Board & Management
Hon. Julian Grill LLB, JP
Non-Executive Chairman
Julian Grill is a graduate in law from the University of Western Australia. He was admitted to the Bar in 1966 and was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1980. Originally a Barrister and Solicitor with a specialty in Mining and Resource related law, he represented the mining region of the Eastern Goldfields in the Legislative Assembly of the Western Australian Parliament for 24 years from 1977 until 2001, including serving as a Minister from 1983 to 1990. His portfolios included Transport, The North West, Regional Development and Economic Development, Trade and Tourism.
Mr Grill is well known in Australia and internationally as an advocate for the mining industry and continues to practice as a successful consultant in Perth and Kalgoorlie. He gives strategic and government relations advice to an extensive list of companies including some of the largest mining companies in Australia.
His mining experience includes four years as Chairman of the ASX listed company Asia Oil and Minerals Ltd from 1979 to 1983. His mining activities were curtailed, due to possible conflict with Ministerial and Shadow Ministerial duties from 1983 until 2001 when he retired from Parliament. Since then he has been Chairman of Focus Minerals Ltd and White Star Mines Ltd.
Matthew Sullivan, BAppSc. MAusIMM
Managing Director
Mr Sullivan graduated from the New South Wales Institute of Technology in 1986 majoring in applied geology. He is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
He has more than 18 years’ experience as a geologist gained from working in Australia, the Fiji Islands, southern Africa and eastern Russia. He has held senior positions with several Australian publicly listed companies. For the last 10 years he has been an independent consulting geologist with a wide variety of clients, ranging from listed Australian and foreign public companies to privately-owned groups.
Mr Sullivan has been involved in the discovery of several significant gold deposits in Western Australia, including Kanowna Belle, Safari Bore and Kundana.
Mr Sullivan has played the key role in assembling the Company’s portfolio of tenements.
Anthony Short, BPE, BCom, GradDipFin, MAICD
Director
Mr Short has more than 12 years’ experience in the administration and management of listed public companies. He has extensive experience at board level in the management and formation of public companies in the areas of gold mining, drilling, oil and gas and forestry. He has held the position of chairman in a number of listed public companies and has also acted as corporate advisor to a number of public company listings.
He was also founding partner in a Perth-based public accountancy practice with responsibility for corporate advisory matters.
Gordon Sklenka, BCom
Director
Mr Sklenka graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in accounting and finance. He began his career in Chartered Accounting working in Sydney and Perth. He has more than 15 years’ experience in corporate finance in the resources and technology sectors focussing on capital raisings, IPO’s, acquisitions and project finance.
Mr Sklenka previously worked in the corporate finance area of DJ Carmichael & Co, a Perth-based stockbroking house, and was also an in-house corporate finance specialist for a group of listed public companies. Prior to this, he worked with First Capital Group, a boutique corporate advisory group that specialised in capital raising and financing for international and Australian projects in the resources sector.
Mr Sklenka has also worked with a number of listed public companies in Australia and Canada and has developed extensive experience in company formation, capital raising and project acquisition. He is a director of the ASX listed companies AXG Mining Limited, Rand Mining NL and Tribune Resources NL.
Roland Berzins, BCom, CPA, ASIA, TA, CD
Company Secretary
Mr Berzins graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Accounting and Management. He was admitted as an Associate member of the Certified Practicing Accountants in 1978 and became an Associate member of the Securities Institute of Australia in 1986. Mr Berzins holds a Public Practicing Accountant certificate (1999) and is a Registered Tax Agent (1978).
Mr Berzins has been associated with financial analytical studies and mineral exploration and production companies since 1979 when he was employed by BHP at Port Hedland and Kwinana and was formerly Chief Accountant at the KCGM Super Pit between 1990 and 1996. He has also been employed by HSBC’s merchant bank, Wardley Australia Limited, as their State Accountant and worked for Price Waterhouse as a Senior Management Consultant.
Mr Berzins was employed for six years as Company Secretary and Financial Controller for an ASX listed diamond exploration company and completed the transition of that company into a telecommunications company before it was successfully taken over in December 2002.
