Board of directors

Tenure

Steven McTiernan was appointed to the Board in March 2013. He is Chairman of the Board.

Nationality

United Kingdom

Experience

Steven has over 45 years of diverse natural resources industry and investment banking experience with Amoco, BP, NatWest Markets, CIBC and the Chase Manhattan Bank where he was Senior Vice President. He served as Senior Independent Director at Tullow Oil plc and was a Non-Executive Director of that company for eleven years until January 2013, was an Independent Director at First Quantum Minerals Ltd until June 2012, and was an Independent Director at Songa Offshore SE until January 2014.

Skills

He received an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

External appointments

Steven serves as Non-Executive Chairman of Hurricane Energy plc.

Tenure

Michael Carvill has been the Managing Director of Kenmare since 1986.

Nationality

Northern Ireland

Experience

He worked as a contracts engineer in Algeria and as a project engineer at Tara Mines, Ireland.

Skills

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers of Ireland (FIEI). He holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering (Queen’s University, Belfast) and an MBA (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania).

External appointments

Michael is a Director of Vico Camperdown Ltd and Merindol Ltd.

Tenure

Tony McCluskey has worked with Kenmare since 1991.

Nationality

Ireland

Experience

He was originally appointed as Company Secretary and Financial Controller, before becoming Financial Director in 1999. Before joining Kenmare, he worked for a number of years with Deloitte as a senior manager in Dublin and also worked overseas.

Skills

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Cork and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Tenure

Peter Bacchus was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in March 2017 and is the Senior Independent Director. He is Chairman of the Nominations Commitee and a member of the Audit & Risk and Remuneration Committees.

Nationality

United Kingdom

Experience

Peter Bacchus is the Chairman and Chief Executive of Bacchus Capital Advisers Ltd, an independent investment banking boutique, based in London. Prior to establishing Bacchus Capital, he served as European Head of Investment Banking at US investment bank Jefferies, Global Head of Mining & Metals at Morgan Stanley, and Head of Investment Banking, Industrials and Natural Resources at Citigroup, in Asia and Australia. Mr. Bacchus has over 20 years’ experience in investment banking, with a focus on the global natural resources sector and has, over this period, led a number of transformational transactions in the industry.

Skills

He is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England & Wales, and holds an MA in Economics from Cambridge University, United Kingdom.

External appointments

Peter is a Non-Executive Director of US and South African-listed Gold Fields and Australian-listed Galaxy Resources.

Tenure

Elaine Dorward-King was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in November 2019. She is the Chair of the Sustainability Committee and is a member of the Nominations Committee.

Nationality

United States of America

Experience

Elaine Dorward-King has over 30 years’ experience in the mining, chemicals and engineering industries, including the mineral sands sector. Since March 2013 she has served as Executive Vice President of Sustainability and External Relations for Newmont Goldcorp, the world’s leading gold mining company. Prior to that, she worked from 1992 to 2013 for Rio Tinto, holding positions including Global Head of Health, Safety and Environment, and Managing Director of Richards Bay Minerals in South Africa, a mineral sands mining and beneficiation company and a subsidiary of Rio Tinto.

Skills

Elaine Dorward-King holds a Bachelor of Science, magna cum laude, from Maryville College, Tennessee and a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Colorado State University.

External appointments

Elaine sits on the Board of NASDAQ-listed Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation, CSE-listed Bond Resources Inc., JSE and NYSE-listed Sibanye Stillwater Ltd., and NYSE and TSX-listed Novagold Resources Inc.

Tenure

Clever Fonseca was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in June 2018. He is a member of the Sustainability Committee and the Audit & Risk Committee.

