Canada Mining Innovation Council (CMIC)
Management Team
Mr. Bogden began his professional career as a geophysicist, co-founding Quantec Geoscience, moving on to CIBC, Rothschild, and National Bank Financial as a mining investment banker advising boards of directors and management teams of some of the largest mining companies in the world. He concluded his investment banking career as Vice Chairman, Mining & Metals, for Standard Chartered Bank after its acquisition of Gryphon Partners in 2011 where he was a co-founder and Managing Partner. Upon retiring from the financial services industry in 2012, he assumed a number of corporate board positions and engaged in board leadership, strategic development and corporate responsibility initiatives.
Mr. Bogden is currently Chairman of Black Loon Group, a private mining investment company, and is a former President and CEO of Alloycorp Mining Inc. He has served as a director of over a dozen public mining companies and is currently a director of Royal Gold Inc., Orvana Minerals Corp., the former Chairman of Volta Resources, and past Chairman of Nexgen Energy. He is also a member of the Mt. Sinai Hospital Foundation Board in Toronto and in 2013, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work with Right To Play where he currently serves as a member of the Canadian Advisory Board.
Mr. Bogden holds a B.Sc. in Applied Science (Geology) from Queen’s University, is a Professional Engineer, and earned his professional certification as a Corporate Director (ICD.D) from the Institute of Corporate Directors in Toronto.
Mr. Bogden is keenly interested in social and development issues around the world and is a member of the working group of the KIN Catalyst: Mining Company of the Future initiative on the Development Partner Framework on establishing sustainable, collaborative community relationships. He has authored and presented many papers on corporate responsibility, corporate strategy, and M&A and capital markets related to the mining industry.
Mike Wundenberg, Vice President Operational Technology and Business Improvement at Newmont has over 20 years of experience in mining and has held various leadership positions within Newmont. He has been associated with Newmont since 1998 working at the Batu Hijau and Yanacocha operations and in the Australia region. He worked for BHP Billiton on the Olympic Dam Expansion project for two years and held the position of Manager, Mining prior to rejoining Newmont.
Mr. Wundenberg successfully introduced the Full Potential program in 2013 and was appointed to lead the Asset Management function in 2015. He provided oversight on digital work conducted over 2017, including internal and external benchmarking work, digital assessments and other advancements in innovation and technology and was appointed Vice President, Operational Technology and Innovation in 2018 to define and realize the value proposition of Newmont’s technology and digital strategy and roadmap.
Nils Voermann has executive responsibility for Hatch’s Business Practices globally, including Technologies, Systems, Consulting, Environmental Services and Operational Performance. These groups serve clients across the Mining & Metals, Energy and Infrastructure sectors. He also leads our Central North America region.
Nils joined Hatch in 1989 as a Mechanical Engineer. In 1995 he was appointed leader of Hatch’s Metallurgical Furnace Design Group. Through a string of innovative and successful projects in Canada, USA, South Africa, Colombia and Korea, he expanded Hatch’s metallurgical furnace design team more than four-fold. The Furnace Group achieved global scope, and became recognized as a world leader in its field. In 2003, Nils took on broader responsibility for development of Hatch’s proprietary know-how, as Global Managing Director, Technologies. Under his leadership Hatch maintains a strong pipeline of technologies in progressive stages of development and commercialization.
From 2009 to 2013 Nils was based in Brisbane, Australia to provide leadership for Hatch’s expanding business in the Asia-Pacific region.
Nils is a graduate of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario where he received his B.Sc. in Engineering. He also earned his MBA from INSEAD in France. Nils is an award-winning author, having published and presented over 30 technical papers, with a focus on new technology implementation and management. He holds several patents and has received various awards including the Natural Resources Canada, CANMET Technology Transfer Award and The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) Extraction and Processing Award. In 2011, he was awarded the Medal for Engineering Excellence by Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO).
Nils is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). An airplane pilot in his free time, Nils enjoys sharing his passion for flying with aspiring young aviators.
Dr. Imogen Coe is the former Dean of the Faculty of Science at Ryerson University and is Internationally recognized for her pioneering research in membrane protein cell biology and biochemistry.
Throughout her 15 year career in academia, Imogen has been a strong independent voice for science. She is committed to student experiential learning through participation in research projects having supervised more than 30 graduate and undergraduate students to date. Imogen is an advocate in the support and promotion of girls and women in science and has spoken on the topic locally and nationally. She is also active in promoting and highlighting the importance and relevance of science to her local community.
An accomplished researcher and speaker, Imogen has presented her research at conferences and seminars across the globe for more than a decade and has more than 70 scholarly papers, book chapters and abstracts to her credit. Imogen has received many research grants and awards throughout her career, currently holds grants from both NSERC and CIHR and was awarded the Premier’s Research Excellence Award (now known as the Early Researcher Award) for her research activities from 2000 – 2005. She has also dedicated her time as an internal reviewer for multiple Canadian funding agencies including NSERC, CIHR, and the National Cancer Institute of Canada, as well as acting as a reviewer for other national and international funding groups. Previously, Imogen was Associate Dean, Research and Partnerships, in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, York University. Imogen received a PhD in Biology from the University of Victoria, an MSc from the University of Victoria and a bachelor’s degree from Exeter University in the U.K.
Charles Dumaresq is Vice President, Science and Environmental Management with the Mining Association of Canada. He joined MAC in April, 2015.
In his role with MAC, he focuses on regulatory and environmental aspects of mining, including mine waste management, effluent quality, and monitoring and mitigating effects on water quality and the aquatic environment. He is also responsible for the R&D and innovation file for MAC, and is involved in a recently establish MAC Board Innovation Task Force. In this role, he has taken over the responsibilities of his predecessor, Rick Meyers (VP, Northern and Technical Affairs), who was also a member of the CMIC Board.
Prior to joining MAC, Charles spent 22 years with Environment Canada, working on regulatory and policy development related to mining and the environment.
Charles has a background in earth sciences, with a M.Sc. from Carleton University. His graduate research focused on geochemistry and downstream water quality associated with closed and abandoned silver mines in Cobalt, Ontario.
Ms. Guay is Vice President, Technical Services, a position she has held since January 2018. Prior to her appointment she held several other key positions at Agnico Eagle including Senior Corporate Director Technical Services, Corporate Director Business Strategy, Program Manager, Meliadine and Corporate Director, Metallurgy.
Ms. Guay has worked in the mining industry for nearly 25 years and has extensive technical and operational expertise. Prior to returning to Agnico Eagle she worked Coffey Mining in Australia and as a consultant with SNC-Lavalin in Montreal. She also worked with ArcelorMittal as processing plant director for their large open pit iron ore operation and on Cambior’s gold and polymetallic mines.
Ms. Guay holds a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from Laval University.
Dr. Thorpe is a senior mining executive with over 30 years’ experience both in mining operations and as an international corporate responsibility consultant working on mining projects from potash to diamonds and gold.
His experience spans five continents and covers mining from greenfields exploration to closure and post-closure management. Having lived and worked in Latin America and Africa, Dr. Thorpe’s experience includes permitting a mine in a tropical rainforest area of Venezuela with several regulatory changes and working with the project teams to reduce the LTIFR at a mine in Africa from 2.1 per million hours worked to 0.15 per million hours worked.
Dr. Thorpe holds a Ph.D. in mine land rehabilitation from the University of Saskatchewan and is the Chair of the Environmental Stewardship Initiative of the Canada Mining Innovation Council.
Jim Gowans is currently involved with several companies as a corporate Director.
Gowans was the President & Chief Executive Officer at Arizona Mining, from January 2016 until August 2018 when the company was sold to South32, an Australian based multi-national resource/mining company. He was formerly Co-President of Barrick Gold from July 2014 to August 2015 and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer from January to July 2014.
Recent prior roles include Managing Director of Debswana Diamond Company (Pty) Ltd., President and Chief Executive Officer of De Beers Canada Inc., Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of PT International Nickel Indonesia tbk and Executive Vice President at Placer Dome Inc. Mr. Gowans has more than 40 years of experience in mineral exploration, mine feasibility studies, opening new mines (including the Red Dog and Polaris zinc mines), commissioning mine expansions and in the development of best practices in mine safety, mine operations and economic performance improvement, particularly in the application of innovative new technologies in the mining space.
He is currently a director of Cameco Corporation, Titan Mining and New Gold Inc. He was Chairman of the Board of Dominion Diamond Corporation from April 2017 until its sale in October 2017, and was recently appointed a director of Gedex Inc., an innovative geophysics systems company. He has served on the Boards of various junior mining companies over the years including Phoscan, Arizona Mining and Newcastle Gold. He previously served as the President of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), Chair of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), and as a Director of the Conference Board of Canada.
Mr. Gowans is a Professional Engineer and received a bachelor of applied science degree in mineral engineering from the University of British Columbia and attended the Banff School of Advanced Management.
Michelle Ash, CEO of GEOVIA at Dassault Systèmes, has made significant contributions to the mining sector with a focus on Innovation Strategy, Technology, and Digital Transformation.
Michelle is highly passionate about Mining and Infrastructure and remains focused on delivering sustainable solutions that help these sectors to continue to create and shape the world in which we live, through digital transformation and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
As Chair of the Global Mining Guidelines Group – GMG, Michelle has contributed to develop best practices and guidelines for the implementation of technology and socially enabled changes in the mining industry. She is also on the advisory board of several start-ups such as Petra Data Science, OffWorld, Behault, Descartes Labs and MineSpider.
Previously she was Chief Innovation Officer at Barrick Gold Corporation where she oversaw the company’s innovation program, looking both at how innovation can drive productivity in the existing business as well as how it can be harnessed to deliver alternative business models.
She began her career as a blasting engineer with Rio Tinto and has held several operational roles in various mining companies and across commodities.
Michelle was named to the 2016 list of “100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining” by Women in Mining UK and won the Technology Innovator of the Year Award by Mines and Technology in 2019. She holds a degree in Civil Engineering and an Executive MBA from the Melbourne Business School; she also holds a degree in Psychology from Deakin University.
Dean Braunsteiner is the Partner National Assurance Leader, Mining, PwC and provides public companies with audit and assurance services including advice on implementing new accounting standards, assistance on acquisitions and divestitures, and helps companies respond to comment letters received from Canadian and US regulatory bodies. Dean has extensive experience in IFRS and US GAAP, as well as SEC reporting, and is one of the firm’s subject matter experts on mining industry issues. As PwC Canada’s National IPO Services Leader, he also has significant experience with initial and secondary public offerings.
Dean obtained a BBA (Honours) degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1993 and received his CA designation in 1996. In 2001, Dean also received his CPA designation in Illinois.
Dominic Fragomeni, Vice President Strategic Innovation, Glencore is an executive professional engineer with over 30 years’ experience in mineral processing operations management, technology implementation and business leadership.
He was recently appointed to the position of VP Strategic Innovation for Glencore’s Nickel group. Previously, as vice-president of Glencore-XPS, Fragomeni led a team of technical specialists that provide innovative and practical solutions to clients in over 25 countries.
Prior to joining XPS, he held various operations management roles including mill superintendent at Hemlo Gold, Brunswick Mining, Falconbridge Kidd Creek, Strathcona Mill and Raglan. Fragomeni is a former national chairman of CMP. He received a CIM Fellowship in 2012 and a Noranda Achievement Award in 1996. He is a board member of Bharti School of Engineering and of Mirarco and supports research initiatives at the University of Alberta and McGill.
Dominic is an active member within CMIC and is passionate about operations performance excellence and supporting innovation in the industry. He is a graduate of the Haileybury School of Mines and received his mining engineering degree from Queen’s University at Kingston in 1988.
Ken Bell was appointed Vice President, Strategic Planning, Syncrude in January 2019.
He joined Syncrude as a Mining Engineer in 2001, and his career progression included many senior roles in areas of Production and Technical. Ken became Manager, Tailings and Lease Development in March 2016.
Ken holds a Bachelor of Science in Mine Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Natural Resources, Energy and Environment both from the University of Alberta.
In the community, Ken serves on the Board of Directors for Indigenous Works and is a member of Syncrude’s Aboriginal Relations Steering Committee.
Ken is a long-time Fort McMurray resident and has two children.
Andrew Swart is a Partner at Monitor Deloitte based in Toronto, Canada and is the Deloitte Global Mining and Metals Leader.
He has more than 22 years of industrial experience of which the last fifteen years has been in consulting. He has worked for senior executives in a range of industries including mining, oil and gas, and government. Within the government arena most of his work has operated at the intersection of business and government – a key interface for natural resource companies. His client engagements have included corporate and competitive strategy engagements, innovation systems, cost reduction through energy management and organizational transformation and economic development programs.
Andrew has worked for clients around the world including Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Germany, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Luke Mahony is Head of Geology, Mine Engineering, Geotechnical and Technology & Innovation,
Vale’s Global Base Metals.
Prior to moving to Canada, Luke headed up the Strategic and Short Term Mine Planning, Exploration, Studies & Projects, Engineering and Integrated Planning for Vale’s Coal Business based in Mozambique for 5 years. Prior to working for Vale, he worked 10 years for BHP in various managerial roles covering technical, operational and financial positions.
Luke holds three Masters’ Degrees in Mining Engineering, Geomechanics and Finance, a Bachelor of Engineering in Mining Engineering plus other Executive and Technical statutory qualifications.
Source: https://cmic-ccim.org/about/board-of-directors/
