Mr. de Selliers is the President of HCF International Advisers, a London-based corporate finance advisory firm focused on the mining and metals industry, which he co-founded in 2003.

Prior to this, he held senior positions at MC-BBL, Fleming and Chase Manhattan. He was previously a member of the Executive Committee of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a senior VP of International Banking at Lehman Brothers, New York, and worked with the World Bank where he was responsible for the financing of mining projects in Africa.

His Excellency Kgalema Motlanthe was President of South Africa between 2008 and 2009, and subsequently served as the Deputy President from 2009 to 2014.

He heads the Motlanthe Foundation that is dedicated to a range of public-benefit activities, including conflict resolution, promotion of human rights and democracy and the provision of care for pre-school-age children, along with buildings, equipment and educational support for public primary schools. Mr. Motlanthe also is a trustee of Liliesleaf Trust and the Brazzaville Foundation.

Mr. Finlayson was appointed President of HPX in 2015 after serving as Senior Advisor-Business Development since 2013.

Prior to joining HPX, he spent 24 years with Rio Tinto including 5 years as Global Head of Exploration and 2 years as the CEO of Rio Tinto Coal in Mozambique. Mr. Finlayson is an exploration geologist with more than 35 years of global, multi-commodity experience.

Kadiatou Konaté is the Managing Director of Sustainable Mining & Infrastructure Group (SMIG), a purpose-driven organisation designing and implementing innovative approaches for the development and funding of sustainable mining and infrastructure projects in Guinea and West Africa.

Prior to her current role, Ms Konaté held positions as Director of Planning & Business Strategy for the Rio Tinto Minerals Group, leading the business planning and evaluating capital expansion projects.  She was previously Controller and CFO for Rio Tinto Simandou’s Iron Ore Project. Her prior roles include leading risk and compliance teams.

Ms Konaté is a certified public accountant and she holds a master’s degree of accountancy from the University of Oklahoma.

Mr. Mamady Youla is the Chief Executive Officer of the Nimba Iron Project. Mr. Youla previously served as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Guinea from December 2015 to May 2018 during the second term of President Alpha Condé. During Mr. Youla’s mandate, Guinea achieved extraordinary economic growth of greater than 10% in both 2016 and 2017, registered a record level of foreign investment, and completed a reform program with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Mr. Youla is also a highly experienced mining executive and was previously the CEO of Guinea Alumina Corporation (“GAC”) from June 2004 to December 2015. GAC is a subsidiary of Emirates Global Aluminium and operates the Sangarédi bauxite mine, located in northwest Guinea, and related rail and port infrastructure. Mr. Youla was instrumental in overseeing the construction and operation of the US$1.4 billion project, which was one of the largest greenfield investments in Guinea.

Mr Touré began his career as assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Conakry (Guinea). Here he collaborated with the national administration on the development of a strategy for downstream integration of the bauxite industry in Guinea and a pricing policy for optimisation of the national benefits deriving from the extractive industry in general. He has subsequently worked within the mining and energy sectors of Guinea.

For over 30 years, he has served as the manager of various mining companies and projects in the energy sector, including several projects for infrastructure and institutional development, within Government, the private sector and in collaboration with international technical partners. As Chairman of the governmental “Comité Technique de Revue des Titres et Conventions Miniers”, he led the global mining contracts review process launched by the Guinean Government in 2012. Today, he serves as a board member of the Kaleta hydropower company and the National Agency for the Development of Mining Infrastructure.

Ms. Moller is a former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea, and in recognition of her service she received an appointment to the National Patriotic Order of Guinea with rank of Commander.

Her highly-distinguished diplomatic career spanned more than 25 years. She has left active service with the U.S. Department of State to return to the private sector where she currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of West Africa for the LNG Group, and is a Board member of the BAARA Hospital in Guinea, VISTA Insurance Company, Orbis International-The Flying Eye Hospital, Orbis UK and FAYUS. Ms. Moller now consults with companies looking to do business in developing countries, many of them in Africa, and was one of the founding members of the Ebola Private Sector Mobilization Group formed in response to the 2014 West African Ebola crisis.

