| Chairman: | Duane Poliquin, P. Eng. |
| President & CEO: | Morgan Poliquin, P.Eng., Ph.D. |
| Executive VP: | Douglas McDonald, M.A.Sc., B.Com |
| Chief Financial Officer: | Korm Trieu, CA |
| Duane Poliquin, P.Eng. | Morgan Poliquin, P. Eng., Ph.D |
| Douglas McDonald, M.A.Sc., B.Com | Grant Hendrickson |
| Fuad Sillem | |
Duane Poliquin received his degree in Geological Engineering in 1962. Ever since, Duane has been continuously active in mining exploration around the world. As a young geologist, Duane started out with a large Canadian mining company and was soon involved in a major copper-zinc discovery. This was followed by work with several of the world’s largest base metal and gold companies in some of the most important mining areas of the world.
In 1972, Duane identified the Santa Fe gold property in Nevada and formed Westley Mines Ltd. to explore the project. Westley was taken over and placed in production as a heap leach operation by a division of Homestake. Before founding Almaden, Duane also initiated several other projects that became producing mines. Duane discovered an extension to the Nevada Sheelite Mine as well as the Apex germanium-gallium mine - a specialty metals deposit in Utah that contained over one million tons of mineralized material with a gross value of over $1,000 per ton. The property was vended to Musto Exploration Ltd.
After founding Almaden Minerals and doing an IPO in 1986, Duane indentified the Trinidad gold deposit in Mexico which was subsequently sold with a royalty retained to Eldorado Gold Corporation and became that company’s second mine. Having been in the exploration industry for many years, Duane has been through several metal and mining market cycles and remains confident that the next up cycle will be very rewarding.
Morgan Poliquin graduated from the UBC Geological Engineering program in 1994. He earned his Masters of Science in Geology at the University of Auckland, studying geothermal systems and epithermal gold deposits and his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Exeter (Camborne School of Mines) studying the geology and mineral deposits of eastern Mexico. His Ph.D. research was combined with the prospecting program he led in Eastern Mexico for the Company. This exploration directly led to the Company’s involvement in the Caballo Blanco and Ixtaca projects and the subsequent discoveries made on these projects.
Morgan first came to work with his father at Almaden, Azucar’s predecessor, after finishing his Master’s degree in 1996. Morgan is the President and CEO of Azucar and with Duane manages the corporate and technical direction of Almaden. Morgan oversees and directs the company’s prospecting and property exploration programs.
Doug has eighteen years experience in the resources and foreign trade and resource policy arenas. Prior to joining Azucar, Doug worked with an investment dealer where he advised numerous mineral resource companies regarding M&A opportunities, and assisted them in accessing the capital markets. He also spent five years as a Foreign Service officer with the Canadian government, where he focused on international trade issues, in particular in terms of their impact on the resources industry.
Doug graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Masters of Applied Science degree specializing in mineral economics.
Korm Trieu is a Chartered Accountant with over fifteen years of experience in corporate finance, management and taxation in the natural resource and lending sectors. Prior to joining Azucar, Korm held the position of Vice President Finance at Sprott Resource Lending Corp. and worked for Ernst & Young LLP providing tax services to various publicly listed companies primarily in the mining industry.
Korm holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of British Columbia and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountant of British Columbia.
Fuad Sillem has extensive corporate development experience in the mining industry and has worked for AIM, TSX and FTSE listed mining companies. Fuad is a founder and partner of Silvertree Partners, a London and Toronto based specialist corporate services provider to the natural resources industry. Prior to this he spent over ten years with the Dragon Group, a leading mining finance, management & venture capital group which has incubated a number of mining projects in Africa, the FSU and Latin America. Mr Sillem has a BA in International Business from Regents University London and is a member of the CFA society of the UK and the Society of Mining and Metallurgy.
Mr. Hendrickson served as Chief Geophysicist with Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia Inc. from 2002-2008, where he held overall responsibility for the geophysical work which played an important role in the discovery of the Oyu Tolgoi deposit. The main part of this very large porphyry Copper/Gold system was found at depths greater than a kilometre, and geophysics played a leading role in the discovery. From 2008 to 2016, Mr. Hendrickson was the Director of Exploration with Goviex Gold Inc., Ibex Mongolia, and High Power Ventures Mongolia. Prior to his work with Ivanhoe, Mr. Hendrickson was Managing Director of Delta Geoscience Ltd. from April 1986 to January 2005, and Director and Co-Founder of Praxis Goldfields Inc (2000-2007).
