Advisory Board
Martin Gallagher
Advisor
Mr. Gallagher has extensive experience as an analyst and investment professional gained in a variety of investment banking and project evaluation roles, including the resource sector. He holds a BSc. in Financial Economics from Birkbeck College, University of London (1993).
Between 1988 and 2000, Martin worked for a variety of US banks, mainly as a credit and project analyst. From 2001 to 2007, he worked at Dresdner Kleinwort, initially with a focus on high-yield, special situations and distressed investments and finally, serving as Managing Director and Head of Emerging Markets Proprietary Trading, responsible for deploying the bank’s capital across different markets and sectors .
Martin is currently a partner of Brave Partners LLP, a London-based advisory firm, which is active in the insurance, clean energy/storage and natural resource sectors. He provides advice to investors in junior mining, as well as capital raising and related services.
Bernard Lapointe
Advisor
Bernard Lapointe has extensive experience in the resource sector. He holds a B.A. in geology from the University of Québec (Montreal; 1980), a Masters degree in structural geology from the University of Québec (Chicoutimi), and a Ph.D. in mineral resources from the University of Québec (Chicoutimi).
He founded Arianne Resources (now named Arianne Phosphate TSX-V: DAN) in 1997 and acted as CEO until 2013. Arianne Phosphate is developing the biggest Greenfield igneous phosphate project in the world. Prior to Arianne, he served as director of the Saguenay-Lac- St-Jean Mining Fund and also acted as a geochemist analyst for the University of Québec at Chicoutimi.
Bernard is now a semi-retired geologist, consultant and a private investor. He is lecturer at the University of Québec at Chicoutimi in Exploration Financing. He recently attended in Germany a short course on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering.
Gary Sosenko
Advisor
For the past 40 years Mr. Sosenko has been intimately involved with the industrial minerals industry, serving in a number of key senior management positions over that time. Gary first started out in sales with J.M. Huber Corporation’s Calcium Carbonate Division, before it became part of Huber Engineered Materials. While at Huber, Mr. Sosenko managed a $20 million territory that included Texas, Louisiana, and parts of the Midwest United States. In addition, Gary was also instrumental in finding and developing products for the plastics-polyester industries based on the unique properties of limestone sourced from Jamaica.
After leaving Huber, Gary then founded Advanced Minerals Technology (AMT) in 1993 and served as its President. AMT is focused on helping companies market their mineral-based and recycled by-products and works with all major industrial minerals including calcium carbonate, talc, mica, clay, silica, feldspar and wollastonite. Some of the more notable companies AMT has worked with over the past 25 years include large North American industrial minerals and construction materials firms such as Vulcan Materials, Powdermet, Protech Industries, Chemical Lime and Lafarge among others.
David M Blackwood
Advisor
Mr. Blackwood has a strong educational, medical research and business background, with specific business expertise derived from over 15 years of working in the legal medical and recreational cannabis markets. David has pioneered operations in the Colorado, Oregon and Oklahoma markets which has allowed for a unique perspective on industry innovations, growth and strategy.
David’s experience encompasses the operation of an FDA compliant processing laboratory for the production of dietary supplements, CBD Hemp and THC extracts, as well as operating cannabis production facilities in all of the previously mentioned states. From 87,000 sq ft indoor facilities to light deprivation greenhouses and field production, David has operated at all scales of commercial production. This extensive experience has led to a level of expertise that has allowed David to pursue numerous consulting opportunities within the cannabis and industrial hemp marketplace, building relationships with vendors and distributors across North America.
Mr. Blackwood is also a doctoral candidate and is nationally board certified in Integrative Medicine and licensed to practice in the State of Colorado. David’s endeavors into the cannabis marketplace have solely been to enhance his understanding of the cultivation and development of the plant, so that with that knowledge and understanding the next evolution in plant-based medicinals may be brought to the forefront of medical science and community well-being.
