Leadership

The sole executive body of Ferro-Alloy Resources is the Board of Directors, which has delegated the management of the company to the Chief Executive Officer, Operations Director and Chief Financial Officer.

Sir Mick Davis - Chairman of FAR

Sir Mick Davis holds a number of directorships at private companies and is a highly successful mining executive accredited with building Xstrata plc into one of the largest mining companies in the world prior to its acquisition by Glencore plc. Before listing Xstrata on the LSE as CEO he was CFO of Billiton plc and Chairman of Billiton Coal which he joined from the position of Eskom CFO. During his career in mining he has raised almost US$40bn from global capital markets and successfully completed over US$120bn of corporate transactions, including the creation of the Ingwe Coal Corporation in South Africa; the listing of Billiton on the LSE; the merger of BHP and Billiton; as well as numerous transactions at Xstrata culminating in the sale to Glencore plc. Sir Mick Davis is a Chartered Accountant by profession, and holds an honours degree in Commerce from Rhodes University, South Africa and an Honorary Doctorate from Bar Ilan University, Israel.

Nicholas Bridgen - CEO 

Mr. Bridgen started his career in 1975 as a Chartered Accountant at Peat Marwick Mitchell (now KPMG). In 1979, he moved to RTZ Borax and thereafter, in 1981 became senior group accountant at Rio Tinto Group Head Office. In 1985, he was promoted to Deputy Head of Business Evaluation Department for the Rio Tinto Group. In 1990-1993, he was Group Planning Manager at RTZ Pillar. In the mid-1990s, he was a finance director at Dragon Management and then at Bakyrchik Gold Plc. In 1998, Mr Bridgen started his own business and founded Hambledon Mining Plc, acquired Sekisovskoye gold project and took the project through exploration, listing on the London AIM stock exchange, construction of the process plant and into full operations. Since 2006 Nicholas has been a director and more recently, CEO of Ferro-Alloy Resources Limited. He holds a Bachelor’s degree with honours from Exeter University, is a Chartered Accountant and studied corporate finance at London Business School. In addition to English, he speaks Russian and French. 

Andrey Kuznetsov - Operations Director

Andrey started his career in 1981 as an industrial engineer at Kirov Engineering Plant in Almaty. Later he was a general director of the Almaty NTTM “Kontakt” centre. In 1995-1996, he was the CEO of local Alfa-Bank (Kazakhstan subsidiary unit of Russian bank). Since 2006, Andrey has been general director of Firma Balausa LLC. He holds a Specialist’s degree in electrical engineering from Bauman Moscow State Technical University (formerly Bauman Moscow Higher technical school) and a PhD in informal mathematical logic. He also studied at management department of Coventry University. He has a certificate on securities market from the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan

William Callewaert – CFO

William graduated in 2002 from the University of Durham with an honours degree in Law after which he trained as a Chartered Accountant in audit services with leading tax, accounting and business advisory firm, Blick Rothenberg. Having qualified in 2006, William’s career progressed within advisory services at Grant Thornton and KPMG in both the UK and offshore. Most recently, William was a Business Advisory Director of the advisory department at BDO Guernsey. William is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Christopher Thomas - Non-executive Director 

Chris Thomas has spent over 25 years in the communications industry. He has spent the majority of his time working for BBDO and Proximity. He has held management positions in advertising agencies since 1996. From 2001 he was CEO of Proximity London - one of the largest direct and digital agencies in London. In January 2006, Chris was appointed Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of BBDO and Proximity in Asia. In 2011 Chris added the BBDO agencies in the Middle East and Africa to his responsibilities and became the Chairman of Proximity. In May 2015, Chris moved to New York to take up the role of CEO of BBDO in the Americas, with responsibility for 21 agencies in the U.S., Canada and Latin America. He remains Chairman of I&S BBDO in Japan. He has worked with multiple global clients advising them on their global communications strategies. He also served on the board of Hambledon Mining - for over six years.

James Turian - Non-executive Director

James started his career in 1986 in accounting practice, moved to trust management with Mercator Trust Company and then became managing director and majority shareholder of FIFO Trust Limited.  He is currently a director and majority shareholder of Accounts For You Limited, a Guernsey accountancy firm.  He is finance director of Mineks International Limited, a leading M&A company, and of Blossom Fields Care Home Limited as well as several other directorships. James is a Chartered Fellow of the Securities Institute IAQ and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors as well his accounting audit and tax experience.

Mr Peet Nienaber - Non-Executive Director

Mr. Peet Nienaber has several decades of experience in the mining sector, most notably spending over 24 years with what became Xstrata plc. At Xstrata he was initially Head of Operations, spearheading the earliest days of the company, including its growth to be the largest producer of Ferrochrome. Thereafter he spent 10 years as CEO of Xstrata Alloys, one of the largest producers of Ferrochrome and a leading producer of Vanadium, with some 20,000 people under Peet’s leadership. After retiring from the position in 2012, Xstrata Alloys subsequently went on to be acquired by Glencore plc. Mr. Nienaber began his career as an engineer at Iscor Ltd before spending several years in the Ferroalloys industry at Samancor and Anglo American Plc. Mr. Nienaber holds a BSc in Metallurgical Engineering and a BSc in Engineering from the University of Pretoria.