC).
Todd Malan is Chief External Affairs Officer & Head of Climate Strategy at Talon Metals.
In this role he has responsibility for all external engagement and climate strategy including carbon mineralization, operational emissions, energy and “Green Nickel” product franchise.
Malan is an officer of the company. Malan previously led the Corporate Relations team for global mining and metals leader Rio Tinto in the Americas region and globally for the Ri Tinto Aluminum product group.
Before joining the mining and metals sector, Malan was a Managing Director at Goldman, Sachs.
He is a graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle and studied at Birkbeck College at the University of London as a Hansard Scholar. Malan is based in Washington D.C.
Mr. Mai holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Quebec in Montreal and has 15 years’ experience in the mining industry as a geologist, senior project manager and executive in coal, base metals and gold projects in Canada, Australia and South America.
Mr. Mai has been with the Corporation since 2013, and with strong business oriented, geochemistry, gold metallurgy and processing skills, he has been a key player in the development of the Corporation’s ongoing and future projects.
Mr. Mai is a Professional Geologist and a member, in good standing, of l’Ordre des Géologues du Québec (“OGQ”).
National Youth Coordinator
Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Canada
University of Waterloo
Ceileigh McAllister is an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo in the School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability.
In addition to her studies, she is the National Youth Coordinator for SDSN Canada and the co-chair of the Sustainability Literacy Initiative at the University of Waterloo.
She is passionate about climate education and embedding sustainability in the curriculum in the post-secondary setting.
In the past, Ceileigh has worked for Climate Reality Project Canada supporting municipal and post-secondary climate action programs.
Rob is the Chairman and Chief Owner of McEwen Mining, which has four producing mines located in Nevada, Ontario, Mexico and Argentina. Rob has been associated with the gold industry all his career, his first 18 years in the investment industry and since 1990 as CEO of several gold mining companies.
Rob is the founder of Goldcorp, where he took the company from a market capitalization of $50 million to over $8 billion. At McEwen Mining (MUX) he owns 18% of the company and takes a salary of $1/ year. The cost of his investment in MUX and McEwen Copper exceeds US$200 million. Rob and his wife, Cheryl, have donated over $60 million to encourage excellence and innovation in healthcare and education.
Rob was awarded the Order of Canada in 2007, the Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee Award in 2013, was inducted into the Mining Hall of Fame in 2017 and has Honorary Doctorate of Law Degrees from York University and Western University. He is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board, Schulich School of Business; X Prize Foundation: Vision Circle and Board of Trustees; a member of CEO (Chief Executive Organization) and of WPO (World Presidents’ Organization) and serves on the Advisory Board of the McEwen School of Architecture.
Considered one of the world’s most influential individuals in the field of architecture and green building movement today, Jason is a highly sought out designer, consultant and thought leader around the planet. He is the recipient of the prestigious Buckminster Fuller Prize (the planet’s top prize for socially responsible design). He has been called the ‘Steve Jobs’ of the green building industry, a “World Changer” by GreenBiz magazine and has been selected as the Award of Excellence winner for Engineering News Record – one of the only individuals in the architecture profession to have won the award in its 52-year history.
McLennan is the creator of the Living Building Challenge – the most stringent and progressive green building program in existence, as well as a primary author of the WELL Building Standard, which is sweeping the globe. He is the author of seven books on Sustainability and Design – used by thousands of practitioners each year, including the Philosophy of Sustainable Design, which is considered the ‘bible’ for green building’ – and is both an Ashoka Fellow and Senior Fellow of the Design Future’s Council.
He has been selected by Yes! Magazine as one of ‘15 people shaping the world’ and works closely with world leaders, Fortune 500 companies, leading NGO’s, major universities, celebrities and influential development companies –all in the pursuit of a world that is socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. He is the founder, former CEO, and immediate past chair on the board of directors for International Living Future Institute and is the CEO of McLennan Design – his own architectural and planning practice designing some of the world’s most advanced green buildings. McLennan’s work has been published in dozens of journals, magazines, and newspapers around the world.
Partner, Head of Canadian Climate Change Group
Co-Lead Global Sustainability Practice
Baker & McKenzie
Greg McNab is a member of the Baker & McKenzie’s Corporate & Securities Practice Group in Toronto.
His main areas of practice include financings of public and private securities issuers, investment management products, capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions and resources and energy matters, both domestically and internationally. He also advises on corporate governance, regulatory compliance, continuous disclosure and stock exchange matters for public issuers.
Mr. McNab helps lead the Firm’s Global and Canadian Mining Groups. Mr. McNab regularly speaks, writes published articles and appears in the media with respect to a variety of securities, mining and energy matters.
He is a director and Canadian Chair of the Canadian Australian Chamber of Commerce. A former mechanical engineer, Mr. McNab is also the co-chair of the International Emissions Trading Association’s global carbon capture and storage working group.
Director, Marketing & Communications
Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR)
As the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR), William is responsible for planning and providing strategic direction to effectively promote and build awareness of MiHR and its programs, projects and services.
A strategic, results-oriented communications professional, William has nearly 20 years’ experience in the non-profit, association and government sectors – and has served as the head of communications for three industry associations focused on engineering and resource sectors. As a member of MiHR’s senior management team, William provides strategic communications leadership in accordance with the Council’s mission, vision and values, and leads the development and implementation of marketing and communications activities that support all aspects of MiHR’s strategic plan.
A team builder with strong interpersonal, organizational, research and leadership skills, William earned a Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Mass Communications with a Minor in Law as well as an Honours Diploma in Public Relations.
Robert Milbourne is an international mining and resources lawyer and executive who has helped deliver projects in most commodities and most stages of development, in over thirty jurisdictions.
An adjunct professor of law at the University of Queensland, he regularly lectures and presents at seminars around the world on legal and regulatory developments relevant to the resources industry.
He has served as an equity partner at Norton Rose Fulbright and K&L Gates, and General Counsel within mining firm Vale in Australia. He formed Mining Standards International five years ago to set standards and Integrated assessments of performance in the mining sector. He has since worked closely with the emerging Deepsea mining industry as an Observer at the International Seabed Authority, and as a senior executive and advisor to Nautilus Minerals and DeepGreen Resources (now The Metals Company).
His interests focus on transformation and innovation in performance and the regulatory frameworks necessary to enable enhanced delivery for all stakeholders in the resources sector.
Mr. Montano started his career as a civil and geotechnical engineer, specialising in civil infrastructure and mining projects throughout the Americas, before adding mining engineering to his portfolio. Collectively, he has over 16 years of global experience in the mining industry that encompasses geotechnical engineering, mine construction and operation, open-pit design and planning, financial modelling and project optimization.
