Corporate Info
Board of Directors
Ayub Khan
Non Executive Chairman of the Board
Ayub Khan was appointed to the board of directors of Desert Gold Ventures Inc. in January 2007. Mr. Khan brings over 19 years of experience in operations, public markets and finance to Desert Gold. Over the last 19 years he has been involved in acquiring, restructuring and financing public companies. His experience in public markets includes acquisitions of companies in Europe and South America.
Mr. Khan is a professional Asset Manager currently based in Geneva, Switzerland; he travels extensively overseeing his company's considerable business interests. As Chairman of the Board of Desert Gold Ventures, he oversees the global vision for the company and brings into play his network of key industry players.
Roeland van Kerckhoven
President and Chief Executive Officer
Roeland van Kerckhoven, spent more than 29 years of his career with the Anglo American group of companies, serving for the last 15 years as CFO and business development director of Anglo Platinum until he retired in March 2007. At various times during his career at AngloPlatinum, he also headed exploration, legal, corporate finance, investor relations and corporate communications functions. Since joining TransAfrika in 2008 as President and Chief Executive Officer, he has overseen the discovery and evaluation of a portfolio of assets and has been actively involved in negotiations with African governments and joint venture partners.
Thomas R. Tough, P.Eng.
Director
Mr. Tough joined the board of Desert Gold Ventures in 2003. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia and holds a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of British Columbia. He has more than 40 years experience as a self-employed consulting Professional Engineer in 40 different countries, in both the western and eastern hemispheres. In the course of his career he has been involved in property examinations, qualifying reports, evaluations, project acquisitions and negotiations, mine evaluation, underground and surface exploration, reserve and resource estimations, mine and mill planning and processing, pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, development and production, open pit and underground, as operator, project manager, and consultant on precious and base metals, industrial minerals, gemstones and oil and gas. He has negotiated corporate financings and joint venture partnerships and dealt with various levels of domestic and foreign government bodies.
He has held numerous directorships and officer positions in public and private companies, including the role of President, CEO and director of Desert Sun Mining Corp. for 18 years. In April 2006, Yamana Gold Inc. purchased the Desert Sun Mining Corp. and its producing gold mine in Brazil.
In 2003 Mr. Tough joined the boards of TSX-listed Potash One Inc and TSX.V listed Maxtech Ventures Inc., where he still serves as President & CEO. He is past President and CEO of Potash One Inc., and continues to serve as a director. Since 2008 he has served on the board of Aroway Minerals Inc. and in 2010 he became President, CEO and a director of Firebird Resources Inc., both listed on the TSX Venture Exchange.
Louw van Schalkwyk
Director
Louw van Schalkwyk, BSc. Hons (Geology), started his career as an exploration geologist with Gold Fields of South Africa Limited in 1984, and was later promoted to senior geologist. In 1992, he moved to consulting and contracting geology, working on gold and base metal exploration for various major and junior exploration and mining companies in sub-Saharan Africa. These included Rio Tinto Plc, Anglo American, Iscor Limited and Pangea Minerals Ltd in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda and Namibia. Since joining TransAfrika as technical director in 2008 he has been in charge of gold, ferrous and basemetal projects in Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. His ability to integrate geology with applied exploration techniques led to the discovery of the Gams East Zinc deposit while he was project manager for Anglo American; and of the Byumba Gold Deposit in Rwanda while working for TransAfrika.
Theo Christodoulou
Director
Theo Christodoulou holds an MBA from Duke University and is a Chartered Accountant. Mr. Christodoulou worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers for nearly 5 years, after which he joined Deutsche Bank He worked for the bank for eleven years which included five years as Director (and head of Metals and Mining in South Africa). He then founded the corporate finance company, AC Squared Solutions in 2010. Mr. Christodoulou has extensive experience as an advisor on mining initiatives, project finance planning and management, M&A, IPO's and BEE structuring across Africa.
Sonny Janda
Director
Mr. Janda joined the board of Desert Gold Ventures in 2010 and holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC. He is the President & CEO of Grand Peak Capital Corp., a TSX.V (GPK) listed company that invests in public and private corporations. He also serves on the board of Maxtech Ventures Inc. (TSX.V:DAU), Lucky Minerals Inc (TSX.V:LJ) and on the board of CNSX listed Easymed Services Inc.
