Gold Forum Americas / XPL-DEV 2020

Jayant is constantly traveling the world to look for investment opportunities, particularly in the natural resource sector. He advises institutional investors about his finds. He was a Director on the board of Gold Canyon, a publicly-listed Canadian company, until its merger with another entity. Earlier, he worked for six years with US Global Investors (San Antonio, Texas), a boutique natural resource investment firm, and for one year with Casey Research. Before emigrating from India, he started and ran Indian subsidiary operations of two European companies.

Earlier, I was responsible for analyzing junior mining sector companies for one of the top natural resources funds, US Global Investors (San Antonio, Texas). In the course of 6 years with them, I analyzed over 800 exploration and mining companies, mostly listed on Canadian, American, Australian and London stock exchanges. I have traveled around the world looking at projects, giving me an intuitive sense for the metrics that underpin the value of a project. Earlier I worked for a year with Casey Research, an investment publication house, assisting in analyzing exploration companies.

As authorized principal and head of trading, Switzerland-based fund adviser and newsletter writer Björn Paffrath worked for a well-known assets manager in Germany and the United States from 2000 to 2005, where he was responsible for the precious metals and mining division. Since 2005 he has been involved with various precious metal and resource funds, which have received a number of awards. Together with his broad network, especially in Switzerland, he is financing projects and emerging producers. For several years he has been in the media as the gold and mining expert of sought-after business partners and stock commentators. In addition, he is cofounder and chief editor of the well-known, subscriber-based, financial and mining market letter, Cashkurs*Gold.

Frank Holmes is the CEO and chief investment officer of U.S. Global Investors. Mr. Holmes purchased a controlling interest in U.S. Global Investors in 1989 and became the firm’s chief investment officer in 1999. In 2006, Mr. Holmes was selected mining fund manager of the year by the Mining Journal, and in 2011 he was named a U.S. Metals and Mining "TopGun" by Brendan Wood International. In 2016, Mr. Holmes and portfolio manager Ralph Aldis received the award for Best Americas Based Fund Manager from the Mining Journal. He is also the co-author of The Goldwatcher: Demystifying Gold Investing. More than 30,000 subscribers follow his weekly commentary in the award-winning Investor Alert newsletter which is read in over 180 countries.

Under his guidance, the company’s mutual funds have received recognition from Lipper and Morningstar, two trusted independent financial authorities. In 2015, Mr. Holmes led the company into the exchange-traded fund (ETF) business with the launch of the U.S. Global Jets ETF, which invests in the global airline sector. In 2017, U.S. Global Investors made a strategic investment in HIVE Blockchain Technologies, listed in Toronto, and Mr. Holmes was appointed non-executive Chairman of the Board.

Mr. Holmes was awarded the Huron Medal of Distinction from Huron University College in 2013, his alma mater for the class of 1978. This award recognizes individuals whose life achievements set an example of excellence and reflect Huron’s arts and social sciences missions.

Mr. Holmes is a native of Toronto and is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He is a former president and chairman of the Toronto Society of the Investment Dealers Association.

Mr. Holmes is a much-sought-after keynote speaker at national and international investment conferences. He has spoken at the Investing in African Mining Indaba conference, the Denver Gold Group’s European Gold Forum and numerous Money Show events, sat on panels with prominent industry leaders including the editor of Barron’s and continues to be invited as a keynote speaker at conferences throughout the U.S., Canada and overseas.

Mr. Holmes is a regular commentator on the financial television networks CNBC, Bloomberg, BNN and Fox Business, and has been profiled by Fortune as well as The Financial Times. His thoughts on gold are captured each week on a program called Gold Game Film in collaboration with Kitco News and TheStreet.com. Mr. Holmes was also the feature spread in Barron’s during the commodity rally at the start of 2004. He is a regular contributor to Forbes, Business Insider, Seeking Alpha and Wall Street Journal’s Experts Corner.

John Reade joined the World Gold Council in February 2017 as Chief Market Strategist. John is responsible for producing strategy and developing insights on the gold market; leading our global dialogue by engaging with leading economists, academics, policy makers, fund managers and investors on gold; and leading our research team.

John has over 30 years’ experience in the gold industry and related fields, most recently as a partner and gold strategist with Paulson & Co for the past seven years. Prior to that, John worked as a precious metals strategist at UBS for 10 years; a gold equity analyst in South Africa for 5 years; and over 8 years held various positions in production and project evaluation in the gold division of Gencor, then a leading South African mining house.

