Management & Directors
Position: President, CEO, Director
Mr. Dhami has over 20 years of experience in the capital markets working with portfolio managers, retail brokers and high net worth investors. He is a well respected marketing consultant who provides end to end corporate advisory services from the corporate start-up stage through the high growth cycle of a discovery or product launch, with a view to optimizing shareholder value. Companies which achieved success with Mr. Dhami’s assistance include Webtech Wireless, a Canadian telematics and location-based service provider that became an industry leader, recognized as one the fastest growing companies that had top line revenue to 35 million, sold product worldwide and was eventually bought by a competitor, and Rainy River Resources, a Canadian based exploration company which discovered an economic gold deposit in northern Ontario and was eventually acquired by a established gold producer which put Rainy River’s project into production.
Position: Chairman of the Board, Director
Mr. Shields was engaged in the practice of law from 1979 through 2006 in Calgary and Vancouver, specializing in corporate and securities law and mergers and acquisitions. In 2006 he left the law business and joined Providia, a group engaged in public company start-ups. Mr. Shields was a founding shareholder of Ryland Oil Corporation, and served as its President and a member of the Board from 2007 until its sale to Crescent Point Energy in 2010. Mr. Shields was also a founding shareholder of Rainy River Resources Ltd., a TSX listed gold exploration company. He was elected to the Board of Directors of Rainy River in 2008 and was engaged as Vice President in 2009. He was subsequently appointed General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in 2011, positions he held until the sale of Rainy River to New Gold Inc. in 2013.
Mr. Shields holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Western Ontario.
Position: Director
Mr. Averill is Chairman of Overburden Drilling Management Limited (ODM), a company that he founded in 1974 to develop and apply indicator mineral methods for mineral exploration. He has progressively advanced this novel technology and is now recognized as its pioneer and leading authority. Mr. Averill's specialty is early-stage exploration projects in frontier areas but he has also performed many detailed investigations, including demonstrating that Bre-X's drill core samples had been salted with placer gold grains. He has played a leading role in the discovery of several mineral deposits and new mineral districts in Canada including the very productive Casa Berardi and Rainy River gold districts. He is a former director of Nuinsco Resources Limited and was a director of Rainy River Resources Ltd. from 2005 until the company was acquired by New Gold Inc. in 2013 for $310 million.
Mr. Averill holds a BSc. (Hons.) in geology from the University of Manitoba. He has published several influential papers on indicator minerals and was presented with the PDAC's Distinguished Service Award in 2003.
Position: Interim CFO
Ms. Burianyk has over 15 years of industry experience serving as CFO for various TSX-V and CSE listed companies . Ms. Burianyk is a CPA, CA and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser University. Ms. Burianyk was previously employed as an audit manager at a Canadian accounting firm where she specialized in the mining industry.
Position: Corporate Secretary
Mrs. Hodges is the principal of Benchmark Governance, providing corporate compliance, administration and governance support to private and public companies in the resource and technology sectors. Mrs. Hodges has over fourteen years’ of experience serving on and for, numerous boards of directors of publicly listed companies. Mrs. Hodges specializes in corporate, commercial and securities law, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions.