Western Lithium Corporation.
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Directors
John Macken, Non-Executive Chairman
John Macken has served on the Board since January, 2008. He also acted as President of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. between December 2003 and April 2012 and as Chief Executive Officer of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. between March 2006 and October 2010, focused on the development of the multi-billion dollar copper/gold Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia. Prior to Ivanhoe Mines, Mr. Macken was Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning at Freeport McMoran, where he was involved with the development and operations of the copper/gold Grasberg Mine in Indonesia for over a nineteen year period. He holds an engineering degree BA, BAI from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Jay Chmelauskas, Director, President & CEO
Jay Chmelauskas was most recently President and CEO of China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd. (formerly Jinshan Gold Mines). At China Gold, he led the company through a China-wide exploration program with the discovery of two gold deposits measuring over six million ounces of gold resources. Jay advanced the largest deposit (five million ounces) through funding, permitting, construction and commissioning to become one of China's largest open pit gold mines. The company was sold to China National Gold Corporation valuing the company in excess of US$450 million. Prior to China Gold, Mr. Chmelauskas held consulting engineering positions with Vancouver-based engineering consultant groups and also worked at one Placer Dome's largest open pit gold mines in Papua New Guinea. In addition to his considerable experience in the exploration, development and mining industry, Jay worked in the corporate development group with chemical manufacturer Methanex Corporation. His experience in both the chemical and mining industries is well suited to lead Western Lithium through the development, product marketing and production phases of its Kings Valley Lithium Project. Jay has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Geological Engineering from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Business Administration from Queen's University.
William Haldane, Director
William Haldane grew up in Ireland and worked for several major advertising agencies in New York before joining Russell Reynolds, then Heidrick & Struggles. In 1995, he founded and is the President of Haldane Diogenes, Inc., an executive recruiting company. Over the last 20 years, he has been very successful in senior level recruiting in mining around the world. His clients span the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Africa and Europe. William has Business and M.A. degrees from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
Terry Krepiakevich, Director
Terry Krepiakevich, has been a Senior Advisor to SouthGobi Resources Ltd. since July 2011, he is currenlty the Director of St. Augustine Gold & Copper Limited, a TSX-listed mineral resource company since October 2011. He served as Chief Financial Officer of SouthGobi from July 2006 to July 2011. He has been a Director of Alexco Resource Corp., a TSX-listed and NYSE-listed mineral resources company, since July 2009. He was previously the Chief Financial Officer of Extreme CCTV Inc., a formerly TSX-listed company (since acquired), from November 2000 to July 2006 and was also a Director from June 2001 to July 2006. Mr. Krepiakevich was the Chief Executive Officer and a Director of First Industrial Capital Corp. from September 1997 to March 2004. He was the Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Maynards Industries from July 1988 to June 2000.
Mr. Krepiakevich is a Chartered Accountant, certified by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia.
William M. Sheriff, Director
Previously, Bill co-founded and served as Director and Chairman of Energy Metals Corporation, which was acquired by Uranium One for $1.8 billion in 2007. He has previously served on the Boards of Evolving Gold Corp., Quincy Gold Corp., Midway Gold Corp., Eurasian Minerals Inc., Starcore International Mines, American Consolidated Minerals Corp. and Uranium One Inc. He was the founder and President of Platoro West Inc., where he was acknowledged as a leading precious metals prospect developer in the Western U.S. In addition he owns one of the largest privately held mining databases in the world. Bill has held various positions within the securities industry, received his BSc in Geology from Fort Lewis College, Colorado and his MSc from the University of Texas - El Paso in Mining Geology.
Management
Jay Chmelauskas, President & CEO
Jay Chmelauskas was most recently President and CEO of China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd. (formerly Jinshan Gold Mines) where he successfully managed and led the company during all phases of the commissioning of one of China's largest open pit gold mines. In addition to his considerable experience in the exploration, development and mining industry, including a large Placer Dome gold mine, Jay held a business analyst position with chemical manufacturer Methanex Corporation. His experience in both the chemical and mining industries is well suited to lead Western Lithium forward during the planned development, product marketing and production. Jay has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Geological Engineering from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Business Administration from Queen's University.
Silvio Bertolli, Senior Vice President, Project Development
Silvio Bertolli is a chemical engineer with over 37 years of experience in project management, process design and technology development in the chemicals, petrochemicals, mining and oil and gas industries. He leads Western Lithium’s engineering and development team, and has been involved with the Kings Valley Lithium Project since 2008.
Silvio has held various technical and executive positions at U.S. and international operating companies and major EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractors, such as the ENI Group of Companies, Agip SpA, Snamprogetti, Westinghouse Electrical, CF Chemicals and Washington Group International. His experience includes engineering design, construction and operations; project development; economic analysis; technology development; product marketing; project financing; and business development.
Dennis Bryan, P.E., Senior Vice President of Development
Dennis Bryan brings over 35 years of experience to Western Lithium from the industrial minerals industry. He has been involved in all aspects of the industrial minerals field including exploration, product marketing, mine development as well as expertise with mining laws concerning mining claims, National Environment Policy Act, permitting and reclamation at both the U.S. federal and Nevada state level. Dennis is the appointee of the Governor to the State of Nevada Commission on Mineral Resources, representing the small miner's interests including that of the industrial minerals industry. He has been actively associated with the Kings Valley Lithium Project since 2007 as Project Consultant prior to his appointment as Senior Vice President. Dennis holds a Bachelor of Science in Geological Engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and a Master of Science, Geology from the Mackay School of Mines, University of Nevada.
Eduard Epshtein, CA, Chief Financial Officer
Eduard Epshtein is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Diploma of Technology with Honours in Financial Management from the British Columbia Institute of Technology. He started his accounting career with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, specializing in providing audit and assurance services to medium to large public mining companies during which time he gained valuable exposure to the industry's best practices for governance, disclosure and accounting. Later he moved from auditing public practice to industry, becoming a corporate controller for a group of junior exploration companies where he managed the financial reporting and Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance for SEC registered companies. Eduard's previous experience also includes hands-on experience working with public companies on mergers and acquisitions, strategy, financings and IPOs. He currently also serves as a CFO for Concordia Resource Corporation.
Tracy Hansen, Vice President and Corporate Secretary
Tracy Hansen is a securities paralegal with over 16 years of experience in providing regulatory and management services to public and private companies, primarily in mining and resource development. She is also the Vice President and Corporate Secretary of Concordia Resource Corp. Most recently she was Vice President of Operations at Nexvu Capital Corp, a boutique venture capital company, and Vice President and Corporate Secretary of Bell Copper Corporation. Prior to this Mrs. Hansen worked with a number of exploration and development companies focused on uranium, copper, zinc and gold in Nevada, Canada and Mexico.
Advisors
Graham R. Thompson
Dr. Graham R. Thompson, Professor Emeritus of Geology at The University of Montana, specializes in Clay Mineralogy and Petrology. He is a leading expert on clays and the occurrence of clays in volcanic caldera environments, which form the basis of the Western Lithium Kings Valley lithium deposit. He has published more than 20 articles in major professional journals dealing with the mineralogy and petrology of clays over the course of a 40 year research career. Before pursuing an academic and research career, he worked as an exploration geologist for the Bear Creek Mining Corporation – the exploration arm of Kennecott. He is a member of the Geological Society of America and The Clay Minerals Society and has also co-authored 11 introductory geology textbooks.