Nationality

Brazil

Experience

Clever Fonseca has worked in the titanium industry for over thirty five years and has extensive knowledge and board-level management experience of mineral sands mining. He has experience of working in the titanium pigment and feedstock industries. He was responsible for developing Brazil’s only dredge-mined mineral sands operation, was Vice President of Global Supply and Mining for Millennium Inorganic Chemicals (now Cristal Global) in the US, and also served as Executive Director of Mineral Deposits Limited in Melbourne. Most recently, he was Chief Executive of TiZir Limited, where he was responsible both for the development of the Grand Côte mineral sands mine in Senegal, and its integration with the TTI smelter at Tyssedal, to form TiZir. He retired from TiZir in 2012.

Skills

He has a BSc in Mining Engineering from Universidade Federal De Pernambuco, and an MBA from Fundacao Getulio Vargas, both in Brazil.

Tenure

Graham Martin was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in October 2016. He is Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Nominations Committee and the Sustainability Committee.

Nationality

United Kingdom

Experience

He is an experienced natural resources executive and brings a wealth of relevant expertise having served as an Executive Director, General Counsel and Company Secretary at Tullow Oil plc, an oil and gas exploration and production company listed on the London, Irish and Ghanaian Stock Exchanges. From 1997 until 2016, he was heavily involved in the growth of Tullow into a FTSE 100 business, and in the company’s active M&A programme, including the US$2.9 billion disposal of assets in Uganda. Prior to Tullow, he was a partner at the US energy law firm Vinson & Elkins LLP, having started his legal career in Scotland.

External Appointments

Graham is Non-Executive Chairman of United Oil & Gas plc, an AIM listed oil and gas company.

Tenure

Sameer Oundhakar was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in March 2021.

Nationality

United Kingdom

Experience

Mr. Oundhakar is a Senior Manager in the Diversified Private Equity Investments department of OIA (Oman Investment Authority), having joined in 2018. He has extensive Private Equity experience across industry sectors and geographies.

Skills

He has a Bachelor’s degree with distinction in Mechanical Engineering from VJTI Mumbai, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow and an MBA from INSEAD.

Tenure

Gabriel Smith was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in March 2013 and is Chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Remuneration and Nomination Committees.

Nationality

Norway

Experience

Gabriel Smith is a private investor. He has been on several boards of companies in different industries. He began his career as a loan officer at Citibank London. He was Managing Director of a technical trading company, before joining Tinfos, a Norwegian silicomanganese, pig iron and titanium dioxide producer, as Chief Executive Officer from 1990 to 2007. From 2003 to 2006 he also held the position of Chairman of Pan Fish ASA and from 2007 to 2009 he held the position of Chairman of Lighthouse Caledonia, both public companies in the seafood sector. He sits on the Board of Tinfos, now restructured as a hydro company, and in 2015 he joined the Board of ECO Energi, one of the largest Norwegian hydro power companies.

Skills

He received his undergraduate degree in Economics from Dartmouth College and has an MBA from Amos Tuck School in the US.

External appointments

Gabriel sits on the Board of Tinfos, a privately held hydropower company.

Tenure

Deirdre Somers was appointed to the Board in August 2020. She is a member of the Audit & Risk Committee.

Nationality

Ireland

Experience

Deirdre has over 20 years’ experience in senior management positions, having served as Chief Executive of the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) from 2007 to 2018 and, prior to that, as its Director of Listing. She led the ISE’s transformation to a highly profitable entity with global specialisms culminating in its sale in March 2018 to Euronext NV. She also held the position of President and Board Chair of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges from 2015 to 2018.

Skills

Deirdre is a qualified Chartered Accountant and she worked with KPMG for 8 years. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Cork.

External

Since April 2019, Deirdre has acted as an Independent Non-Executive Director of the following investment entities, all of which are listed on the London Stock Exchange: iShares plc, iShares II plc, iShares III plc, iShares IV plc, iShares V plc, iShares VI plc and iShares VII plc. She also serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director for BlackRock Institutional Pooled Funds plc and Institutional Cash Series plc, both of which are listed on Euronext Dublin, and M&G General Partner Inc and Episode Inc., which is quoted on Euronext Dublin.