Gordon J. Bogden
Chairman
Gordon Bogden has had a long career as a corporate director, senior executive, investment banker and geoscientist to the mining sector. He concluded his investment banking career in 2012 as Vice Chairman, Metals & Mining, of Standard Chartered Bank after the successful sale of Gryphon Partners Canada where he was a co-founder and Managing Partner. Mr. Bogden also held senior investment banking positions with National Bank Financial Inc., Beacon Group Advisors Ltd., Newcrest Capital Inc., N.M. Rothschild & Sons Canada and CIBC Wood Gundy Securities. He currently is a member of the board of Avanti Mining Inc., Camino Minerals Corp., NexGen Energy Ltd. (Chairman), Royal Gold, Inc., and is a member of the Foundation Board of Bridgepoint Active Healthcare in Toronto, serves as Royal Ontario Museum Ambassador, and in 2013 was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work as a member of Foundation Champions Board of Right To Play Canada.
Gordon holds a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Applied Science from Queen's University and earned professional certifications as a Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) and as a Corporate Director (ICD.D).
Kevin Bullock
President & CEO and Director
Kevin Bullock is a registered Professional Mining Engineer in the province of Ontario. Kevin is Volta's (formerly Goldcrest Resources Ltd.) founding President and has been CEO since its inception in 2003. Kevin has over 15 years experience, at senior levels, in mining exploration, mine development and mine operations. Mr. Bullock has a wide knowledge base in the mineral industry and has completed several exploration and mining projects, both in North America and abroad, including projects in Mexico, Sweden, and West Africa, where he was Iamgold Corporation Ltd's General Manager. Throughout his career, Kevin has been involved in projects from inception through exploration to development and production. Previously, he was VP Operations for Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. Kevin was instrumental in the reopening of the Macassa Gold Mine in Kirkland Lake, Ontario.
Victor King
Chief Operations Officer and Director
Mr. King holds a BSc. (Hons) in Geology from the University of Cape Town. He has more than 15 years of senior management experience in exploration, development and production in the gold mining industry in Africa. Mr. King's involvement in West Africa goes back to 1992, as a member of the initial Gold Fields management team for the Tarkwa Project in Ghana. As Exploration Manager, he led the exploration team which expanded the resource of a small state-owned underground gold mine to a large open pittable resource, leading to the development of the world class Tarkwa Mine, a core asset for Gold Fields today which has total Resources (including Reserves) exceeding 22 million ounces. Subsequently, Mr. King was Birim's first Chief Operating Officer based in Ghana for furher 5 years. Thereafter Mr. King rejoined Gold Fields Limited as Regional Exploration Manager for Africa with Gold Fields Limited from January 2001 to December 2006, where he was responsible for generating and managing exploration projects in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Tanzania, Eritrea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr. King is based in the UK.
Steven Poad
Chief Financial Officer & Corporate Secretary
Mr. Poad is a Chartered Accountant and has over 30 years of mining industry experience with a variety of companies including the Falconbridge Group, which is now part of Xstrata. His international experience includes involvement with operations in Africa, Europe, Asia and South America. Mr. Poad is the former CFO of Excellon Resources Inc., which has a high-grade silver mine in Mexico, Colossus Minerals Inc., which is developing the high-grade Serra Pelada gold project in Brazil, and High River Gold Mines Ltd., which operates gold mines in Burkina Faso in West Africa and Siberia in Russia. Mr. Poad holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree from McMaster University and became a chartered accountant in 1976.
Guy Franceschi
Vice President, Exploration
Guy Franceschi holds an M.Sc. in Applied Geology from the University of Ghent, Belgium. He has over 30 years of international experience in base- and precious metals exploration and project development in Africa, Europe, South-east Asia and Latin America. At the core of his experience is a 12 year career (1976-1988) with United Nations' development agencies which brought him in Burkina Faso (1976-1983), Kenya, Haïti and in Rwanda. In these projects he has been involved as exploration geologist, geochemist and chief geologist in gold, ferrous- and base metals exploration. During his career he has been instrumental in the discovery and initial development of a number of base- and precious metal deposits. These include (not exclusive) Perkoa (Burkina Faso, 7Mt @17.7% Zn), Kiere and Kwademen (Burkina Faso, gold), Wire Hill (Kenya, base metals), Dialafara (Mali, gold), Al Uweynat (Libya, gold) and Bleyberg (Belgium, >1Mt 13% Zn and 5% Pb). He has identified and recommended several available prospects which were subsequently developed by his clients, such as Larafella (Burkina Faso, now about 0.5Moz. gold), Hiré (Ivory Coast, now about 200.000oz. Au), Duc Bo (Viet Nam, VMS on-going) and several deposits in the D.R. Congo. Mr. Franceschi is a member of the European Federation of Geologists.
