Directors

Mr. Akerley has over 35 years of experience in mineral exploration, corporate financing, project development and management of publicly listed resource companies. He is one of the founders and principals of Erdene and has held the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation since March 2003.

Mr. Akerley is a geologist who has worked extensively in foreign jurisdictions throughout his career, predominately in North and South America and Asia, with a focus on Mongolia, where he has led the technical team through the confirmation of a major molybdenum and copper deposit, the discovery and definition of the Altan Nar gold deposit and the discovery of the Bayan Khundii gold project. He has extensive experience in corporate M&A, joint venture arrangements and financings, leading the Corporation through more than 20 such business arrangements since taking the Corporation public in 2004.

Mr. Akerley served on the Board and Special Committee of Temex Resources Corp. advising on the sale of the company to Lake Shore Gold Corp. and was previously chairman of the TSX-V listed Morien Resources Corp., where he was involved in the sale of the Donkin Coal and Black Point Aggregate projects, converting those interests into royalties. He also pioneered the company’s involvement as the founding and lead sponsor of the very successful Catapult leadership program in Nova Scotia. Mr. Akerley has a BSc (1988) from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, specializing in geology, and completed the Institute of Corporate Directors Audit Committee Effectiveness course in December 2012.

Mr. Croft is an executive and entrepreneur with 30 years of global experience across increasingly senior roles, from non-profit to mid-tier to mega-cap to micro-cap. He has expertise building and leading successful enterprises, project delivery, complex stakeholder management, public-private partnership, strategic communications, corporate governance and ESG. His deep Mongolia expertise dates back to 1994, when his three years of service as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer included two years living and working in Bayankhongor Province in southwest Mongolia. He lived and worked full-time in Mongolia for 15 years, and also lived and worked in South Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore. He has held executive and senior advisory roles with Oyu Tolgoi LLC, Ivanhoe Mines, Rio Tinto, Peabody Energy and Duke Energy. He has been an independent director of Erdene since June 2015, and chairman of the board since June 2019. He is a member of the Erdene’s Audit and Risk Management Committee, Corporate Governance and Disclosure Policy Committee and Special Committee. Since April 2017, Layton has been President, CEO and Director of Carolina Rush Corporation (formerly Pancontinental Resources Corp.), a Canadian junior mining company (TSXV: RUSH) focused on exploring the Southeast USA, home of North America’s first gold rush.

Since January 2022, Layton has been an independent director of Voltage Metals Corp., a Canadian junior mining company (CSE: VOLT) exploring for nickel in Ontario. Layton holds a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MA from the School for International Training in Vermont, and an MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Dr. Biolik has over 30 years of public and private sector experience and is one of the foremost Canadian experts on Central Asian business and diplomacy. From 2010 to 2012, Dr. Biolik occupied the position of Regional Director, Pacific Region, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. In 2012, Dr. Biolik retired from the federal public service. Since 2014, she has been working as independent consultant and Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer of Allam Advisory Group, a global business strategy and commercial diplomacy consulting firm. She was Canada’s first resident Ambassador in Mongolia where she opened a full-fledged Canadian Embassy in 2008. Dr. Biolik previously served as Ambassador of Canada to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as well as Consul General of Canada in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. She also served as Senior Advisor for international relations and parliamentary affairs to the Governor General of Canada and as European Marketing Manager for Canada Post, Senior Manager at Investment Partnerships Canada and Director of the International Business Opportunities Centre. Dr. Biolik has extensive expertise in international commerce and has worked closely with Canadian companies in emerging markets. Dr. Biolik currently serves as external member of the Program and Research Council at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC and as Canadian Board Director to the North America-Mongolia Business Council. Dr. Biolik is also a member of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Montreal and is fluent in English, French, Russian and Polish.

Member of the Audit and Risk and Corporate Governance and Disclosure Policy Committees. 

Ken W. MacDonald was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors in June 2019.  Until May 2019, Mr. MacDonald served as Executive Vice President of Erdene, a position he held from 2016. Additionally, Mr. MacDonald served as Chief Financial Officer of Erdene from March 2003 to May 2019.

