Michael Newbury - Chairman

Michael Newbury has 40 years experience in the financial and natural resource sector.  Since 1993, Mr. Newbury has been an independent consultant providing financial advisory services in the natural resources industries to assist companies structure joint ventures, evaluate projects and companies and to structure and arrange financing for mining projects. Mr. Newbury is the President, CEO and director of the Corporation and is a director of Hawk Precious Minerals Inc. He also has expertise in corporate structuring, mergers and acquisitions, project evaluation and project financing.  Mr. Newbury has a B.Sc. from Queen’s University and a M.Sc. from McGill University as well as Ph.D. studies in resource industry economics at McGill.  He is a professional engineer in Ontario and a member of CIMM.

Maurice Stekel - Director

Maurice Stekel became a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1958. He was honoured to be elected by the Council of The Institute as a “Life Member” in November 2003. He was a founding and senior partner in the firm of Birnbaum, Prenick, Stekel & Co., Chartered Accountants. Founded in 1965, their firm was ranked 23rd on the “Bottom Line’s Top 30” list in 1991. On June 1, 1993, Mr. Stekel changed his status to “retired partner”. He is continuing his consulting under the auspices of his company Mo-Kar Holdings Inc.  Since 1971 he has been a licensed mortgage broker and is president of BPS Management Limited.  Throughout Mr. Stekel’s career, he has been extremely involved in various aspects of the mining industry. Also, since 1963, he has been appointed to hold directorships in numerous mining companies. In addition, he has and continues to hold directorships in various other corporations.

William Potter - Director

William Potter is an investment banker with over 30 years of experience.  Mr. Potter has a BA from Colgate University and a MBA from Harvard. Mr. Potter has held various senior positions with several bank and financial institutions including White, Weld & Co., Inc. and Toronto Dominion Bank in Toronto and New York and Barclays Bank PLC. He served as President of Ridgewood Capital Funding Inc. from 1989-2004.  Mr. Potter is currently the Chairman of R. Meredith & Co., Inc. in New York City.  Mr. Potter currently serves as a director for numerous companies including National Foreign Trade Council Inc. (Executive committee/finance chairman), Aberdeen Asia Pacific Income Company Limited, Aberdeen Asia Pacific Income Fund Inc., Aberdeen Australasia Fund Inc. and Aberdeen First Commonwealth Fund Inc. He also serves on the boards of Alexandria Bancorp Ltd., ECPower Inc., Power Air Corporation Inc., Voicenet Inc. and New Congo Resource Development Inc. Mr. Potter is also a member of the advisory board of the National Cancer Research Council and the GR Educational Foundation.  Mr. Potter has his Series 24, 63, 7 Licenses from the NASD/SEC and is Officers & Directors Certification from the OSC. Mr. Potter is also a Designated Financial Expert for Sarbanes-Oxley in the United States. 

John Cerenzia - Director

John Cerenzia has experience with small capitalization companies and junior resource issuers, as a former director of Helix Ventures Inc. an oil and gas development and exploration company with properties in Alberta and Saskatchewan, as a former director of YSV Ventures Inc., a company conducting mineral exploration in Ontario and as a former director of Richview Resources Inc., a mineral exploration and development company with properties in Northern Ontario.  Mr. Cerenzia is currently a director of Kent Exploration Inc. and Talware Networx Inc.   He has served as consultant to other public companies and was formerly a Systems Business Analyst with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, where he worked for 32 years.

James S. Hershaw - Director

James Hershaw has 29 years of experience with natural resource development, investment management and investment banking.  Mr Hershaw has a B.Sc. (Mining Engineering) from Queen’s University, a MBA (Finance) from the University of Alberta and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.  Senior positions have been held with Syncrude, Bank of Nova Scotia, Imperial Oil, Nesbitt Burns, Dynamic Funds, and Yorkton Securities.  He has been a senior officer, director and portfolio manager for Lion Funds, a registered investment fund company with two technology and one natural resource mutual funds that was owned by Yorkton Securities. Mr Hershaw is the Managing Director of WATT Capital and CEO and Director of the WATT Energy LP(s), SEDAR registered, flow through limited partnerships that invest in private equity oil and gas exploration companies.  He is the President and CEO of Hershaw & Associates Investment Counsel, which is registered with the Ontario Securities Commission as an investment counsel, portfolio manager and limited market dealer.  Mr. Hershaw has completed numerous courses and registrations to provide experience as an officer and director of a public company.   

David Ashworth - Director

David Ashworth has 29 years experience in a wide variety of industries from oil and gas, furniture manufacturing, computer peripherals, food service and retail, both in the public and private sectors.  He received his CMA designation in 1993 and has has held senior accounting and Controllership positions in each of these sectors in addition to his own start up companies. He has been a board member of several private corporations and is currently CFO and a board member of a privately held biotech R&D company based in Toronto. He recently became a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors and is pursuing the ICD.D designation.