Mr. Montgomery is a highly experienced, mining industry project development executive, having worked in multiple geographies (Australia, Africa, North and South America) and in multiple commodities (iron ore, potash, copper, platinum, nickel and others).

He most recently served as Vice President of Projects at BHP Billiton, and previously provided leadership of the BHP Billiton iron ore growth program from 2002 to 2012.

Robin Sandenburgh is an Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Sustainability Executive with over 40 years of diverse experience primarily in E&S policies, regulations, and performance of private sector enterprises, with significant experience in emerging markets and across a diverse range of industrial sectors. Ms Sandenburgh has extensive expertise in environmental management and monitoring, pollution mitigation, stakeholder engagement, community compensation and resettlement, assessment of climate impacts, and ESG training and development.

Ms Sandenburgh’s career included 25 years with the ESG Department of IFC, the World Bank Group’s private sector investment arm, most recently as a Senior Manager for Latin America/Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. While at IFC she led regional teams of E&S professionals based in Harare, Zimbabwe, New Delhi, India, Cairo, Egypt, and Istanbul, Turkey, responsible for E&S due diligence and monitoring of IFC’s regional investment portfolio. Ms Sandenburgh was part of the core team that developed IFC’s 2012 Environmental and Social Performance Standards, widely considered the global benchmark for private investment in emerging markets.

Ms Sandenburgh has advised organisations and industries in developing countries and has built up an extensive network in the sustainability area through her extensive experience as a speaker, panellist, and moderator at over 50 international conferences on sustainability, climate change, and ESG global best practices for both private and public sector audiences.

Ms Sandenburgh holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Sociology from Brown University in Rhode Island, and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from The University of Michigan, both in the US.

Mr. Mamady Youla is the Chief Executive Officer of the Nimba Iron Project. Mr. Youla previously served as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Guinea from December 2015 to May 2018 during the second term of President Alpha Condé. During Mr. Youla’s mandate, Guinea achieved extraordinary economic growth of greater than 10% in both 2016 and 2017, registered a record level of foreign investment, and completed a reform program with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Mr. Youla is also a highly experienced mining executive and was previously the CEO of Guinea Alumina Corporation (“GAC”) from June 2004 to December 2015. GAC is a subsidiary of Emirates Global Aluminium and operates the Sangarédi bauxite mine, located in northwest Guinea, and related rail and port infrastructure. Mr. Youla was instrumental in overseeing the construction and operation of the US$1.4 billion project, which was one of the largest greenfield investments in Guinea.

Kevin McLean has more than 25 years of experience in the mining industry with the last six years in West Africa where he held senior executive roles in Guinea and Sierra Leone. A geologist by training, Mr McLean has spent considerable time in general management of port, rail and mines for iron ore in the Pilbara of West Australia where he worked for Fortescue Metals Group Ltd during its start-up, after spending his early years in Rio Tinto Iron Ore. He worked also in business improvement, mining geology and exploration for gold and base metals.

More recently, he completed the successful construction and start of operations of Alufer Mining’s greenfield bauxite project at Bel Air in Guinea, first as its Project Director then becoming CEO as it moved into operations.

Shane Kay is a certified practicing accountant and chartered company secretary with 20 years’ experience in corporate accounting, financial management, budgeting, contracts, management, company secretarial responsibilities, reporting and legal compliance including with anti-corruption laws.

After starting his career in Brisbane in accountancy and financial analyst roles, Mr Kay served as Finance Manager for Rio Tinto Plc. on its Simandou Project in Guinea. He joined the Nimba Iron Project in 2012 as Finance Manager, responsible for the functional transition of the Nimba Iron Ore Project from a unit dependent on an owner to a standalone commercial entity across its human resource, IT, financial and governance functions. He was promoted to CFO in 2015, and is responsible for operational and capital budgets, forecasts and reporting, financial and tax reporting, contract management, company secretarial duties, anti-bribery and corruption and information technology.