John has a degree in Mining Engineering from the Royal School of Mines, a constituent of Imperial College, London.

Terry Heymann is CFO at the World Gold Council and has broad experience across the gold supply chain. Terry also oversees the World Gold Council’s work on standard-setting, including development of the Responsible Gold Mining Principles, The Conflict-Free Gold Standard and the Guidance Note on All-In Costs, all of which support increased transparency and integrity in the gold industry.

Prior to joining the World Gold Council, Terry was a Principal at Marakon Associates, a leading strategy consultancy, where he helped clients in several industries on strategic issues and new product development.

Michael Shellenberger is a Time Magazine "Hero of the Environment," Green Book Award winner, and the founder and president of Environmental Progress. He is author of the best-selling new book, "Apocalypse Never" (Harper Collins June 30, 2020), which has received strong pre-publication reviews from scientists and scholars including Harvard’s Steven Pinker, MIT climate scientist Kerry Emanuel, and the former CEO and Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy. “This may be the most important book on the environment ever written,” writes leading climate scientist Tom Wigley.

Michael has been called a “environmental guru,” “climate guru,” “North America’s leading public intellectual on clean energy,” and “high priest” of the environmental humanist movement for his writings and TED talks, which have been viewed over five million times.

Shellenberger advises policymakers around the world including in the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In January, 2020, Shellenberger testified before the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change invited Michael in 2019 to serve as an independent Expert Reviewer of its next Assessment Report.

Shellenberger has been a climate and environmental activist for over 30 years. He has helped save nuclear reactors around the world, from Illinois and New York to South Korea and Taiwan, thereby preventing an increase in air pollution equivalent to adding over 24 million cars to the road.

Michael is a leading environmental journalist who has broken major stories on Amazon deforestation; rising climate resilience; growing eco-anxiety; the U.S. government’s role in the fracking revolution; and climate change and California’s fires.

Graham Birch has a PhD in Mining Geology from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College.  He spent much of his early career as a mining equity analyst before switching to asset management in 1993.  He became head of the Natural Resources investment team at BlackRock in London where he had overall responsibility for some of the world’s largest precious metals equity mutual funds.  After leaving BlackRock in 2010, Graham joined the boards of two London listed precious metals companies; Petropavlovsk plc and Hochschild Mining plc (where he still serves).  He also joined the board of ETF Securities – a pioneer in the area of gold exchange traded funds.  In late 2019 Graham joined the Board of Sprott Inc, a leading Toronto based resources industry asset manager and gold ETF provider. Graham is based in Dorset, England and spends part of each summer helping with the harvest on his two commercial farms.  In July 2020, Graham’s first book was published – on the history of the metals in Britain’s coins.

Mr. Shayne McGuire is the Portfolio Manager of Emerging Markets and Gold Fund for Teacher Retirement System of Texas. He is the author of The Silver Bull Market. Previously, he was the senior analyst in Latin America for Deutsche Bank, Mexico City. Furthermore, he worked as the senior analyst in Latin America of ING Barings, where he was twice recognized as being among the top Latin American analysts by Institutional Investor. Was junior financial analyst of Afin Casa de Bolsa, and started out as journalist at The News (Mexico City English language daily newspaper.)

Mr. McGuire has an MBA in Finance and MA in History from The University of Texas at Austin, and BA majors in History & Political Economy from Fordham University.

Peter Marrone is the Executive Chairman of Yamana Gold Inc., which he founded in 2003. He has more than 35 years of mining, business, and capital markets experience. He has been on the boards of a number of public companies and has advised companies with a strong South American and North American presence. Prior to Yamana, Mr. Marrone was the head of investment banking at a major Canadian investment bank and before that practiced law in Toronto with a strong focus on corporate law, securities law, and international transactions.

Frank Giustra is a Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist who has made significant contributions in various industries. As President and CEO of the Fiore Group, he manages a diverse portfolio of assets and investments in natural resources, entertainment, and lifestyle companies. Giustra is known for his ability to build natural resource companies by accessing capital and engaging in creative deal-making.