Alexandru Arhire
Vice President, Operations
Mr. Arhire's 29 years of professional experience highlights a proven track record of relevant technical and strategic international expertise. He holds a M.Sc. in Civil Engineering and is a member of the PEO and OIQ professional associations in Canada. He has been involved in both underground and open pit mining projects, having successfully completed engineering mandates, feasibility studies, site construction and construction management for several major mining firms including Placer Dome, Noranda, Falconbridge, Copper Rand, Agnico Eagle, Xstrata, Iamgold, Semafo and High River Gold. Mr. Arhire has extensive firsthand experience of African mining projects having held the position of Africa Manager of Mining Business for global engineering consultancy firm, Genivar. He has also been Business Development and General Director for several companies. Mr. Arhire will be based in Burkina Faso.
Dylan Pillay
Vice President, Finance & Administration
Dylan Pillay is a graduate of the University Durban-Westville in South Africa. He has in excess of 20 years of accounting/finance experience in the mining industry in both South Africa and Canada having worked for both senior and junior mining companies during that time. Prior to joining Volta, he held the position of Group Controller for South American operations at Kinross Gold Corporation. He has been employed by publicly traded companies such as Curragh Resources, Caledonia Mining Corporation and TVX Gold Inc. amongst others.
Rob Whittall
Director
Rob Whittall is a chartered accountant and a professional engineer (Queen's University, Mining) with over 25 years experience in the minerals industry. He has worked in senior management positions for a variety of exploration and operating mining companies, is a founder and director of Volta Resources Inc. and is also a director of First Nickel Inc.
Lew Lawrick
Director
Mr. Lawrick brings 20 years of experience in the merchant banking, mining exploration and brokerage businesses to Volta Resources as a Director. He is the Chairman of Anaconda Mining Inc., and a Co-founder and Partner of Raven Hill Partners Inc., a private merchant bank and investment firm focused principally on the natural resource sector. Mr. Lawrick is also a director of several public junior mining exploration and development companies; including., Serengeti Resources Inc., and Brionor Resources Inc.
Bob Francis
Director
Mr. Francis is a retired senior partner of the Toronto office of Deloitte & Touche LLP, having enjoyed an extensive career in public accounting, which included leading the Resource Sector Mining Group practice. Mr. Francis will serve as Chairman of the Volta audit committee. Mr. Francis obtained a BASc (Mech.Eng.) from the University of Toronto in 1968 and became a CA in 1972. Bob is a recent graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors -- Directors Education Program. He has served as a Member of the Board of Governors of the William Osler Health Centre for 12 years in various capacities including Vice Chair, Treasurer and Chair of the Operations Management Committee; and was formerly on the Board of the Etobicoke General Hospital as Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee. For the past year he served as an Honorary Member of the Board. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the William Osler Health Centre Foundation. He is a past President of the University of Waterloo Advisory Council, an organization established to bring advice from Canadian industry, business and government to the University in the continuing development of its education, research and administrative programs.
Alex Davidson
Director
Alex Davidson has over 30 years of international mining company experience in designing, building, implementing and managing gold and base metal exploration and acquisition programs throughout the world. Mr. Davidson currently consults to companies in the mining industry, prior to which he was Executive Vice President, Exploration and Corporate Development with responsibility for Barrick Gold's international exploration programs and Corporate Development activities. He joined Barrick in October 1993 as Vice President, Exploration with responsibility for the Company's expanding exploration program. Mr. Davidson initiated the expansion of Barrick Exploration out of North America and into Latin America, and then Africa and Asia and in doing so built one of the premier exploration groups in the world. On the corporate development side Mr. Davidson was instrumental in the acquisitions of Sutton Resources, Arequipa Resources, Pangea Goldfields, Homestake Mining and finally Placer Dome Ltd. Prior to joining Barrick, Mr. Davidson was Vice President, Exploration for Metall Mining Corporation.
In April 2005, Mr. Davidson was presented the 2005 A.O. Dufresne Award by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum to recognize exceptional achievement and distinguished contributions to mining exploration in Canada. In 2003, Mr. Davidson was named the Prospector of the Year by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada in recognition for his team's discovery of the Lagunas Norte Project in the Alto Chicama District, Peru. He has received his B.Sc. and his M.Sc. in Economic Geology from McGill University.
Raphaël Goama Zoungrana
Country Manager, Burkina Faso
Mr Zoungrana has 30 years of professional experience in business development and management. Mr. Zoungrana graduated from the "Ecole Nationale d'Administration et de la Magistrature du Burkina Faso" (the National School of Administration & Magistracy) in 1980. He spent the first part of his career in public administration in charge of administering several collectives throughout Burkina Faso. He has been involved with the mining industry since the early 1990s when as a consultant and/or representative of mining companies, he assisted several companies in developing their exploration activities, including acquisition of exploration licenses. Since 2002 he has been the local representative of Wentworth Resources Pty. Ltd., Goldcrest Resources Ltd. and, since 2008, Volta Resources Inc. and their local subsidiaries.
Sam Quarm
Financial Controller, West Africa
Sam Quarm is a Chartered Accountant with over 9 years experience in auditing, accounting and finance. Sam is a Director of Volta's Ghanaian subsidiaries, Birim Goldfields Ghana Ltd and Ebi Ghana Ltd. Sam was previously employed by PwC Assurance Service in Ghana. He has a BSc. (Hons) Degree from the University of Ghana majoring in Accounting. Sam also has an MBA in Finance from the University of Manchester (UK). Sam is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK) and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana).