Board of Directors
Non-executive Chairman
Sir Mick Davis
Sir Mick Davis holds a number of directorships at private companies, including Chairman of Vision Blue Resources Limited, 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.
Chief Executive Officer
Nicholas Bridgen
Nick started his career in 1975 as a Chartered Accountant at Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co (now KPMG). In 1979, he moved to the Rio Tinto Group, becoming senior group accountant in 1981.
He then moved to the Business Evaluation Department for the Group in 1985 and was Group Planning Manager for the RTZ Pillar Group which held the engineering, building products and chemical companies. Nick spent 14 years with Rio Tinto. In the mid-1990s, he was finance director at Bakyrchik Gold Plc. and in 1998, he founded Hambledon Mining Plc which acquired the Sekisovskoye gold project, listing the company on AIM and taking the project from exploration, through construction and into a producing mine.
Since 2006, Nick has been a director and more recently, CEO, of Ferro-Alloy Resources Limited. In the role of CEO, Nick is ultimately responsible for all aspects of the Ferro-Alloy Resources Group. He holds a Bachelor’s degree with honours from Exeter University, is a Chartered Accountant and has also studied corporate finance at the London Business School. He speaks Russian.
Director of Operations
Andrey Kuznetsov
Andrey started his career in 1981 as an industrial engineer at Kirov Engineering Plant in Almaty. After three years he became Chief of the Scientific Department in the Central Committee of Youth (Comsomol).
In 1987, Andrey became general director of the Almaty NTTM “Kontakt” centre. In 1995-1996, he was the CEO of the Kazakhstan subsidiary of Alfa-Bank. Andrey has been the general director of Firma Balausa LLC since 2006. He holds a Specialist’s degree in electrical engineering from Bauman Moscow State Technical University and a PhD in informal mathematical logic. He has also studied management at Coventry University.
As Director of Operations Andrey is responsible for the management of operations in Kazakhstan and execution of the Company strategy and policies approved by the Board.
Chief Financial Officer
William Callewaert
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, KPMG and BDO in both the UK and offshore.
William is responsible for the overall management of the Group’s finances, future funding requirements and general statutory compliance. William is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Non-executive Director
Christopher Thomas
Chris has nearly 35 years’ experience in the communications industry. He has held various high-level management positions including CEO of Proximity London from 2003 to 2006 – one of the largest direct and digital agencies in London.
In 2006, Chris was appointed Chairman & CEO of BBDO and Proximity in Asia, subsequently adding the Middle East and Africa to his responsibilities. He worked with major multinational companies across the growth markets of South East Asia, China, India and Africa.
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. In February 2019 he stepped down from his Americas role to concentrate on his entrepreneurial interests. He also served as a non-executive director on the board of Hambledon Mining Plc from 2004 to 2011.
Chris is the chairman of the remuneration committee which considers and approves the remuneration of all senior executives including that of the executive directors. He is also a member of the Company’s audit committee.
Non-executive Director
Petrus Nienaber
Peet 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.
Peet began his career as an engineer at Iscor Ltd before spending several years in the ferroalloys industry at Samancor and Anglo American Plc.
Non-executive Director
James Turian
James started his career in 1986 and has a background in accounting, trust and management. James has previously been involved with several mining companies in Perth, Australia, including assisting Cooper Energy in their restructuring in the early 2000s.
From 2000 to 2011 James owned and operated a trust company in Guernsey which he sold to concentrate on accountancy and currently is a director of “Accounts For You Limited”, a Guernsey accountancy firm. He holds several other directorships. James is a Chartered Fellow of the Securities Institute IAQ and is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.