Directors & Management

John C. Menzies: BSc (Hons), Chairman & CEO and Director

John Menzies holds a BSc.(Hons) in geology.  He has more than 25 years experience in the resource sector.  He was a senior geologist for Amax Inc. responsible for gold exploration in Western Australia from a base in Kalgoorlie.  As a consultant he advised companies on projects as diverse as gold, base metals, diamonds and  industrial minerals.  More recently he has focused on the financial aspects of the natural resources sectors and has been involved in the successful development of mining and energy projects internationally.  He has acted a director and executive of both Australian and Canadian listed companies and is a member of professional societies in Australia, North America and Europe.  

Christopher A. Serin: BSc. (Eng.), MBA - Chief Financial Officer and Director

Christopher Serin holds a BSc. in mining engineering and an MBA from Queen's University. He has more than 25 years international financial and corporate management experience mainly involved in natural resources projects throughout the Americas. Mr. Serin held a number of increasingly senior technical and financial positions with Aquitaine Company of Canada from 1978 to 1985 including Treasurer of its United States subsidiary where he was responsible for all financial aspects of the company; and Assistant Treasurer of Aquitaine responsible for the administration of  approximately US$2 Billion of long term debt. Among a number of executive positions in the minerals industry from 1986 to 1997, he was Chief Financial Officer for Royal Oak Mines from 1990 to 1994. During his tenure, the market capitalization increased from $35 million to more than $500 million and annual productive capacity increased from 200,000 to 500,000 ounces of gold. Mr. Serin was also responsible for the formation of Ouromias Minerals Inc. which was the leading gold exploration company focused on Brazil after that country's laws were changed to encourage foreign investment.

Dimitar Lazarov Dimitrov: BSc. (Eng.) Chief Geologist

Dimitar Dimitrov holds a BSc.(Eng.) in geological engineering from Sofia Mining-Geological University. He has more than 15 years experience in the minerals industry, mainly involved in metal prospecting and exploration. He was Chief Geologist for Geoengineering, a Bulgarian exploration and mining company. More recently he has held the position of senior geologist for international companies including Royal Gold Inc., Phelps Dodge Inc., and Silver and Baryte  SA. He was involved in regional reconnisance, project acquisition and exploration in Bulgaria, Greece and Russia. D Dimitrov brings a wealth of regional geological knowledge to the Company and has been closely involved in the targeting and acquisition of the Omax property portfolio.

Michael T. Mason: BS. Metallurgical Engineering, MBA - Director

Michael Mason holds a BS in metallurgical engineer from the University of Arizona and an MBA in finance from UCLA. He  has more than 35 years of experience managing major international firms.   Mr. Mason's career has included senior management positions with large producers of natural resources including Asarco, Inc. and St. Joe Minerals Company where he was responsible for design, project construction, financing, development, operations, and commercial management of productions from the raw material acquisition, custom processing through effective liquidation of final products. He has, for many years been a senior executive responsible for the creation, development, and management of successful international trading firms including Marc Rich AG, Pechiney Brandeis Ltd. and Metallgesellschaft AG which required the application of complex hedging and derivative structures and the implementation of effective risk management platforms and solutions.

Dr. Anthony Patriarco MD, PhD Physics, PhD Engineering

Dr. Patriarco is a recently retired physician and Associate Professor of Physics at a major US university. He was on staff at August Medical Center in Virginia. His professional degrees include an MD from Harvard Medical, a PhD in Physics from Harvard and a PhD in Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Patriarco is an individual investor with a longstanding interest in the natural resource sector.

Darren A. Steffes: MSc. Petroleum Geology - Director

Mr. Steffes has been associated with the oil and gas industry for 17 years and has successfully managed oil and gas operations, private corporation start-ups, public corporation start-ups, as well as corporate mergers with several companies in Alberta.  Mr. Steffes is currently Chief Geologist for Mustang Resources Inc., a TSX listed junior oil and gas company.  Prior to Mustang, Mr. Steffes was a Geologist/Project Leader at PanCanadian Petroleum from 1988-1993.  In 1993 Mr. Steffes became a founding shareholder and Exploration Manager for Post Energy Corporation, a Toronto Stock Exchange listed company.   Post Energy was sold to Ketch Energy Ltd. in 2001 for $157 MM.  In 1998 Mr. Steffes became a founding shareholder, officer, and director of Result Energy Inc., a publicly traded TSX corporation.  Originally a privately held Canadian corporation (Daybreak Energy), Result successfully raised over $5 million dollars privately for oil and gas exploration. Mr. Steffes has served as a consultant to several junior oil and gas companies including Cypress Energy Inc. (Senior Geologist: 1997-1999), and Omax Resources Limited (Exploration Manager: 1999-2001).  He is a registered Professional Geologist in Alberta and a member of several technical societies in North America.

Robert D. Waymouth: B. A.Sc. (Mechanical Engineering), M. Eng., - Director

Mr. Waymouth holds mechanical engineering degrees from the University of Windsor, a B. A.Sc., and an M. Eng., from the University of British Columbia. He has more than 30 years of technical and operational experience in the oil industry both in Canada and internationally. Mr. Waymouth's career was spent initially with Aquitaine Company of Canada and its successor Canterra Energy Ltd. where he held a number of increasingly senior positions. He was part of the teams that designed, built, started-up and operated the 200 mmcfd sour gas plant at Ram River, Alberta, and later did the reservoir simulations of the gas fields for this plant. After two years of offshore studies in Paris, he was transferred to Denver responsible for all production operations of Aquitaine's U.S. subsidiary. He was Manager of Canterra's offshore drilling activities on Canada's east coast and the resultant offshore development studies. Subsequently, as a Chief Engineer of A/O Samotlor PanCanadian Fracmaster Services, he was effectively operations vice-president of a Russian joint venture shipping 18,000 bopd. After three years as Production Manager of Montana Power's Canadian subsidiaries, where he was responsible for their Canadian production operations producing over 5,000 boepd, he has recently been a petroleum consultant in Calgary for a number of smaller oil and gas companies.