Raphael Gaudreault
Advisor
Mr. Gaudreault is part of the senior management team at Arianne Phosphate Inc. (Arianne), and currently serves as Arianne’s Chief Operating Officer. Previous to his role at Arianne, Raphael served as the Mine Optimization Specialist at IAMGOLD Corporation.
Mr. Gaudreault graduated from Laval University with a degree in Mining Engineering (2004) and a certificate in Business Administration from Mount Saint Vincent University (2005). Throughout his career, Mr. Gaudreault has held operational positions focused primarily on open pit mine development and optimization. Previous to his role at IAMGOLD, Raphael worked on two expansions of ArcelorMittal’s Mont-Wright operation. Mr. Gaudreault is a member of the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec and came to Arianne Phosphate Inc. with extensive knowledge of Arianne’s Lac à Paul phosphate mining project in Quebec, having previously worked at Arianne as its Mining Director.
Mr. Gaudreault is also currently acting as a technical advisor for Quebec Iron Ore and is providing consulting services for IAMGOLD’s Corporate Office as well as their Westwood and Côté Gold mines. Finally, Raphael is also one of the co-founders and Director of Engineering at Airth.io.
Sheldon Inwentash
Advisor
Mr. Inwentash is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of ThreeD Capital Inc., and he has more than 30 years of in-depth investing experience. Sheldon co-founded Visible Genetics, the first commercial pharmacogenomics company, in 1994 and exited in 2001 to Bayer. Through two decades leading Pinetree Capital, Mr. Inwentash created significant shareholder value through early investments in Queenston Mining (acquired by Osisko Mining Corp. for $550-million), Aurelian Resources (acquired by Kinross for $1.2-billion) and Gold Eagle Mines (acquired by Goldcorp for $1.5-billion) to name a few.
Mr. Inwentash obtained his B.Comm from the University of Toronto and is a Chartered Professional Accountant. In 2007, he was an Ontario finalist for the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year award. In 2012, Sheldon received an honorary degree, doctor of laws (LL.D) from the University of Toronto for his valuable leadership as an entrepreneur, his philanthropy, and inspirational commitment to making a difference in the lives of children, youth and their families.
Ian Turner
Advisor
Mr. Turner graduated from McGill in 1974 with a mining engineering degree and obtained his MBA from McGill in 1980. He then began work at a seasonal quartz quarry in Malbaie Quebec with his future partner Dr Howard Hogan at Baskatong Quartz Inc. Together they developed eight high purity mines in eastern Canada specifically for the silicon metal industry, responding to a growing need for higher purity metals. Mr. Turner also worked for four years at Noranda and Kidd Creek managing underground mine and shaft development, and he has served as the past Treasurer of the Canadian Institute of Mining’s Montreal Branch for over 15 years.
In 1998 Mr. Turner went on to purchase his own company and subsequently created Sitec Quartz Inc. in partnership with Investment Quebec, where he spearheaded the use of quartz in engineered countertops with DuPont for the North American market. During his term of Company president Mr. Turner helped to further develop Sitec’s Malbaie quartz mine, before selling Sitec in 2018 to its largest client where he remained to help with its continued growth until his retirement in 2023. The Malbaie mine and related processing plants currently employ 110 workers in Quebec.
Nicole Huybens
Advisor
Ms. Huybens graduated in Social Communication from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgique), and she also has a Master’s degree and Ph.D from the University of Montreal. The subject of her thesis was the ethical and symbolical aspects of social acceptability in the case of the boreal forest exploitation in Québec.
Ms. Huybens is a retired professor from both the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi (sustainable development for EcoAdvisers) and the Institutes Eco-Conseil of Namur (Belgium) and Strasbourg (France). She was also an invited professor at the University of Mons and Arlon (Belgium), and at the EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne – Suisse). Ms. Huybens interests in Vertical include the areas of environmental and social consulting in support of the Company’s responsible and green development of its St-Onge mine, and she will also help with the overall carbon-neutral development of the Company.