Mr. Montano joined B2Gold in 2010 as Senior Engineer and was instrumental in the development and expansion of the Company’s first two mines, El Limon and La Libertad, in Nicaragua. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to Senior Project Engineer where he played a fundamental role in the construction of the Company’s first mine in Africa, Otjikoto, located in Namibia, which in 2014 made history as one of the fastest moving mine construction projects in the country. Subsequently, Mr. Montano was responsible for the initial project development and long-term plans of the Company’s flagship mine, Fekola, located in Mali, and was swiftly promoted to Project Director in 2016. He optimized and significantly added value to the Company’s projects, including the mine expansion at Fekola and addition of the Wolfshag underground mine at Otjikoto.
At B2Gold, Mr. Montano is responsible for the long term and strategic planning and execution of the Company’s projects, from acquisition through project development, mine construction, operation and closure.
Mr. Montano holds a Bachelor of Science (Economics) and a Bachelor of Science (Engineering, High Honors) from the Colorado School of Mines, USA, and is a registered Professional Engineer (Colorado, USA).
As Chief Executive Officer of Coreo, Ashleigh is bold in her pursuit of systemic change.
Globally recognised as a sustainability leader in business, industry and trade, Ashleigh is regularly invited to speak at international forums, including the World Circular Economy Forum and the United Nations General Assembly. Her work captures the imaginations of leaders across broad sectors to begin the work of transforming our linear economy into a circular economy; one that serves people and nature, rather than one that people and nature serve.
Asheligh has been recognised as No.13 in the world on the list of Corporate Social Responsibility Influential Leaders for 2020; and nominated as a Prime Minister’s Scholar and an Australian ASEAN Emerging Leader. As Australia’s leading circular economy specialist, Ashleigh serves on the Property Council of Australia’s Circular Economy Committee and sits on the board of National body for the circular economy, the Australian Circular Economy Hub. Internationally, she is a Director for WasteFuels, working with the world leading biofuel company to decarbonise shipping and aviation. Locally, Ashleigh serves as a director on the Thread Together board, working with the team to design waste out of the textiles industry. As a volunteer, Ashleigh is a long-serving mentor for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s ‘From Linear to Circular’ Program, bringing diverse cultures together to regenerate economies, a role given to only a handful of people worldwide.
Ashleigh is an Associate Professor of the circular economy at Griffith University and holds a Bachelor of Environmental Health Science with Faculty Commendation for academic excellence, 1st Class Honours in Environmental Management, and the highest honour a university can bestow, the University Medal.
Douglas has over 35 years of mining experience, operations engineering in deep underground metal mines, and consulting internationally on mine safety and productivity. His focus has always been on safety and innovation, and he recognises that the current technology platforms for mine production and mine tailings management must be transformed if mining is to meet the supply demand for the Green Transition to a low-carbon economy and help create a Globally Sustainable Society™.
At CEMI, Doug is directing the development of the continuous, autonomous technologies that are essential for mines to dramatically improve their productive capacity at lower cost. CEMI has also supported the development of solutions to improve mine waste management practices by processing mine waste and eliminating the long-term storage of mine tailings. These kinds of technologies will help integrate mining industry processes into the natural resource sectors of agriculture and forestry and operate in harmony with indigenous communities for more sustainable and self-sustaining outcomes. CEMI’s MICA Network is seeking solution providers in every sector of the economy to help the mining industry become more productive, more profitable and more socially and environmentally progressive.
Glenn Mullan is the President & CEO of Val-D’Or Mining Corporation and is a director of Gold Royalty Corp. He is the former President, CEO and Chair of Golden Valley Mines and Royalties Ltd. and several other natural resource issuers trading on the TSX Venture Exchange.
As a geologist and prospector, Glenn Mullan played an instrumental role from the discovery to feasibility stages of the Canadian Royalties Inc. nickel-copper-PGE discoveries in Nunavik (Northern Quebec), currently in production.
Mr. Mullan benefits from an in-depth knowledge of the global mining industry, including leading positions in mining organizations and associations. From 2017 to 2019, he was President of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), the leading voice of the mineral exploration and development community in Canada and abroad.
He graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Science in Geology (1992) and received an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors in Montreal (2007).
Mr. Myerson, previously head of Glencore’s Canadian zinc business, has vast global experience in the metals and mining sector; including refined metal and concentrates trading, mining and smelting operations, and capital markets.
Before joining Glencore, Mr. Myerson worked for Morgan Stanley in their Equity Capital Markets team based out of Sydney, Australia.
He holds a Master of Finance degree from the Queensland University of Technology.
Moshe Nadler has extensive international experience in management and business development of agricultural and water treatment companies and projects. He previously served as:
- Controller of the agriculture department of Yakhin Hakal, a 10,000 hectare citrus company, leading its planning and implementing a recovery plan for the company
- The Chief Operating Officer of a 500 hectare mango farm in Puerto Rico.
- CEO of GES Latin America – Water treatment projects in Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua and El Salvador
- Manager of the mining division in Netafim.
- He also co-founded QG Systems, a 21 year old agricultural company in Mexico
He holds a M.Sc. Degree from the Hebrew University’s faculty of agriculture
Nobel Laureate Carlos Nobre is one of Brazil’s top climate scientists and member of the Brazilian Academy of Science. He is a founding member of World Resources Institute (WRI) Brasil and served until recently on its Board of Directors. Dr. Nobre is known particularly for his studies on the risk of ‘savannization’ of the Amazon forest due to deforestation and climate change, that have delineated the role of biosphere-atmosphere interactions in the humid tropics.
He graduated from the Aeronautics Institute of Technology, São José dos Campos, Brazil, with a degree in Electronics Engineering and from the MIT in with a PhD in meteorology. He was a post-doctoral fellow in meteorology at University of Maryland’s Department of Meteorology. Upon finishing undergraduate education, he moved to the Amazon, where he initiated his research carrier in 1975 at the Brazilian Institute for Amazonian Studies, in Manaus. Dr. Nobre later joined the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in 1983, where he remained until 2012.
Dr. Nobre has been an architect for the establishment of a number of research institutions in Brazil: the Brazilian Center for Weather Prediction and Climate Studies (CPTEC), where he served as director from 1991 to 2003; the Center for Earth System Science (CCST, 2008-2010) and the National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN; 2015). He has been a pioneer in the creation and implementation of important scientific experiments in the Amazon, such as the largest scientific undertaking in that region, the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in the Amazon (LBA), where he acted as Program Scientist from 1996 to 2004. He has been scientific director of the Brazilian Research Network for Climate Change (Rede CLIMA) and has been very active in communicating the science of climate change to society nationally and internationally. He has been the chair of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP-2006-2011), member of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and is a member of the UN Secretary-General Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for Global Sustainability. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing Nations and Foreign Associate of US National Academy of Sciences. He worked in science-policy interface as National Secretary for R&D Policies, Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (2011-2014), and is currently the President of the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES).