Ms Joanna Cochrane brings over 30 years of experience in environmental and social responsibility and sustainability to the Nimba Iron Ore Project. She has degrees in Environmental Sciences and Energy Policy from University of East Anglia (UK) and Imperial College, London. She started her career in environmental consultancy in Hong Kong and followed this with 12 years based in London but travelling the world, working on international development programmes and impact assessments of major infrastructural projects in a range of sectors.

Ms Cochrane moved to the Hague in 2001 to join Shell as the global discipline lead for sustainable development, supporting major upstream and downstream projects. Over the next 19 years, she held environment and social performance leadership roles in new business development, upstream, and shale oil and gas, as well as corporate leadership of biodiversity and conservation, and finally as vice-president for social performance. Relocating to London in 2014, she left Shell in 2020 before joining the Nimba Iron Ore Project in 2021.

Hadja I. Diallo is the Nimba Iron Project’s Human Resources Manager with over 15 years’ experience in the Guinean mining sector and a practical understanding of Guinean labour laws. She has as well a strong background in management of human resources (HR), recruitment and talent, performance, staff retention, classification and compensation, industrial relations, employee relations, policy interpretation and training.

Before joining the Nimba Iron Project in February 2021, Hadja served as Human Resources Manager for Alliance Mining Commodities Guinee (AMC SA) for the previous three years, from December 2017 to January 2021. Prior to AMC SA, Hadja held several leadership positions in human resources at Guinea Alumina Corporation SA, a subsidiary of Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), where she worked from May 2006 to November 2017, including the position of Senior Human Resources Business Partner at EGA in Dubai, on a secondment contract from 2016 to 2017. Following her graduation in 2003, Hadja operated as a finance controller for Compagnie Shell de Guinée, a petroleum company, from 2004 to 2005.

Hadja first graduated in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of Rouen (France). She also holds a master’s degree in international banking and finance from University Le Havre (France) in 2003, and a second master’s degree in HR management from the University of Poitiers (France) in 2013.

Hadja is the President of Guinean Council of Human Resources Professional (COGUIPRO-RH) – a prominent HR organisation on the national level, where she mentors upcoming HR professionals and shares her knowledge and passion for HR.

Ibrahim Baldé studied law at Hassan 1^er University in Morocco.  He was selected by BHP Billiton in 2007 for its Green Shoots talent-recruitment programme, to develop future leaders for BHP Billiton’s operations in Guinea.  Mr Baldé studied and worked for a year in South Africa, where he learned English and BHP Billiton’s corporate culture at its head office in Johannesburg.  Returning to Guinea in 2008, he worked in the Nimba Iron Project’s Human Resources (HR) Department, after which he worked in Australia, with BHP Billiton’s HR Department at Port Hedland, West Australia.

Returning again to Guinea, Mr Baldé served as Human Resources Superintendent for the Nimba Iron Project from 2009 to 2012.  In 2012-13, he worked in the the Nimba Project’s Study Team based in London, developing the likely terms, conditions, opportunities and constraints relating to the Project’s future operations.

From later in 2013 until present, Mr Baldé has served as the Nimba Iron Project’s Government Relations Manager from its office in Conakry.  He quickly developed extensive working relationships at multiple levels across government, in particular with the Ministry of Mines and Geology but also with many other governmental departments and agencies with which the Nimba Iron Project interacts. He represents the Nimba Iron Project at the Guinean Chamber of Mines.

Danniel Stokes holds degrees in engineering and business, with an additional qualification in project management from the Association for Project Management. He has more than 17 years’ experience across diverse projects around the world, supporting project controls and project management, developing and implementing best practice in estimating, planning, cost management, change management, risk management and financial evaluation of projects in the mining, infrastructure, and nuclear industries. His work specialises in transforming highly complex ideas into safely delivered projects and long-lasting operations beneficial to all stakeholders.

