Directors

Erdene’s Board of Directors have extensive experience in the mining and financial industries. They provide a strong base for the strategic management in the company.

The Board is comprised of eight directors, six of whom are “independent” within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. An independent director is defined to be a director who has no direct or indirect relationship with Erdene which could, in the view of the Board, be reasonably expected to interfere with the exercise of a member’s independent judgement. 

Peter C. Akerley, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Peter C. Akerley

Mr. Akerley has 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 the Corporation and has held the position of President and Chief Executive Officer since March 2003.

He is a geologist who has worked extensively in foreign jurisdictions throughout his career, predominately in the Americas and Asia, with a focus on Mongolia, where he has led the technical team through the confirmation of the new, Khundii Minerals District, including a major molybdenum and copper deposit, the discovery and definition of the Altan Nar gold deposit and discovery of the Bayan Khundii gold deposit cluster. He has extensive experience in corporate mergers and acquisitions, joint venture arrangements, asset purchase and sales, and financings, leading the Corporation and its subsidiaries through more than 20 such business arrangements since taking the Corporation public in 2004. Mr. Akerley is past-chairman of the TSX-V listed Morien Resources Corp. where he was responsible for leading the creation of the company as a spin-out of assets from Erdene and the subsequent sale of the Donkin Coal and Black Point Aggregate projects, converting those interests into royalty interests through negotiations with Glencore-Xstrata and Vulcan Materials Company.

In 2019, he was awarded the Order of the Polar Star, the highest civilian award Mongolia can present to a foreign citizen, for his contribution to the country’s development, and in 2022 received the Investor of the Year award, from the Mongolian private sector, recognizing 20 years of dedication to Mongolia’s mining sector.

He also served on the Board and Special Committee of Temex Resources Corporation (TSX-V) advising on the sale of the company to Lake Shore Gold Corp (Tahoe Resources Inc). Mr. Akerley 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.

T. Layton Croft, Chairman of the Board

T. Layton Croft

Layton Croft was appointed director of the Board in June 2015 and Chairman of the Board in June 2019. Mr. Croft is a corporate executive with diversified global management and resource industry experience, including deep Mongolia expertise spanning 25 years. Since 2017, Mr. Croft has been President, CEO and director of Pancontinental Resources Corporation (TSXV: PUC), a Canadian junior gold and battery metals company with six North American projects in proven mining jurisdictions. Mr. Croft’s Mongolia experience has included roles as Executive Vice President for the world class Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine, Vice President for Peabody Energy, Vice President for SouthGobi Resources, and Country Representative for The Asia Foundation. Mr. Croft is founding director of the Business Council of Mongolia and a lifetime honorary director of the Mongolian National Mining Association. Based in North Carolina, USA, Mr. Croft has lived and worked in the US, Canada, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia and Guinea. He has worked for Rio Tinto, Ivanhoe Mines, Duke Energy, Atrium Health and Bank of America. Mr. Croft holds degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the School for International Training in Vermont, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Member of the Audit Committee and the Corporate Governance and Disclosure Policy Committee.

Dr. Anna G. Biolik, Director

Dr. Anna G. Biolik

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.

John P. Byrne, Director

John P. Byrne

John Byrne has been a director since August 2004. Mr. Byrne is President of Petroleum Corporation of Canada Exploration Limited (“Petrex”) since 1997 and brings more than 30 years of investment banking and corporate finance experience to Erdene. Pretrex helped establish and finance Enerplus Energy Services Ltd. For which Mr. Byrne served as its Vice Chairman (1986-2000). Mr. Byrne has also served in senior executive roles with Levesque Beaubien Geoffrion Inc. (now National Bank Financial), A.E. Ames & Company/Dominion Securities Ames and The First Boston Corporation. Mr. Byrne holds a B.A. from McGill University and an LL.B from the University of Toronto Law School. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

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

Kenneth W. MacDonald, Director

Kenneth W. MacDonald

Ken W. MacDonald was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors in June 2019.  Mr. MacDonald was a member of the Executive of Erdene from incorporation in 2002 and was most recently Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at the time of his retirement in April, 2019.

From September 1992, Mr. MacDonald has also been the President and owner of Fisher Transport Limited, a Nova Scotia based, specialized transport company. In February, 2019 he joined the board of Catapult Leadership Association. In addition, he was the Vice President of Finance for Kaoclay Resources Inc. from 1996 to June 2006. Prior to 1985, Mr. MacDonald, a certified 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. Other former non-profit board affiliations include being past Chairman of Financial Executives Institute, Atlantic Chapter and past Commodore of the Maskwa Aquatic Club.

Mr. MacDonald graduated from St. Mary’s University in 1977 with a BCom and received his chartered accountant designation in 1980.

Member of the Compensation and Technical Committees.

Cameron McRae, Director

Cameron McRae

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.

David V. Mosher, Director

David V. Mosher

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 and Technical Committees.

Hedley Widdup, Director

Hedley Widdup

Mr. Hedley Widdup is a geologist, with almost 20 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 currently a non-executive Director of another of Lion’s investments, ASX listed EganStreet Resources (ASX:EGA), and is a shareholder and executive director of Lion Manager Pty Ltd the entity which provides investment services to Lion Selection Group.

 

Member of the Technical Committee.

Subscribe for updates

By providing your e-mail address, you are consenting to receive press releases, quarterly and annual reports, presentations and other information concerning Erdene Resource Development Corp. and its affiliates and partners.