He supervised the work of 33 Master’s and PhD students and is author or co-author of over 180 scientific papers, book chapters and books. He has received a number of scientific awards, the “Dr. Luis Frederico Leloir” Prize on Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation of Argentina, 2011; the Grand-Cross Medal of the National Order of Scientific Merit, Presidency of Brazil, 2010; the Alexander von Humboldt Medal of the European Geophysical Union, 2010, among others. He also heads the Science Panel for the Amazon which released a Statement for the UN Summit on Biodiversity – Urgent Action for the Amazon We Want.
VP, Government Affairs, Ring of Fire Metals
Former Chief, Missanabie Cree First Nation
Past President, PDAC
Glenn is a member of the Missanabie Cree First Nation, a former Chief and the first Indigenous person to serve as president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.
Presently Glenn is Vice President, Government Affairs, Ring of Fire Metals, a company that is developing a nickel and copper deposit in Ontario’s Ring of Fire. He has been involved in the mining sector for more than four decades.
Glenn has long been an advocate for sustainable inclusive mineral development in Canada and globally. He continues to provide advice and support to indigenous communities and governments seeking to better understand opportunities in mining.
Glenn is a past President of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC and serves on numerous not for profit boards with local, national and international focus. Glenn is also a board member of a junior diamond exploration company with properties in Canada and Africa.
Mirco Nolte is the VP, Operational Excellence at Dundee Precious Metals. Mirco Nolte began his career by joining Dundee’s Tsumeb smelter in Namibia as a metallurgist in 2007.
Since then, he has held increasingly senior operational roles at our Namibian and Bulgarian operations.
In 2015 Mirco accepted the role Corporate Director, Processing to lead a number of significant enhancements and optimization programs through out our operational sites.
In June 2019, he earned the role of Vice President Operational Excellence.
Mirco Nolte earned a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering and Masters of Science from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He received his Masters of Business Administration from ESADE Business School in Spain.
VP Business Development and Commercialization
Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation
Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) Network
Charles holds a Bachelor of Mining Engineering and a Masters in Business and Administration (MBA). As the VP of Business Development and Commercialization for the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation, Charles endeavours to create long-term value (commercialization, revenue generation, leveraging funds, networking, collaboration) for organizations and clients by identifying business development opportunities with both the public and private client segments.
Charles leads CEMI’s Commercialization Support Services division and is responsible for identifying and securing opportunities to help clients close the commercialization gap associated with introducing new technologies into the mining value stream. His role also includes leading in proposal development initiatives, securing global partnerships and collaborators to participate in program or project initiatives. Charles also works to advance the overall organizational strategic objectives.
Currently, Charles is leading CEMI in delivering Commercialization Support Services for the Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) Network
Vice-President, Sustainability,
Fireweed Metals
Pamela is a professional biologist and project leader with extensive and proven experience in obtaining approvals for large transportation and mining projects. A strong communicator and facilitator, her people-focused approach has led to the development of long-lasting relationships with clients, community leaders and members, regulators, and colleagues. She is guided by her core belief that authentic, mutually-respectful connections among people, who work towards shared goals, will lead to a sustainable future. She has led environmental related aspects of projects across Canada and internationally for Canadian Pacific Railway, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, Goldcorp, Yukon Zinc, BHP, Newmont, , amongst others. Currently as VP Sustainability for Fireweed Metals Corp., she is focused on enhancing processes to integrate Indigenous group input to advance environmentally sound, socially beneficial, and governance inclusive critical metals projects.
Mr. Osterloh has over 20 years’ mining industry experience in process engineering, plant metallurgy and project management.
In his project management roles for Fluor Canada, he led feasibility study work for several large base metal assets in the Americas, including Glencore’s NorthMet copper-nickel project in Minnesota, Freeport-McMoRan’s Lone Star copper project in Arizona, and the NuevaUnión copper-gold joint venture in Chile by Teck and Newmont.
Mr. Osterloh’s project development successes are founded on rigorous capital efficiency, risk mitigation, and execution certainty. Prior to joining Fluor, Mr. Osterloh acted as Plant Metallurgist and Mill General Foreman at Barrick Gold’s Eskay Creek Mine in northwest British Columbia, and as Plant Metallurgist for Imperial Metals’ Huckleberry Mine in central B.C.
Mr. Osterloh is a Member of the Association of Professional Engineers of British Columbia and holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mineral Process Engineering from the University of British Columbia.
Carlos Paulo is a Postdoctoral Fellow working on strategies to enhance mineral carbonation in ultramafic mine tailings.
A key aspect of his research is the assessment of the chemical reactivity of mine tailings with atmospheric carbon dioxide. Towards this goal, he is designing laboratory-scale experimental tests to estimate carbonation rates, as well as favorable geochemical conditions for carbonate precipitation in mine tailings. These laboratory technology demonstrations will provide crucial information for the development of field pilot projects.
He earned an M.Sc. in geo-resources from the Instituto Superior Técnico (Lisboa, Portugal) and a Ph.D. in physical and environmental sciences from the University of Toronto.
Killam Professor, University of British Columbia
Principal Investigator, Sea Around Us
Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries
Dr. Daniel Pauly is a French and Canadian citizen who completed his high school and university studies in Germany; his doctorate (1979) and habilitation (1985) are in Fisheries Biology, from the University of Kiel.
After many years at the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), in Manila, Philippines, Daniel Pauly became in 1994 Professor at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, of which he was the Director for 5 years (Nov. ’03-Oct. ’08). Since 1999, he is also Principal Investigator of the Sea Around Us Project (see www.seaaroundus.org), funded for 15 years by the Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia (currently by a number of foundations), and devoted to studying, documenting and promoting policies to mitigate the impact of fisheries on the world’s marine ecosystems (see AMBIO, 34: 290-295, 2007).
Daniel Pauly has supervised a large number of Master and PhD students in the Philippines, Germany, and British Columbia. Details on the projects of his current students can be obtained here.
The concepts, methods and software which Daniel Pauly (co-)developed, documented in over 1000 scientific and general-interest publications, are used throughout the world, not least as a result of his teaching a multitude of courses, and supervising students in four languages on five continents. This applies especially to the Ecopath modeling approach and software (http://sirs.agrocampus-ouest.fr/EcoBase/) and FishBase, the online encyclopedia of fishes (www.fishbase.org), the latter recently complemented by SeaLifeBase (www.sealifebase.org).
This work is recognized in various profiles, notably Science (Apr. ’02); Nature (Jan. ’03); New York Times (Jan. ’03), in developing countries, and by numerous awards, among them honorary doctorates from four universities, being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science; ‘03); and receiving the Award of Excellence of the American Fisheries Society (‘04); the International Cosmos Prize, Japan (‘05), the Volvo Environmental Prize, Sweden (‘06), the Excellence in Ecology Prize, Germany (‘07), the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology, Spain (‘08), the Albert Ier Grand Medal in the Science category (’16) among others. Daniel was also knighted as Chevalier de la Légion D’Honneur (’17) by the French government on Bastille Day.
