Click on a name below to read the biography.
- Robert Pevenstein
- Gerald E. (Gary) Davis
- John B. Gammon
- Donald J. Page
- Steven L. Phillips
- W.S. Steve Vaughan
- Leroy Wilkes
Robert Pevenstein - Chairman of the Board and Director
Mr. Pevenstein, MBA, CPA, founded Princeville Partners, LLC, a merger and acquisition and business consulting firm in 1997 in Hunt Valley, Maryland, serving continuously as its President. He has over twenty years experience as a senior corporate financial executive with expertise in all disciplines of the financial function. From September 1987 to December 1997, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of UNC Incorporated (formerly United Nuclear Corporation) where he played a major role in the transformation of UNC from a uranium mining and submarine nuclear reactor manufacturing company to an aviation services and manufacturing company with sales in 1977 of $1.1 billion. UNC was sold to the General Electric Company in 1997. In 2003, he was appointed by Maryland’s Governor to serve a five-year term as a member of the Board of Regents of the University System of Maryland and to be a member of the Board of Directors of the independent University of Maryland Medical System. He has served as a director of QuadraMed Corporation since September 2003, becoming Chairman in January 2006. Mr. Pevenstein serves on these Boards (including as Chairman of their Audit Committees) utilizing his background to assist the Boards in fulfilling their corporate governance responsibilities and providing advice to Management. Mr. Pevenstein was appointed as the Company’s Chairman of the Board effective August 9, 2007.
Gerald E. (Gary) Davis - President, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Mr. Davis brings to Ascendant significant senior executive experience in the natural resource industry with broad commodity experience in base metals, precious metals, diamonds, industrial minerals and coal. In March 2002, he was appointed President and Chief Financial Officer of Atlas Minerals Inc. (formerly Atlas Corporation), after having previously been appointed Chairman, Principal Financial Officer and Secretary in September 2001. Mr. Davis also held the position of Chief Executive Officer from October 2003 until June 2004. Serving as Chief Financial Officer, and previously in other management positions with Archangel Diamond Corporation (TSXV: AAD) from May 1997 to December 2002, he was involved in corporate finance as well as compliance. Mr. Davis spent thirteen years with ARCO Coal Company, a division of Atlantic Richfield, where he was responsible for worldwide acquisitions.
John B. Gammon - Director
Mr. Gammon holds a Ph.D. in Geology. He was employed in successively senior positions in mineral exploration management with, among other companies, Falconbridge. He spent seventeen years with the Government of Ontario, Canada, in the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, the first two years as Director, Mineral Development and Lands Branch and then as Assistant Deputy Minister, Mines and Minerals Division. Mr. Gammon was senior advisor on all mining issues to five successive governments. In appreciation for services to mining and northern Ontario, John was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Laurentian University in 2006.
After retiring from government in 2005 he established his own consulting firm, John Gammon Associates Inc., advising governments and the mining industry on mining issues, and established the “Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation” at Laurentian University. He is also the Founder of the World Mines Ministries Forums, Toronto. He has served as a director of Gold Summit Corporation (TSXV: GSM) since October 2005; Strait Gold Corporation (TSXV: SRD) since November 2005; Sherwood Copper Corporation (TSXV: SWC) since February 2006; Golden Arrow Resources Corporation (TSXV. GRG) since March 2007; Probe Mines Limited (TSX: PRB) since November 2007; and First Point Minerals Corp. (TSXV: FPX) since January 2008. From September 2005 to January 2006, he was a director of Prominex Resource Corporation (TSXV: PXR).
Donald J. Page - Director
Mr. Page, C.A., has over 30 years of experience working with entrepreneurs as a tax advisor with Ernst & Young, as independent consultant, director of public and private companies, as an executive officer and as an investment banker. The focus has always been, in addition to raising capital, to provide tactical senior management consulting services to help growing companies fill temporary voids in their management teams. He has had an opportunity to work in many interesting sectors ranging from nanotechnology to mining to hospitality, with clients from North America to China, Europe and New Zealand. Mr. Page has served as President of Glister Limited, a management consulting company, since June 1986. He was a director and Chairman of the Board of St. Geneviève Resources Ltd. ("SGV") from June 2007 until March 2008, when the Company acquired all of the outstanding common shares of SGV and Mr. Page joined the Company's Board. He was Vice-Chairman of the Limited Market Dealer, Kingsdale Capital Partners Inc., from March 2002 to September 2003; Vice President of the brokerage firm, Desjardins Securities, from August 2001 until January 2002; Executive Vice President of the brokerage firm, Groome Capital, from July 1997 until August 2001 when it was sold to Desjardins Securities; and a director of Shift Networks Inc. from December 2003 to May 2007.