From September 1992, Mr. MacDonald has also been the President and owner of Fisher Transport Limited, a specialized transport company, where he currently serves as CEO and Chair. In addition, he was the Vice President of Finance for Kaoclay Resources Inc. from 1996 to June 2006. Prior to 1985, Mr. MacDonald, a chartered professional accountant, was a senior manager with one of Canada’s major accounting firms. From 1985 to September 1992, he was vice president finance with public and private corporations in the resource sector. Mr. MacDonald graduated from St. Mary’s University in 1977 with a BCom and received the Chartered Professional Accountant designation in 1980.

Member of the Compensation Committee, Audit and Risk Management Committee and Special Committees.

Cameron McRae was appointed director of the Board in March 2018. Mr. McRae is a seasoned CEO, having led mining organizations through the full mining development cycle in four countries and across three continents. Cameron served a 28-year career with Rio Tinto, and in Mongolia was President of Oyu Tolgoi LLC and Rio Tinto’s country director for Mongolia. In that role he led the construction and start-up of the US$6 billion Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine, ahead of schedule, which at peak of construction had over 15,000 people employed on site.

Cameron has led successful greenfield and brownfield construction projects, overarching business transformations and business improvement projects, and at the corporate level has deep commercial/M&A experience. Prior to Oyu Tolgoi, Cameron was CEO of Richards Bay Minerals in South Africa (2008-10), Managing Director of Murowa Diamonds in Zimbabwe (2006-07) and Project Director for the Hail Creek Coking Coal Expansion project in Australia. Prior to 2004, Cameron held commercial and project leadership roles, both at Corporate and Business Unit levels. In 1995, he was a key team member responsible for the A$29 billion merger of CRA and RTZ into the dual listed Rio Tinto (which was the world’s largest merger at the time).

Mr. McRae is the founder of Tarva Investment & Advisory, a broad-based consultancy firm. Tarva has also acted as strategic advisor to Erdenes Mongol, Mongolia’s state-owned asset management firm, on the resolution of the Oyu Tolgoi dispute between Rio Tinto and the Government of Mongolia. Cameron remains active in Mongolian public life, as an executive director of the Business Council of Mongolia, as a trustee of the Arts Council and founder of the Institute of National Strategy. Cameron was schooled in Australia and Africa and holds a commercial degree and an MBA (Monash Mount Eliza, 1991).

Member of the Technical Committee.

Mr. Mosher is a mining executive with over thirty-five years of international experience. From 1992 to 2008, David was President and CEO of High River Gold Mines Ltd., a TSX listed company involved in the exploration, development and production of gold in Canada, Africa and Russia. In that role, he negotiated the acquisition of two producing Russian gold mines, completed mining investment agreements with the government of Burkina Faso, raised over $300 million to support the company’s growth, and supervised the development of two open pit gold mines (the Taparko gold mine in Burkina Faso, and the Berezitovy gold mine in Russia). He has served on many boards including Cambior Inc. and earlier in his career was project manager for Pancontinental Mining Limited, where he and his team discovered and outlined the largest uranium deposit in the world at that time (the Jabiluka deposits in northern Australia).

Over the past decade, Mr. Mosher has been active in the restructuring and refinancing of a number of junior resource companies, both private and public, and currently serves as a director of several mining and exploration companies, including Pancontinental Uranium Corporation (TSX-V) and Pelangio Exploration Inc. (TSX-V). Mr. Mosher received his B.Sc. degree in geology from Acadia University.

Member of the Compensation Committee.

Mr. Hedley Widdup is a geologist, with almost 21 years experience in mining, geology and mining investment. Hedley was part of the mine geology teams at the Mt Keith Nickel Mine (WA), Olympic Dam Copper-Uranium Mine (SA), Black Star Open cut zinc project, which is a part of the Mt Isa Mining complex (Qld), and St Ives Gold Mine (WA). He joined the investment team at Lion Selection Group in 2007 and has worked across the investment and investor relations functions. Lion Selection Group is a development-oriented mining fund based in Melbourne, Australia, and has held a shareholding in Erdene for a number of years.

Hedley was educated in Australia, receiving a Degree in Geology with first class honours from the University of Melbourne (2000) before completing a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance (2011). He is a shareholder and executive director of Lion Manager Pty Ltd the entity which provides investment services to Lion Selection Group. Mr. Widdup also serves as a director of Plutonic Limited, an unlisted company located in Australia.

Member of the Compensation Committee, Technical Committee and Special Committee.