Geni Peters is an economist with a Ph.D. in Economics from Texas A&M University. As Director of Research at ECO Canada, she is responsible for the management, execution and delivery of environmental labour market information and national occupational standards projects, working with an army of professionals comprised of staff, consultants, strategic advisors and subject matter experts.
Before joining ECO Canada, Geni applied her knowledge and skills in a wide range of roles and industries. She worked as a lecturer for 14 years, teaching a wide range of economics courses and supervising student research projects at UC San Diego and Penn State University.
More recently, she managed labour market research initiatives including economic modelling and reporting at PetroLMI Division of Energy Safety Canada (formerly the Petroleum Human Resources Council) and conducted economic research and analysis at Brown Economic Consulting.
Minister George Pirie’s family roots began in Porcupine over 100 years ago. He is a graduate of Laurentian University and is happily married with two children and three grandchildren.
Prior to entering politics, George was a senior mining executive with over thirty-five years of experience in the industry both domestically and internationally. He has held senior positions in the industry for over seventeen years and has a long history of involvement in the industry and local community as well. As Mayor of Timmins, George oversaw the largest mining boom in fifty years. He has served on the Mining Association of Canada, the Ontario Mining Association and was also the co-chairman of the Ontario Mineral Industry Cluster Initiative.
Locally, in Timmins, he has made a positive impact in his community by serving on the Porcupine Health Unit and as Chairman of the Timmins Police Service. He has also served as Chairman of the Board of Governors with Northern College, co-chaired local United Way campaigns, served on local hospital boards and community associations.
Department Chair and Professor – Geography and Tourism Studies. Co-Founder, Water and Environmental Laboratory, Brock University
Michael Pisaric was educated at Brock University, St. Catharines, McMaster University, Hamilton (M.Sc), and Queen’s University, Kingston (Ph.D). Mike joined the faculty at Carleton University in 2002 after completing a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Big Sky Institute at Montana State University. He joined Brock University in 2015.
His research interests centre on how climate change affects vegetation development at the subarctic and subalpine treelines. Mike is also interested in the importance of fire in boreal ecosystems. His team is using a number of paleoecological tools to carry out our studies, including, tree ring analysis, fossil pollen and stomata preserved in lake sediments and the analysis of charcoal preserved in lake sediment to analyze past fire activity.
Mike has worked in northern regions of Canada, the former Soviet Union and in mountain regions throughout western North America.
Dorena Quinn is Vice President People at IamGold Corporation, based out of the Toronto office. Dorena joined the company in 2018 and has held progressively senior HR roles. She presently oversees the architecture, implementation, and oversight of global talent employee programs driving performance, engagement, inclusion & belonging, and setting a foundation for a truly differentiated workplace culture that has become a competitive advantage for the Company.
Dorena works closely with the executive leadership team and HRCC, and has over 20 years of experience leading organizational transformations, driving growth, cultivating successful leaders and teams, and constructing an employee-first culture. Prior to joining IAMGOLD, Dorena worked in media measurement, technology and financial services industries with a focus on multi-disciplinary human capital initiatives to drive organizational performance.
Dorena currently serves as Director of EURO Ressources S.A., is Chair of the Mining Industry Human Resource Council (MiHR) anti-harassment committee Safe Workplaces for All and an avid member of various industry groups. Dorena is an advocate for a variety of causes close to her heart, particularly women’s leadership and mentorship. She holds a Master of Human Resource Management (MHRM) from York University, a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Toronto, as well as numerous coaching, leadership and training accreditations.
Dr. Justina Ray has been President and Senior Scientist of Wildlife Conservation Society Canada since its incorporation in 2004. In addition to overseeing the operations of WCS Canada, Justina is involved in research and policy activities associated with land use planning and large mammal conservation in northern landscapes.
Having worked for years in African and Asian tropical forests, North America has been her predominant geographic focus over the past two decades. Justina has been appointed to numerous government advisory panels related to policy development for species at risk and land use planning in Ontario and Canada.
She was the co-chair of the Terrestrial Mammals Subcommittee of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) from 2009-2017 and is currently a member of the IUCN Taskforce on Biodiversity and Protected Areas.
She has been editor or author of 3 books and numerous peer-reviewed articles, and is Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto (Department of Ecology and Evolution; Graduate Department of Forestry) and Trent University (Environmental & Life Sciences Graduate Program).
Professor, Department of Plant Sciences
Peatland Ecology Research Group
Université Laval
Dr. Line Rochefort is a pioneer in research related to peatland restoration. She is a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences and founder of the Peatland Ecology Research Group (PERG) at Université Laval in Québec, Canada.
PERG brings together researchers from several universities, Canadian industrial peat partners, and federal and provincial government agencies to advance understanding of peatland ecosystems and inform decisions regarding the utilization and conservation. Her first love, studying mosses in the large, open expanses of boreal and arctic Canada, has taken her around the world.
Dr. Rochefort has instigated a whole new stream of research in the peat industry: the development of techniques for the restoration of mires after peat extraction. Her technique for bog restoration is now used not only in North America but also in South America (Chile) and Europe (particularly in the Baltic countries, Denmark and Belgium). Dr. Rochefort has initiated two Sphagnum experimental farms in Canada, and she has expanded her activities to the rebuilding of wetlands in the region of Alberta’s where oil sands are exploited.
Research by Dr. Rochefort and PERG addresses a very important social problem, namely the need to rehabilitate ecosystems that are very efficient to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and consequently diminishing the greenhouse gas effects. Since 2003, Dr. Rochefort has held the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s Industrial Research chair for Peatland Management. She has worked with the Canadian peat industry on peatland restoration after extraction of peat has been completed in fens and bogs.
In 2004 she received the prestigious Synergy Award for Innovation from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), in 2011, she was honored with the International Peatland Society’s Award of Excellence.
Deborah is a focused problem solver with expertise in fields that include research, design, manufacturing and sourcing, production deadlines, education, advisory and international affairs (reflected in her letters of recommendation).
Deborah’s strengths include cross discipline analysis and connecting cause and effect. She is an economic determinist that enables well managed finances with a designer’s creative vision. Deborah is comfortable with uncertainty and energized by change and the potential to make things better. UN Resolution 1325 matters to her.
Deborah brings vast contextualized experience and knowledge to post-Covid recovery, refocusing and rebuilding.
Senior Fellow, Carsey School for Public Policy, University of New Hampshire
President, MRAG Americas
Former Director, Center for Science & Democracy
Union of Concerned Scientists
Dr. Andrew (Andy) Rosenberg is President of MRAG Americas, working closely with the Executive Team on company business strategy and operations.
