BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Peter was previously a senior partner of the Australian law firm Freehills (the predecessor to Herbert Smith Freehills, which is currently engaged by the Group for corporate advisory matters), and served as the National Chairman of Freehills. Peter has significant experience in managing large organisations and over 20 years of  experience as a Director of ASX and EuroNext listed companies, including ASX 100 companies. Peter’s international experience covers a broad range of industries and sectors including mining, media, agribusiness, energy, engineering services, oil and gas, technology, retail and property across Europe, Africa and Canada. In the engineering, resources and infrastructure sectors he is chairperson of Energy Resources of Australia Ltd and Ora Banda Mining Ltd, and was chairperson of the WA Electricity Networks Corporation (known as Western Power) and Zinifex Ltd. He has also been a Director of Aurecon Group Ltd, Nyrstar NV, OZ Minerals Ltd, Hardman Resources Ltd and Tap Oil Ltd. Peter is also currently a Director of Cancer Research Fund Pty Ltd (trustee of the Cancer Research Trust) and Foodbank of WA Inc.

Les has over 45 years of experience in the project delivery space having held corporate executive and project management roles across the UK, Australia, North America and Asia for Rio Tinto, BHP, Fluor and Aker Kvaerner. Les is currently a Non-executive Director of Neometals Ltd and Australian Mines Limited. He is also Principal and Managing Director of Bedford Road Associates, where he has provided advice and delivery support to customers such as Rio Tinto in Mongolia, Hyundai Engineering and Samsung Engineering in S.Korea, Otakaro and CERA in New Zealand, and to Melbourne Water, the State government of Victoria and NBN Co in Australia. Les was also one of the founding contributors to the John Grill Centre for Project Leadership at The University of Sydney. Les holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Marketing from the University of West of Scotland, Paisley.

Paul Lombard is a registered professional engineer with 35 years of experience in the fields of transportation infrastructure engineering, financing and planning as well as management consulting and restructuring.
He was involved in the senior management hierarchy of Aurecon for 27 years, including as Managing Director for the Africa and Middle East business for 14 years, and subsequently Managing Director for Asia and the Middle East for 3 years. Throughout this time he was also a member of the Aurecon Exco. He served on the boards of Aurecon subsidiary companies and board committees throughout this period.

Paul has participated either as project leader or as feasibility/planning expert in transportation sector projects throughout Africa including countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Angola, Mozambique, Mauritius, Djibouti, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia, as well as Lebanon, the USA and Ireland. These projects were typically funded by agencies such as the World Bank, EU, AfDB, KfW, BADEA, USAID and the UNCDF. He has also been appointed in his personal capacity to do projects financed by the World Bank.

Paul also has considerable lecturing experience. He has co-presented post-graduate courses in transportation planning at the University of Pretoria, the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Johannesburg and has served as an external examiner for post-graduate students. He has presented more than 30 papers at conferences.

Paul received a PhD in Urban and Transportation Engineering at Purdue University, USA in 1991. Prior to this, he was selected as a Fulbright scholar (1988) and obtained an MSCE degree in Urban and Transportation Engineering (1989) at Purdue University as well as a BEng (Civil) (Cum laude) at the University of Pretoria (1982).

Johnny Velloza is a mining engineer with broad mining experience in both open pit and underground operations across southern, central and east Africa, Chile and Australia. Johnny has experience across a range of commodities including iron ore, copper, cobalt, gold and diamonds. He has held senior operational and management roles in large mining companies, including De Beers, AngloGold Ashanti, BHP Billiton and Gem Diamonds. Since starting his career 26 years ago, Johnny has experience across the full mining value chain including exploration, feasibility studies, establishing new mines and running mining operations.

Mr Velloza has a Higher Diploma (Mining Engineering) from the Technikon Witswatersrand, a Bachelor of Technology (Mining Engineering) from the University of Johannesburg and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of South Africa. He is currently a non-executive director of Zanaga Iron Ore and the CEO of Kobaloni Energy.