Danniel started his career working for KBR in Brisbane as a project controls engineer, and worked on some of Australia’s largest mining and mineral projects and studies. He then progressed to senior roles within the owners’ teams on international mega-projects such as the Guinea Alumina Project, Ivanhoe’s Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia and the Resolution Copper Project in Arizona. Danniel joined ArcelorMittal Mining’s PMO in 2013 and led development of the project management and project controls across their mining portfolio. He worked in the UK’s nuclear industry prior to joining the Nimba Iron Project in 2020.

With degrees in cultural anthropology and environmental science, Jamison Suter worked for the Environment Department of the World Bank Group in the mid-1990s, mainly for the newly created Global Environment Facility (GEF).

He then worked for eight years managing environmental conservation programs for the international NGO, Fauna & Flora International (FFI). He focused particularly on West African nations affected by conflict – Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire – and on balancing the perceived need for immediate ‘development’ in contexts of extreme poverty and socio-economic disarray, with longer-term imperatives like sustainability, protection of biological diversity & ecosystem services, and fighting corruption. Since 2006, he has supported exploration-level environmental management, community & external relations, and the environmental and social impact assessment for The Nimba Iron Project. He has been the Nimba Iron Project’s primary point of contact with the public on issues like world heritage, biodiversity, good governance, human rights and sustainable development.

Guy Parker (PhD) is a wildlife biologist and ecologist with more than 20 years’ professional experience in Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.  In Africa, he has worked with communities to conserve large mammals including elephants and antelope at the landscape scale. In Europe, he works with renewable energy companies to restore biodiversity on their land.

Dr Parker is an expert in applying international standards for biodiversity management and conservation, including the International Finance Corporation’s Performance Standard 6, to mining and energy projects. He worked with the international NGO Fauna & Flora International to develop best-practice guidance for oil and gas companies working in marine environments.

Dr Parker has worked with the Nimba Iron Project since 2011, providing guidance on biodiversity studies relating to the project’s impact assessment, and liaising with key technical partners to develop effective management plans for highly sensitive species and habitats including bats, chimpanzees and montane savanna.

Kate Blacklock is a specialist in social and sustainable development, with over fifteen years’ international experience working on sustainable approaches to managing social impacts and risks, developing social management systems, building effective stakeholder partnerships, and performing social-compliance due diligence.

She brings strengths in anthropology, politics and socio-economic analysis to the Nimba Iron Project. Ms Blacklock has hands-on knowledge of the socio-economic complexities, impacts and opportunities surrounding large-scale industrial development projects, in particular mining, oil and gas, as well as artisanal mining. With experience in eleven African countries, including Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire, for multilateral organisations such as United Nations’ peace-building missions and the private sector, she has worked in well-established democracies and countries emerging from conflict. She is particularly interested in the promotion of culturally sensitive stakeholder engagement, free, prior informed consultation, cultural heritage management, and incorporation of gender and ecosystem services into impact assessment. Ms Backlock has worked on numerous social impact assessments, including for ArcelorMittal Liberia’s Western Range Iron-Ore expansion at Nimba in 2010-13.

Ruth Golombok is an international Environmental and Social risk professional with over 25 years of experience leading Impact Assessments, due diligence reviews and wider E&S risk management processes across the value chains of over 60 public and private sector projects and programmes, in compliance with national, IFI, development aid requirements and Good International Industry Practice (IFC, World Bank Group, EBRD, Equator Banks, ADB, SIDA, DFID, USAID, ICMM etc.).

Ruth has on-the-ground experience in over 20 countries in various geographic, political and cultural contexts, including the Nimba region, with a focus on the extractives sectors in Africa.

Ruth is fully familiar with IFC E&S risk management process and standards and their implementation at business and project level, including specific requirements relating to resettlement, livelihood restoration and development, ecosystem services and biodiversity offsetting.

Ruth also has experience with interfacing with external parties, including lenders, regulatory authorities, best practice networks and NGOs.