Over four decades as a leading expert in renewable resource management, Andy has served in senior positions in government, academia, and non-profit institutions as a scientist, policymaker, and advisor. For the past ten years he has been the founding director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He has also been Chief Scientist for Conservation International and Professor of Natural Resources and the Environment and Dean of the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture at the University of New Hampshire.
From 1998-2000, Andy served as the Deputy Director of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) where he dealt with policy decisions on science and resource management issues nationwide as well as the administration of the agency. He was also a principal agency spokesperson before Congress, the public, and technical audiences. Before becoming NMFS Deputy Director, Andy was the NMFS Northeast Regional Administrator, where he negotiated and implemented the recovery program for New England and mid-Atlantic fisheries, implemented marine mammal recovery programs and endangered species protections throughout the northeast. He also has served as the U.S. lead representative in several international fishery management organizations such as NAFO, NASCO, and FAO.
Andy has also served as a lead author and member of numerous high level science and policy boards and commissions including the US Commission on Ocean Policy, the Third US National Climate Change Impacts Assessment, The National Academy of Science America’s Climate Choices Study, the First World Ocean Assessment, the International Transboundary Waters Assessment and many more.
Andy’s scientific work is in the field of population dynamics, resource assessment, and resource management policy. He holds a B.S. in Fisheries Biology from the University of Massachusetts, an M.S. in Oceanography from Oregon State University, and a Ph.D. in Biology from Dalhousie University. He was on the faculty of Imperial College of Science and Technology in London for six years and was the Deputy Director of the Renewable Resources Assessment Group, an internationally known quantitative analysis and policy consultancy group.
Fernando Ruiz-Mier, a Senior Operations Officer, leads IFC’s Sustainable Infrastructure Advisory work in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In this role, he designs and supervises the implementation of advisory projects and client support initiatives aimed at helping companies share value through delivery of tangible benefits to local stakeholders.
Fernando has led the development of the approach IFC applies in projects aimed at building the capacity of local governments and promoting social accountability around natural resources.
Prior to IFC Fernando taught at Texas Tech University and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, he was Vice-Minister for Social Policy and Investment in his native Bolivia and worked in consulting. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Purdue University.
Research Coordinator
Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research
University of Cape Town
Passionate about the bio- and circular economy, Shilpa enjoys applying her engineering skills to complex and sustainable production systems to investigate their feasibility and path to implementation towards a low carbon economy.
She has an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering and for her postgraduate studies, she specialised in Bioprocess Engineering. In her current role as Research Coordinator, she offers strategic project and stakeholder management support to a number of high profile multi-disciplinary projects, as well as contributing to the design and research elements of these projects.
Her area of expertise lies in waste valorisation, resource efficiency and biorefineries, with a focus on climate mitigation and sustainable development goals. Her work constantly pushes her to interrogate the challenges and opportunities the technology/product she is working on, will have on the broader community. To this end, she is able to work on the missing links between academic research and the broader society, by acting as a catalyst for new and innovative change.
Over the last few years, she has developed a keen interest in post-mine economies and believes that the circular economy offers an exciting opportunity to valorise degraded mine land and generate sustainable value chains, which can provide multiple environmental, economic and social benefits to the mining communities and industry.
Charissa leads Albertsons Companies’ efforts to explore, test and implement innovative technologies, partnerships and processes to create the long-term innovation pipeline to achieve their ambitious ESG goals.
Charissa was previously a Circular Economy Principal at Amazon and developed the global circular economy strategy to reduce waste across Amazon operations and increase the circularity of Amazon packaging across all business units.
Prior to Amazon, Charissa led the Recycling Innovation program at Apple and was the creator of Apple’s automated disassembly systems for iPhone recycling — Liam and Daisy. She was a founding member of Apple’s Closed Loop Team and developed the recovery strategy and circular supply chain for key materials such as rare earth magnets, precious metals and tungsten.
She also worked on sustainable materials development and closed-loop technologies at Nike and Patagonia.
Charissa has a B.A. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado-Boulder and a Master’s in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Environment.
Øystein Rushfeldt is a mining engineer with 34 years of experience from various positions in Norwegian and international mining companies.
Employed as technical director and Sauda Plant manager of Eramet Norway AS during 2008-09. During 2004 – 08 managing director of Titania AS a major manufacturer of titanium feedstock. Before that he worked for 8 years at Hustadmarmor AS (now owned by Omya AG) as production engineer, production manager and operations manager, and for 8 years as process engineer at AS Sydvaranger, Norway’s then largest iron ore company.
Rushfeldt is a graduate of the Norwegian Polytechnical University, Trondheim (now NTNU)
Rushfeldt has served as president and chairman of the Norwegian Mining Association.
Adjunct Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs; Director, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Columbia University
Lisa Sachs is the Director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment. Since joining CCSI in 2008, she established and now oversees CCSI’s robust research portfolio in its cross-cutting areas of expertise, and has overseen advisory work in Chile, Guinea, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Paraguay, Tanzania and Timor-Leste, among other countries.
She teaches a masters seminar at Columbia Law School and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs on Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development, and lectures at Externado University in Colombia on International Investment Law. She has served on World Economic Forum Global Future Councils on International Governance and on Mining & Metals, and is a co-chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s thematic group on the Good Governance of Extractive and Land Resources.
She is a 2020-2021 Senior Fellow of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, and sits on several advisory boards, including of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights and SDG Academy. Before joining CCSI, she worked at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and at Amnesty USA, in both cases on shareholder engagement.
She received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard University, and earned her Juris Doctor and a Masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University, where she was a James Kent Scholar and recipient of the Parker School Certificate in International and Comparative Law.
Mr Schumann commenced his career as a management consultant before moving into the natural resources sector, initially as part of an investing team in London focused on early stage mining projects and then working in corporate development functions for a number of listed mining and energy companies.
He has a decade of experience in the financing and development of mining and energy projects globally across a range of commodities.
He holds an MBA from INSEAD, is a CFA Charterholder and holds a Bachelor of Business Science (Finance CA) from the University of Cape Town.
Chen is the founder and CEO of Alfa Sustainable Projects Limited, specializing in highly technological sustainable projects, and is the chairman of the Israeli Green Building Council. Alfa is leading the sustainable design of some of the highest profile projects in Israel, and are working for international firms such as Microsoft, Intel, Apple Autodesk and Google on implementing innovative technologies into their office projects in Europe, Africa, and the Gulf.
Alfa was awarded first place by Microsoft showstopper of the year 2021, and won first place CTBUH awards for Sarona Tower Façade Engineering and building excellence award for ToHa1. In addition Alfa won the ILGBC Excellence in Innovation Award. Chen was the co-director of the Israeli Team to Solar Decathlon China 2013, which won several prizes and first place for the energy balance and was the first Israeli project to be Energy Net Positive.