One of his more recent projects is West Red Lake Gold (TSX.V: WRLG), a company focused on gold exploration and development in the Red Lake Gold District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada. He also served as the Chairman of Leagold Mining from 2016 to 2019, which was successfully merged to Equinox Gold (TSX: EQX), forming a significant gold-producing company operating in the Americas. Additionally, Giustra was the Chairman of Endeavour Financial from 2001 to 2007, where he acquired, grew, and divested numerous resource companies. Notably, he was founder Endeavour Mining, Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. (which later became Goldcorp), and Wheaton Precious Metals.

Earlier in his career, Giustra held executive positions at Yorkton Securities from 1980-1996. As CEO and Chairman, he played a key role in growing Yorkton Securities into a leading natural resource investment bank. He started his career Merrill Lynch.

Giustra's entrepreneurial success extends beyond the natural resource sector. In 1997, he founded Lionsgate Entertainment, which has become one of the world's largest independent film companies.

Beyond his business endeavors, Giustra is recognized for his philanthropic activities. He established The Giustra Foundation, a Canadian charity that supports initiatives focused on women and children, education, refugee resettlement. The foundation is a founding partner in the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative. Outside of Canada, his Giustra International Foundation seeds and supports organizations leading the way in conflict resolution and foreign policy.

In 2007, Giustra launched Acceso, a social business builder that addresses global poverty through entrepreneurial solutions, particularly in agribusinesses in Colombia, El Salvador, and Haiti.

In 2020, Giustra was appointed Co-Chair of the International Crisis Group, an independent, non-partisan organization that provides analysis and advice to policymakers on preventing and resolving deadly conflicts.

Due to his contributions and achievements, Frank Giustra has received several honors and awards, including the Order of Canada, the Order of British Columbia, and other distinguished accolades.

Mark Fellows has over 30 years experience, providing strategic advice on metal markets, exploration, development projects, operating mines and corporate development. Mark’s expertise includes asset evaluation, benchmarking and optimisation, and encompasses, geology, mining, ore processing, and mining finance. He has conducted investment appraisals of numerous companies, mining projects and mining sector services businesses.

Prior to co-founding Skarn, Mark led the metals & mining consulting business at SNL Financial.

His career started in 1987 as an exploration geologist with Anglo American Corporation in Southern Africa. He went on to work for junior diamond and gold explorers in West and East Africa. He subsequently spent 13 years at Brook Hunt & Associates Ltd (now Wood Mackenzie) where he held the position of Director with primary responsibility for bespoke consulting work. From 2009 Mark was Managing Director of GFMS Mine Economics Limited, a business co-founded with GFMS Limited, which was sold to Thomson Reuters in 2011.

Mark graduated from University of Liverpool with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Geology.

Geologist and resource company entrepreneur with over 46 years of experience in the international minerals and renewable energy industries. Founder and Chairman, Pan American Silver Corp., one of the world's leading silver producers, and Equinox Gold Corp., a major gold producer, he has also founded and divested a number of other public mineral resource companies including Alterra Power Corp., a clean power producer. Beaty is President of Sitka Foundation, one of Canada’s leading environmental foundations and Patron of Beaty Biodiversity Center, University of British Columbia. He is also Director of a number of environmental NGOs, including Panthera, the BC Parks Foundation and the Pacific Salmon Foundation. Former President, World Silver Institute, Washington DC. Fellow: Geological Association of Canada; Society of Economic Geologists; Canadian Institute of Mining; and Royal Canadian Geographic Society. He has received many awards and honours for business and philanthropic achievements, including the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame (2018), Order of Canada (2017) and Doctor of Laws honoris causa, University of British Columbia (2018).

Steve is CEO and Co-Founder of VRIFY, a technology platform being used by some of the world’s most prominent mining companies to communicate their value to investors with 3D models, virtual tours, and interactive presentation tools.

Prior to VRIFY, Steve was CEO of Integra Gold, a Quebec-focused resource exploration company, where he developed and then marketed with an app that showcased a virtual tour of their asset. He led the business from a $10M valuation in 2012 to a $590M acquisition in 2017. The Integra Gold Rush Challenge, a global million-dollar crowdsourcing competition, became the annual #DisruptMining challenge focused on bringing disruptive and exponential technologies to the mining sector.

Steve is also Chairman of Integra Resources and has twice been nominated as a finalist for the E&Y Entrepreneur Award in 2017 and 2019.