Robert Hersov

Chairman and Independent Director

Robert Hersov, our Chairman, is a South African and an international entrepreneur and private investor based in Cape Town. He has served as the chairman of London-based Alternative Capital, a global family office investment and advisory business, which he founded in 2018. Mr. Hersov also founded and served on the board of directors, private and public, of a number of companies, and owns businesses in the aviation, resource, media/marketing and finance sectors. He has founded and served as chairman of Invest Africa since 2013, the chairman of African Capital Investments which he founded in 2014, and Advisor to the Chairman of VistaJet since 2009. Mr. Hersov received a Bachelor in Business (with honors) from the University of Cape Town and an MBA from Harvard University. 

Christopher Chadwick

Chief Executive Officer and Director

Christopher Chadwick, our Chief Executive Officer and director, has served as the founder and Chief Executive Officer of African Axis (Pty) Ltd, an advisory company to the resource industry since 2012. From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Chadwick served as the Chief Executive Officer of Gold One International (Pty) Limited. Prior to that, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of Gold One International (Pty) Limited from 2007 to 2012. During his tenure with Gold One International, Mr. Chadwick led the development and commissioning of Gold One International’s Modder East mine in 2009. Mr. Chadwick previously co-founded Sibanye-Stillwater Limited (JSE: SSW and NYSE: SBSW), the eighth largest gold company internationally and the largest gold producer in South Africa and one of the world’s leading palladium and platinum producers. He was instrumental to Sibanye’s acquisition of Stillwater Mining Company in 2017, which had an enterprise value $2.2 billion at the time of the transaction. Mr. Chadwick received a Bachelor of Accountancy from University of South Africa, as well as a Bachelor of Accountancy (with honors) CTA from University of South Africa and passed the CA (SA) for the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants. 

Carl Pombar

Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Pombar has been the CEO and CFO of a number of companies over the past 25+ years. Mr. Pombar is currently Founding Principal of Octane Consulting LLC, a CFO consultancy company he has led for the past 10+ years. During that time, Mr. Pombar has been consulting/interim CFO to a number of high-growth stage companies. Prior to his involvement with the Company, Mr. Pombar was CFO of VCV Digital Technology, Inc. a cryptocurrency/Web3.0 company where he led, among other initiatives, that company’s S-4 SEC filing to combine with a public SPAC company. Prior to his founding of Octane Consulting, Mr. Pombar was CEO of ArcScan, an earlystage medical device company and prior to that was a Director of M&A at Topcon, a public technology company. Mr. Pombar started his career at Citibank and later worked at Société Générale in their corporate and investment banking divisions, conducting credit analysis, financial modeling and deal structuring. Mr. Pombar has served on the Board of Directors of various early-stage companies and has been involved with various startup ventures as a founder, investor or as part of the management team. He also has experience as an adjunct finance professor at The Globe Institute of Technology in New York City. Mr. Pombar has his Masters in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business and received his Bachelors Degree from Bucknell University.

Bradley Doig

Independent Director

Bradley Doig, one of our directors, has over 30 years of operational, mining, corporate finance and business development experience. He co-founded Petmin Limited, an anthracite producer based on South Africa, in 2005 and has served as Chief Operating Officer and executive director of Petmin Limited since February 2006. Mr. Doig is also currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Petmin USA Inc., leading the Company’s capital raising for the construction of a high-grade nodular pig iron facility in Ashtabula, Ohio. He previously founded and served as Chief Investment Officer and executive director of Decorum Capital Partners, the fund manager for the New Africa Mining Fund, South Africa’s first private equity fund specializing in the junior mining sector from 2001 to 2006. Prior to that, Mr. Doig held various roles at Samancor Ltd, a subsidiary of Billiton Ltd. (now BHP) from 1992 to 2002. Mr. Doig holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Natal and a Higher Diploma in Company Law from the University of the Witwatersrand. He also completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University Business School. 

Koosum Kalyan

Independent Director

Koosum Kalyan, one of our directors, is a South African businesswoman. She has served as a Senior Business Development Advisor for Shell International in London from 2000 to 2019. Prior to that, she served as GM Executive for Shell Southern Africa from 1989 to 2000. She also serves on the Boards and International Advisory Councils of Aker Solutions in Norway, Gardaworld in Canada, Anglo-American Mining, and Norwegian African Business Association in Norway, Invest Africa and Thabo Mbeki Foundation. Ms. Kalyan holds a Bachelor of Laws and Economics degrees from the University of Durban Westville and completed the Senior Executive Management Program at London Business School and a Leadership Management Program at Shell Leadership Institute. 

Zolani Kgosietsile Matthews

Independent Director