Chen headed the Smart Bases task force commissioned by the MOD to define the sustainable strategy for several new bases under construction. Chen is consulting to the Israeli Ministry of Energy on implementing a national roadmap to Net Zero Energy projects. Chen is adjacent professor at the Architecture school of the Tel Aviv University, lecturing on Advanced sustainable technologies.
Chen worked as an Architect with Diamond & Schmitt Architects in Toronto and earned his LEED AP from the Canadian Green Building Council.
Malcolm is an experienced leader and environmental engineer with a special focus on mine closure and reclamation, circular economy principles ap- plied within mining, and mine waste management.
His experience is global; having worked in Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South America, and North America. In his current roles, his responsibilities are to lead and im- prove the state of the mine closure and reclamation planning practice within the global company and promote the adoption of Circular Economy principles in the mining sector.
He has an undergraduate degree in Civil/Environmental Engineering, a Post-graduate Diploma in Mining Engineering (focused on the impacts of mining on the environment), and professional certificates in Strategic Leadership and Management, Sustainable Development Strategy, Global Environmental Management, Sustainable Development Goals, Circular Economy Business Strategy, Project Management, and Macroeconomics
Hendra Sinadia assumed the role as APBI-ICMA’s executive director on October 2017. He joined the association on October 2013 as the deputy executive director. Prior to join APBI-ICMA Hendra served as the executive secretary of the Indonesian Mining Association (IMA). Hendra Sinadia has been in the mining industry for more than 15 years.
He first started his career in the industry when worked for PT Freeport Indonesia in 2002-2008 with his latest position at the company was as the company’s Chief Attorney. After leaving Freeport, Hendra served as President Director of PT. Vale Eksplorasi Indonesia (subsidiary of Vale International SA) in 2010 – 2011. Hendra is currently the vice-chairman of Indonesian Mining Institute and director at PT Indo Minerba Insani which he co-founded on 2013.
Prior to work in the mining industry Hendra worked as the senior legal consultant at Roosdiono & Rekan in 2000 – 2002 and at the senior tax consultant at Prasetyo Utomo Consult (member firm of Arthur Andersen ) in 1996 – 2001.
Hendra Sinadia received his degrees from Faculty of Law, Hasanuddin University Makassar in 1991 and Master of Business Administration, Westcoast University, California in 1995.
Christian started his career in Peru and Latin America in the forestry and energy sectors, before moving first to renewables and power and then, for the last ten years, to the mining and metals industry.
While working for ICMM member Anglo American, Christian gained experience of working on innovation in a socio-economic development context. This was followed by roles at World Economic Forum and Systemic where Christian focus on business models, regulation and finance. He has also been exposed to impact investing where he has had the chance to support disruptive technologies entering the mining and metals space.
Christian is an economist with a MSc degree in International Development from the London School of Economics and a postgraduate diploma in Strategy and Innovation from the University of Oxford. Christian loves cycling and cooking and spending time with his family.
With 15 years of international experience and a multi-sector background in biodiversity and conservation, Sven is leading the strategic development of AFRY’s biodiversity management services, driving internal and external collaboration along with developing new and innovative products.
Sven specializes in identifying, managing and monitoring nature-related risks and opportunities for businesses to create nature-positive outcomes. Before AFRY he has worked extensively in public sector and NGO’s, both in the field and in the office.
As an active member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management and the TNFD Forum, Sven also supports the development of international biodiversity policies and risk assessment tools. Sven holds a PhD in Zoology from the University of Otago, New Zealand.
Aaron is the Director of Health, Safety and Sustainable Development at Yamana Gold, where he is responsible for a wide range of matters – from the climate change strategy, to ESG investor management, to negotiations with First Nations.
Aaron brings more than 20 years of experience to the role, including 15+ years in the mining industry at IAMGOLD, Breakwater Resources, and various consulting roles; with five years in international development previous to that.
Aaron holds a BA in Anthropology from St. Francis Xavier University, an MA in International Development from Dalhousie University and an International MBA from the Schulich School of Business.
Lisa Stephenson is a senior leader with Careers in Energy, a division of Energy Safety Canada (ESC), the safety association for Canada’s energy industry.
In her current role, Lisa provides leadership and strategic oversight in all aspects of management and operations for the Careers in Energy division. Careers in Energy is the hub for labour market data, insights, occupation profiles and other resources for workforces and career planning.
With over 20 years’ experience working in the energy sector, Lisa has been with ESC for nine years and her credentials include an MBA in Health and Safety Leadership, a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP).
Stephen is the CEO, and Director of Orefinders Resources Inc. and QC Copper & Gold, both TSX Venture listed companies, while also being a Director of Mistango River Resources, a CSE-listed company. He is also Managing Partner of Minvest Partners; a private group focused on natural resource discovery and development.
Stephen is the Founder and Chairman of the Young Mining Professionals Scholarship Fund, the largest mining-focused charitable organization and fund, supporting mining engineering and geology education in Canada.
Stephen holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and a Master of Science from the University of Florida.
Louise is the founder and owner of Differentiate and its renowned mentoring program, Protégé.
Her entrepreneurial approach to business is founded on more than 30 years corporate experience in the financial services sector, having worked both globally and regionally in senior leadership roles at organisations such as IBM Australia, Visa Worldwide and ABN Amro Asia Pacific, prior to founding Differentiate in 2006. She created Protégé in 2011 to support young businesswomen to find their own voice and ensure they have a ‘seat at the table’.
In addition to having been a leadership coach and consultant with organisations such as INSEAD, CORE Leadership Institute and Harvard Business School, she was the first in Asia Pacific to become an accredited Coaching Supervisor.
Louise is the proud recipient of the ‘Dr Marshall Goldsmith Achievement in Coaching Award’, Top 100 Coaches 2018, presented by World HRD Congress and one of top 5 nominees for UN Women HeForShe Influencer Award 2019. She served as 1st Vice President on the AWARE Board 2016-2018, and was on the Executive Committee of the Financial Women’s Association Singapore (FWAS) from 2011-16 where she created its Advancing Women in Finance mentoring program, winner of the AWARE New Initiative Award 2013. In 2009 she received the inaugural World of Difference 100 Award from The International Alliance of Women (TIAW), which honours women who have made an impact on the economic empowerment of women.
Originally from Australia, Louise has lived and worked in Asia since 1993 and is currently based in Singapore.
Adjunct Professor (Retired Associate Professor)
School of Environmental Sciences
University of Guelph
Dr. Thevathasan has worked on food security and international development projects in Ghana, India, Nepal, DR Congo, Egypt, Rwanda, Tanzania and Chile.
In November 2017, he was invited to make a presentation to the standing committee on Agriculture and AgriFood, Government of Canada, on the role of agroforestry land-use systems towards climate change mitigation. Thevathasan is also one of the advisory committee members in the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC)’s Voluntary Carbon Offset Program.
