BOARD & MANAGEMENT
Chairman, Australian Mladen Ninkov, Chairman, Australian, holds a Masters of Law Degree from Trinity Hall, Cambridge and Bachelor of Laws (with Honours) and Bachelor of Jurisprudence Degree from the University of Western Australia. He is the principal of Keynes Capital. He has a mining, legal, fund management and investment banking background and is admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. He was the Chairman and Managing Director of the Dragon Capital Funds management group, a director and Head of International Corporate Finance at ANZ Grindlays Bank Plc in London, and a Vice President of Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. in New York. He also worked at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in New York and Freehill Hollingdale & Page in Australia. He has been chairman and director of a number of both public and private mining companies. Finance Director, British Roger Goodwin, Finance Director, British, is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He has been with the Company since 1996 having previously held senior positions in a number of public and private companies within the natural resources sector. He has a strong professional background, including that as a manager with KPMG, with considerable public company and corporate finance experience and experience of emerging markets. Non-executive Director, USA Adam Usdan, Non-executive Director, USA, holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University with majors in Finance, Marketing, and Accounting, and a BA in English from Wesleyan University. He is the President of Trellus Management Company LLC, an equity hedge fund based in the USA. Mr Usdan founded Trellus Management in January 1994 and has been in the investment advisory industry for over 30 years. Mr Usdan began his investment career in 1987 at Odyssey Partners where he was responsible for managing long/short U.S. equity (small to mid-cap) pools of capital. Senior Non-executive Director, BRITISH Clive Whiley, Senior Non-executive Director, British, has forty years’ experience in regulated strategic management positions since becoming a Member of the London Stock Exchange in 1983. He has extensive main board director experience across a broad range of financial services, engineering, manufacturing, distribution, leisure, retail, media and mining businesses: encompassing the UK, Europe, North America, Australasia, the Middle East, Africa and the People’s Republic of China. Mr Whiley is currently Chairman of Mothercare Plc and STV Group PLC and Senior Independent Non-Executive Director of Mpac Group plc, Chairman of China Venture Capital Management Limited, First China Venture Capital Limited and Y-LEE Limited. Formerly Chairman of De La Rue plc and Dignity plc and a Non-Executive Director of Sportech PLC, Grand Harbour Marina plc and Stanley Gibbons Group plc. Non-executive Director, BRITISH Dean Moore, Non-executive Director, British, is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales with extensive public company experience having previously been Chief Financial Officer of N Brown Group plc, T&S Stores PLC and Graham Group plc; Interim Chief Financial Officer of Cineworld Group plc, De La Rue plc (having been an independent non-executive director upon appointment) and Dignity plc; senior independent director of Cineworld Group plc and Volex plc; and a non-executive chair of Tuxedo Money Solutions Limited. Dean is currently a non-executive director of THG Plc where he chairs the Audit and Remuneration Committees. Independent non-executive Director, British Linda Naylor, Independent non-executive Director, British, is a graduate of the London School of Economics and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. A former partner in Grant Thornton UK LLP, her experience has been gained over more than twenty years working as a Nominated Adviser in the Capital Markets team and as an Audit Partner specialising in the natural resource sector. She was Chair of the Audit Committee whilst a Governor of Portsmouth University. As Finance Director of AIM listed Chaarat Gold Holdings Limited from 2009 to 2018, she worked as part of a small executive team. Her responsibilities encompassed financial reporting, investor relations and fund raising as that company transitioned from gold explorer to developer in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Mladen Ninkov
Roger Goodwin
Adam Usdan
Clive Whiley
Dean Moore
Linda Naylor
Director of Hebei Hua Ao and CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, AUSTRALIAN John Steel, Director of Hebei Hua Ao and Chief Operating Officer, Australian, is a graduate Mining Engineer from the Ballarat School of Mines and holds a Master of Business Administration from Deakin University. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. John has extensive global mining experience including over a decade of in site operational expertise with tier one companies in Australia, Canada (Xstrata Mining PLC) and the Middle East (Barrick Gold Corporation). John also has extensive supplier side experience holding country Managing Director positions in Norway (EPC Groupe) as well as General Manager positions with several explosive and technology service providers within Australia Director of Hebei Hua-Ao, Canadian Dal Brynelsen, Director of Hebei Hua-Ao, Canadian, is a graduate of the University of British Columbia in Urban Land Economics. Mr. Brynelsen has been involved in the resource industry for over 40 years. He has been responsible for the discovery, development and operation of several underground gold mines during his career. Chartered Management Accountant, British Shirley Tsang, British, is a Chartered Management Accountant (United Kingdom) and a CPA (Hong Kong & Australia). She holds a MBA (Finance) from the City University Business School, United Kingdom. She started her career as an auditor with Ernst & Whinney, and moved on to business advisory practice for international clients with Arthur Young. She had witnessed the global merger of Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young, forming Ernst & Young in 1990 and sale of business in 2002 and 2017 respectively, of the Tricor Group. She was head of the China and Hong Kong business advisory practice from 2003 to 2017 in the Tricor Group. She has considerable experience in corporate restructuring for international clients, and best practice in corporate governance. She is currently Managing Director of SEAJA Consultancy Limited. Chief Financial Officer of Hebei Hua Ao, CHINA Wendy Zhang, Chief Financial Officer, Hebei Hua Ao, holds a Master of Accounting degree from Macquarie University, is a member of the Certified Practising Accountants of Australia and is a qualified member of the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She spent 4 years as Financial Controller for Golden Tiger Mining’s joint venture operations in China. Previously she was Chief Accountant for Shanghai Silk Group and subsequently Ann Taylor Shanghai. Strategic Planning Manager Dominic Varley, Strategic Planning Manager, China Zinc Ltd, is a Mining Engineer holding a BEng from the University of New South Wales and Graduate Certificate in Mining Finance from Kaplan University. He has worked in China since 2018, focusing on Mine Planning, Mining Operations and Asset Valuation. Prior to joining China Zinc Ltd, he was a Senior Engineer for Shandong Gold, working on a range of international transactions, construction projects and mining operations for China’s largest gold producer. Prior to that he was a Senior Engineer at MEC Mining Consultants and Senior Engineer for Thiess Mining. Geology Manager Paul Benson, Geology Manager, Hebei Hua Ao, is a graduate of Curtain University of Western Australia with over 30 years’ experience covering mining geology, mine management, corporate roles, project development, project evaluation and exploration management. His career has taken him across Australia and Asia to a diverse range of projects across precious, base and specialty metals, agriminerals and uranium. Prior to joining Griffin in 2016 Paul held a number of senior operational and consultancy roles including CEO of Aragon Resources.
John Steel
Dal Brynelsen
Shirley Tsang
Wendy Zhang
Dominic Varley
Paul Benson