Steven L. Phillips - Director
Mr. Philips is an attorney who has practiced law for twenty-seven years. He was a practicing attorney for fifteen years, the last eight as a partner, with Morrison & Foerster LLP in San Francisco, California. From May 1996 to May 2007, he was Assistant General Counsel with CMS Enterprises Company, a subsidiary of CMS Energy Corporation and a multi-billion dollar global energy company. Since May 2007, Mr. Phillips has been Global Vice President and General Counsel of TAQA New World Inc., a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Energy Company and a multibillion dollar global energy company. Mr. Phillips has in-depth legal and international business development experience, including the acquisition, development, financing, construction, operation, and disposition of large infrastructure companies and assets both domestically and internationally.
W.S. Steve Vaughan - Director
Mr. Vaughan holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in geology as well as a law degree and has worked in or been closely associated with all facets of the mineral exploration, mine finance and securities industries since 1955. In February 2007 Mr. Vaughan joined the law firm of Heenan Blaikie as a partner in the Business Law Group. He was a partner of McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP, a law firm involved in the international natural resource and energy businesses, particularly in the mining, oil and gas, geothermal and nuclear industries, from February 2002 until January 2007, and chaired the firm’s Natural Resources Group during that time. From 1974 to February 2002, he was a partner of the law firm of Aird & Berlis LLP.
Mr. Vaughan has served on various committees advising Canadian governments on issues such as mineral policy, mineral strategy, mining finance, mining taxation, seed capital, junior resource policies, over-the-counter trading as well as nuclear issues, serving as a director of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited from 1992 to 1998 and chairing its Environmental Committee. He is a director and member of the Securities Committee of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, a former director of the Toronto Branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and was a member of the joint Toronto Stock Exchange/Ontario Securities Commission Mining Standards Task Force.
He has served as secretary (since June 1990) and as director (since May 2000) of Algoma Central Corporation – a Canadian shipping, transportation and real estate development company (TSX: ALC); as a director of Apollo Gold Corporation (TSX: APG; AMEX: AGT) since July 2003; since December 1987 of Consolidated Tanager Limited (CDN); since 2007 as director of Ginguro Exploration, Inc. (TSX-V: GEG); has been director of J.N. Harbinson, Ltd. (Private) for at least thirty years; since 2006 as president and director of Johannesburg Investments Inc. (Private BVI Company); since January 2004 as president and director of Platte River Gold Inc. (Private); since May 2004 as a director of Western Troy Capital Resources Inc. (TSX-V: WRY), an exploration mining company focusing on a base metals project in northern Quebec; since March 2007 as a director of Pure Nickel Inc. (TSX: NIC); and director of Worldbizonline.com (private) since 2006.
Leroy Wilkes - Director
Mr. Wilkes is a Mining and Professional Engineer with over 37 years of surface and underground mining and processing experience in such commodities as copper, molybdenum, lead, silver, zinc and limestone. He has held executive positions with ARCo/Anaconda Minerals, where he rose to the position of Vice President of Business Development. He subsequently served as Vice President for BHP’s Ridgeway Mining Company and as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corporation.
In 1988, Mr. Wilkes became Executive Vice President of Washington Corporations, where he was responsible for, among other mining activities, mergers and acquisitions as the company expanded to become one of the largest construction companies in the United States. In 1997, Mr. Wilkes became Executive Vice President of the mining unit for Washington Group International (NYSE – WGII). In 2003, he was appointed as President of the Business Mining Unit of Washington Group, responsible for the operating and financial performance of the Unit’s international operations in the metals, coal and industrial minerals markets. Mr. Wilkes also currently serves on the boards of Quaterra Resources Inc. (TSX-V: QTA) and Sabina Silver Corporation (TSX-V: SBB).