He received his Ph.D in agroforestry from the University of Guelph in 1998 and received an honorary doctor of science degree in 2011 for his agroforestry and food security work in Ghana.
He has to his credit more than 70 international research publications and 10 book chapters. He is also an associate editor for the “Agroforestry Systems” journal. His life-long project funding is over CAN $9 million.
Wendy Tyrrell is Executive Director and a member of the Board of the Development Partner Institute. She has worked in sustainability, ESG, and responsible sourcing for 25+ years across mining and international development.
Wendy has held senior roles in BHP and Orica and led a niche consulting firm that works internationally on sustainability. Wendy has held prior Board roles including AVI (an international development company), Transparency International Australia and the global Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative. Wendy is Chair of a start-up technology company, which is reimagining uses and management of water through better access to understanding its qualities.
Wendy has developed her passion working across different geographical and cultural contexts, seeing first-hand that bringing diverse stakeholders together can spark new ideas and ways of thinking and working, to positively contribute to the sustainable development of countries and regions. Wendy is a Graduate and member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She holds a Masters’ degree in International Relations and a Bachelor of Applied Science.
Group Publisher of The Northern Miner Group
President, Glacier Resource Innovation Group
As Group Publisher of The Northern Miner Group, Mr. Vaccaro has overall responsibility for The Northern Miner, Canadian Mining Journal, Canadian & American Mines Handbook, “Mining Markets” magazine, “Diamonds in Canada” magazine, “Exploration Trends & Developments” magazine, northernminer.com, canadianminingjournal.com, northernminerjobs.com, and miningmarkets.com.
Mr. Vaccaro holds the CFA designation, has an MBA in Investment Management and is a board member of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.
He is based in Toronto, Canada
Philipa Varris, MSc (Nat Resources), MAusIMM CP (Env), CDI.D., is the Head of Sustainability at Horizonte Minerals plc. She has held leadership positions in environment, health, safety and community management in the mining sector for over 25 years, primarily in Africa and Australasia and across a number of mineral commodities.
Philipa has been awarded the Australian Centenary Medal for leadership in Australia’s largest community consultation and strategic vision development initiative and was recognized in 2020 as one of the WIM UK 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining.
As a champion for mining ESG leadership, Philipa has led teams recognised with the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Award for Environment and Social Responsibility, the AMEEF Award for Environmental Excellence, and the Mines and Money ESG Producer of the Year Award, amongst others.
Philipa is a Non-Executive Director of EnviroGold Global and is a member of the UK Committee of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM).
Professor, Biological Sciences
UNESCO Chair on Community Sustainability: From Local to Global
Member, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC)
Brock University
Dr. Vasseur is a full professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Brock University where she is also a member of the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre. Since 2014, she holds the UNESCO Chair on Community Sustainability: From Local to Global at Brock.
Her research program is highly interdisciplinary and links issues such as community-based ecosystem management, climate change adaptation and resilience, ecosystem governance, and sustainable agriculture. Her research program is not only in Canada, but also in China, Ecuador and West Africa, mainly in Burkina Faso and Senegal.
She is also involved in Women in Science and former president of the Canadian Coalition for Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology. She is President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. She also is the vice-chair for North America Region of the Commission for Ecosystem Management at the IUCN and leads the thematic group on Ecosystem Governance.
Claudette Mackay-Lassonde Chair in Mineral Engineering
Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering
Director | Lassonde Institute of Mining
University of Toronto
Dr. Lesley Warren leads the Lassonde Institute of Mining at the University of Toronto as Managing Director and Chief Principal Investigator. She has an internationally recognized track record of integrated geochemical and microbiological investigation.
As a leading expert, she has partnered with numerous energy and mining industry companies, consortiums and governmental agencies around the globe. Dr. Warren’s work is breaking new ground and helping strengthen the mining industry today and into the future. As Chief Principal Investigator her research develops transformative industry advancements through emerging molecular biological techniques.
Some of her current research projects with Vale, Syncrude, COSIA, Glencore and CSIRO Australia develop real-world solutions around bio-mines and bio-intelligent organisms for mining impacted water. Through leading-edge wastewater management innovations she is helping industry be more sustainable, efficient and cost effective.
The Lassonde Institute of Mining is a global leader in interdisciplinary mining research and industry-academic partnerships. Linking world-renowned Principal Investigators from engineering, applied sciences, earth sciences, physics, finance, law and public policy the Lassonde Institute pioneers practical technologies. With world-class facilities, the Lassonde Institute provides unparalleled opportunities for students, researchers and the mining community and trains the future mining leaders of tomorrow.
Executive Director and CEO
Canada Mining Innovation Council
President, RethinkMining Ventures
Carl is a natural connector bringing together disparate and seemingly unrelated people, groups, and organizations to transform possibilities into plans and plans into action. The hallmark of Carl’s experience is collaboration and building innovation ecosystems to solve complex problems. As such, he provides strategic advice on partnerships, business development and intellectual property to organizations of all sizes.
His experience includes over 40 consortia comprised of more than 500 organizations from business, government, and academia, spanning industries from mining, software, microelectronics, cybersecurity, photonics, and aerospace and defence.
He has worked with organizations in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, South America, and Saudi Arabia.
Carl has won awards for breakthrough leadership and technology transfer and holds an M.Sc. from Carleton University and a B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo.
Director, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR)
& Sde Boker Campus
Hydrology Professor, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Professor Weisbrod earned his undergraduate (1990) and graduate degrees (MSc, with distinction: 1993; PhD: 1999) from the Department of Soil and Water Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1999 he joined the Department of Bioengineering (now Biological & Ecological Engineering), Oregon State University as a post-doctoral fellow. In 2002 he returned to Israel where he joined the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (ZIWR) at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR), Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).
During the summer of 2012, he held a Visiting Professorship at the Chinese Academy of Science, Chengdu. At Ben Gurion University, he has held numerous academic administration positions: from 2009 to 2015 he was the Head of the Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology at the ZIWR, and he also served as the Director of the Blaustein Center for Scientific Cooperation (2013-2015). In 2015 he was elected as the ZIWR Director and in 2018 he was elected as the BIDR Director.
Weisbrod has been supervised more than 50 graduate students and served in numerous committees and panels. He has been involved in various international missions and evaluation panels to assess local water realities, in places like Chile, Inner Mongolia, Namibia and the Galapagos Islands. He is a member of the steering committee for BGU – University of Chicago cooperation in Water Sciences, and the steering committee for “BusinessH2O – Water management best practices from USA and Israel”
Interim President and Vice-Chancellor
Provost and Vice-President Academic
Brock University
Dr. Lynn Wells is a Canadian scholar, teacher and university leader, with over fifteen years of experience in senior academic leadership positions.
Prior to being appointed as Provost and Vice-President Academic at Brock in July 2020, she served as Associate Vice-President, Students and Teaching at MacEwan University in Edmonton and held a number of senior positions at the University of Regina, including Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Associate Vice-President, Academic. For seven years, Dr. Wells supported the work of national reconciliation with Indigenous people through her service as Vice-President, Academic and Special Advisor to the President at First Nations University of Canada.
Dr. Wells is a respected scholar in her field of Contemporary British Fiction, having published two books and numerous articles. Her fields of scholarly interest include urban representations, literary ethics and surveillance studies. She has served on the Executive Committee of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature and as a Board member for the Canadian Federation for Humanities and Social Sciences.
Dr. Wells holds a Master’s in English and a BA Honours (summa cum laude) in English and French Studies, along with a PhD in English from Western University.
Dr. Kelly Whaley Martin is a senior geochemist at ERM in Toronto, ON, specializing in mining-impacted environments.
Her educational background includes a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto in the Mine, Water and Environment Research group, a PhD in Earth and Environmental Science from McMaster University, a MSc in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada and a BSc in Earth and Biological Sciences from Brock University.
Her technical expertise includes analysis of complex environmental geochemical datasets to draw out new insights and understanding and enhance water stewardship in the mining industry. She has conducted geochemical and genomic research for over 12 years specializing in contaminated environments to elucidate biogeochemical cycling and controls. To date she has authored over 11 publications in top-tiered scientific journals that includes studies focused on delineation of biogeochemical controls on water quality in legacy mining sites, active tailing impoundments and receiving waters.
Currently she works directly with the mining industry developing integration of state-of-the-art biogeochemistry approaches into on-site water monitoring, treatment and management.
Keith has enjoyed a highly successful career in open cut and underground mining spanning almost 4 decades. Keith has a continuous and deep involvement in mining innovation and the application of mathematical techniques to mine modelling and optimisation. Keith specialises in mine transformation and his expertise includes geological modelling, reserves evaluation, pit optimisation, mine design, equipment selection, mine scheduling, backfill design and planning, project costing and economics.
Keith holds a Master degree in Geostatistics and Resource classification that predates the JORC code. Keith has been a passionate early adopter of the use of cutting-edge technology in the mining industry. His first peer reviewed paper on the application of artificial intelligence in mining was presented at APCOM in 1996
Since 1985, Keith has been continuously involved in global Resource and Reserve estimation, across numerous commodities. For the past 30 years, Keith has authored reports that underpin over USD 15 Billion in transactions. He has stood as an expert witness on 3 continents and has realised order of magnitude transformations in mining projects all over the world.
Since 1999, Gerald has been the CEO of Whittle Consulting. In this role, Gerald undertakes optimisation studies and model design, business analysis, management reporting and client presentations. He conducts Strategic Assessments and Enterprise Optimisation studies for a range of major, midcap and junior mining companies. These studies have spanned almost all commodities, including pits and/or underground mining, complex minerals processing streams and marketing channels.
As a recognised thought leader on mining optimisation, prior to COVID, Gerald travelled the world delivering Whittle Consulting Integrated Strategic Planning seminars. Now migrated to an online format, the seminar challenges conventional thinking and bridges organisational silos. Gerald reveals the Whittle approach, showing how substantial opportunities for value enhancement for current or planned mining and minerals processing operations are created. A skilled communicator, Gerald brings together important lessons learnt in other industries including; Activity Based Costing, Theory of Constraints and sustainability considerations. His knowledge sheds new light on the unique challenges of business planning and optimisation for the minerals industry.
Gerald is an economist, management accountant, financial controller, finance director with over 40 years of international business experience in business planning, analysis and change management.
The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson was first elected as the Member of Parliament for North Vancouver in 2015. He has previously served as Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
Raised in Saskatchewan, Minister Wilkinson spent more than 20 years in the private sector, holding leadership positions with a number of companies dedicated to the development of green technologies.
Minister Wilkinson’s work as CEO of both QuestAir Technologies and the former BioteQ Environmental Technologies (now BQE Water), in addition to his role as Senior Vice-President of Business Development with Nexterra, provided him with extensive experience in the energy and environmental technology sectors. He also previously worked at Bain & Company, a leading global management consultancy.
A Rhodes scholar, Minister Wilkinson made use of his educational background in public policy when he worked as a constitutional negotiator and a federal-provincial relations specialist for former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow. He has served on several industry and charitable boards, including United Way of the Lower Mainland and the BC Technology Industry Association. He also served as a board member and treasurer of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation.
Minister Wilkinson has deep roots in North Vancouver, where he is raising his family alongside his wife, Tara.
Mike is a founding partner and the CEO of Cascadia Seaweed. Mike has had a long relationship with the sea. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he proudly served in the Royal Canadian Navy for over thirty years.
He had a number of shore-based, sea-going (under-sea) and overseas postings, culminating with three years as Commander of Canada’s west coast Naval Base.
In the last ten years, he has been an entrepreneur and leader of a number of marine oriented companies encompassing energy, security, education and the environment. Mike brings this experience, along with a BSc (Math/Physics) and an MBA, to his current role.
Professor & Canada Research Chair in
Biogeochemistry of Sustainable Mineral Resources
University of Alberta
Sasha is a Professor and the Canada Research Chair in Biogeochemistry of Sustainable Mineral Resources. She leads the EEGL in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta.
She is a mineralogist/biogeochemist whose work focuses on environmental aspects of economic geology and on chemical sedimentology.
She uses mineral behaviour, with a particular focus on crystal chemistry, to understand and manage environmental change in engineered and natural settings.
Her research employs fieldwork, analytical geochemistry and experiments in the field, laboratory and at synchrotron light sources.
Raziel Zisman is a Partner at Whittle Consulting and leads its Sustainable Governance Initiative.
Following a B.A. (Hons) in Economics & Development Studies from Sussex University, he earned master’s degrees in Economics and Environmental Studies from York University in Canada, as well as a J.D. (Juris Doctor) and LL.M. (Securities Law) from Osgoode Hall Law School.
After clerking at the Supreme Court of Canada, he practised corporate & securities law with a leading American law firm and major Canadian law firms, primarily on cross border financings and M & A in the mining and resources sectors.
He serves on the Board of the Canadian Council for the Americas (CCA) and on the Board of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), where he is also a member of its International Affairs Committee.
He is a member of the Ontario and New York bars. He is a former infantry Captain and a recipient of the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD).
Head
Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Dr. Ziv completed his undergraduate studies in the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel-Aviv University (1988) and earned his MSc in Ecology from Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev (1991), Israel.
He received his PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona (1998), USA. During his PhD studies and postdoctoral training at the University of New Mexico, USA, he specialized in community ecology, macroecology and conservation biology.
Dr. Ziv joined the faculty of BGU in 1988 and he is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Life Sciences, the Chairperson of BGU’s Green Campus Initiative and Head of the Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change.