SOLARIS - Key Persons
Daniel Earle has over 17 years of experience in the mining sector and capital markets, covering projects ranging from early stage exploration through feasibility and engineering to production. Mr. Earle is currently the President and CEO of Solaris Resources and also serves on its Board of Directors. Prior to joining Solaris in November 2019, he was a Vice President and Director at TD Securities where he covered the mining sector for over 12 years and established himself as a thought leader in the space. Prior to joining TD Securities in 2007, Mr. Earle was a senior executive with a number of Canadian and U.S. public mineral exploration and mining companies. Mr. Earle sits on the Board of Directors of Augusta Gold Corp. and is a graduate and scholar of the Lassonde Mineral Engineering Program at the University of Toronto.
Donald Taylor has over 30 years of domestic and international mineral exploration experience taking projects from exploration to mining. He is the recipient of the 2019 Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration's Robert M. Deyer Award and the 2018 recipient of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada's Thayer Lindsley Award for the 2014 discovery of the Taylor lead-zinc-silver deposit. Mr. Taylor has worked extensively for large and small cap companies, including Arizona Mining, BHP Minerals, Bear Creek Mining, American Copper and Nickel, Doe Run Resources, Westmont Mining Company, Titan Mining, and Augusta Gold Corp.
Federico Velásquez has over 20 years of international relations experience in the areas of permitting, regulatory, government relations and indigenous/community relations, and has successfully led major projects in highly sensitive and complex sociopolitical scenarios. Since joining Solaris in 2018, Mr. Velásquez has been responsible for the operational execution of the company's asset development strategy. Prior to Solaris, Mr. Velásquez spent more than 5 years leading corporate affairs and supporting the management of assets for Anglo American Metallurgical Coal Canada, as a Managing Director of Peace River Coal Inc. Previous to that, he held various senior leadership roles in AltaGas as well as in the Ministries of Energy and Mines and Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, respectively, for the Government of British Columbia. Mr. Velásquez's policy making and academic contributions include the Human Security Report for the United Nations and establishing the first indigenous revenue sharing policy for natural resources in Canada.
Job Titles:
- VICE PRESIDENT, INVESTOR RELATIONS
- Experience Implementing Strategic Investor
Jacqueline Wagenaar has 15 years of experience implementing strategic investor relations programs for publicly traded issuers. Ms. Wagenaar has a proven track record of executing investor relations programs that result in effective investor outreach, solid stakeholder relationships and, ultimately, improved shareholder value. Prior to joining Solaris in November 2019, Ms. Wagenaar was formerly with Guyana Goldfields Inc. prior to its acquisition for over 10 years as a Director and then VP, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications and single-handedly implemented the first investor relations program. Ms. Wagenaar is a certified professional in investor relations from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, a former Board member with the Canadian Investor Relations Institute and a frequent industry speaker.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Mining Engineer
Javier Toro is a Mining Engineer with over 25 years of experience leading the design and execution of engineering and economic studies for global scale open pit copper projects in the Americas. Prior to joining Solaris in January 2024, Mr. Toro worked with Hudbay Minerals for over 11 years in progressively more senior capacities, most recently as Vice President, Mining Technical Services, with prior executive and director-level roles in mining, technical services, and mine optimization. Notably, Mr. Toro provided direct management of delivering technical reports and economic studies for various open pit copper projects, including the Constancia mine in Peru, Copper World mine in United States and Copper Mountain mine in Canada. Prior to Hudbay Minerals, Mr. Toro worked at Golder Associates Peru S.A. leading a team to produce the mining design, schedule and cost estimations for various projects. Prior to this, Mr. Toro held various management positions in mine operations in the areas of geotechnical, hydrogeological, mine operations, and mine planning. Mr. Toro holds a Bachelor of Mining Engineering with Honors from the National University of Engineering in Lima, Peru.
Job Titles:
- VICE PRESIDENT, EXPLORATION
Jorge Fierro has over 22 years of exploration experience in South America. Mr. Fierro has been VP, Exploration for Solaris' portfolio of assets since 2015 when he joined the predecessor company, Lowell Mineral Exploration. Prior to this, Mr. Fierro spent 6 years as CIC Resources' General Manager for South America, and 2 years as Rio Tinto's Mining & Exploration Country Manager for Peru. In addition to this, Mr. Fierro spent 10 years with BHP Billiton in a variety of positions including Northern Andes and Peru Exploration Manager, Chief Mine Geologist for the Tintaya copper mine, as part of the team that discovered the world-class Antapaccay porphyry copper mine in Southern Peru. Mr. Fierro is a professional geologist with a BSc in Geology from Escuela Politécnica Nacional de Quito in Ecuador and an MSc and DIC (Mineral Exploration) from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, University of London.
Mr. Thomson brings over 35 years of senior strategic mergers and acquisitions experience in the mining industry. Mr. Thomson currently serves as Senior Executive Vice President, Strategic Matters for Barrick Gold Corporation ("Barrick") where he is involved in all matters of strategic significance, including the management of complex negotiations, development of corporate strategy, involvement in complex legal issues, and governance related matters. Prior to joining Barrick in 2014, Mr. Thomson was a senior partner at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP ("Davies Ward"), and was one of Canada's leading mergers and acquisitions lawyers where he advised many of Canada's largest and most successful public companies, including Barrick, on a number of industry leading transactions and also was a key strategic and legal advisor to a number of the country's leading private enterprises. Mr. Thomson was the longest standing member of the committee responsible for managing the Davies Ward firm.
Poonam Puri is an experienced corporate director and an internationally recognized scholar of corporate law, corporate governance, and capital markets regulation. Ms. Puri is a tenured Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Ontario, and a corporate lawyer and Affiliated Scholar at Davies, Ward, Phillips & Vineberg, LLP. Ms. Puri holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Toronto, a Master of Laws from Harvard University and has earned the Institute of Corporate Directors, Institute-Certified Director Designation (ICD.D). Ms. Puri has extensive experience as an expert in governance and as a director of organizations in the engineering, transportation, infrastructure, mining and healthcare sectors, including as a past director of CAPREIT, Arizona Mining, Cole Engineering and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, and she previously served as the commission and director of the Ontario Securities Commission. Ms. Puri presently serves on the board of directors or trustees of the Canada Infrastructure Bank, Colliers, and Augusta Gold. Ms. Puri has been recognized as one of the top 25 most influential lawyers in Canada by Canadian Lawyer Magazine. In 2021, Ms. Puri was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Yvan Allaire Medal for exemplary contributions to the governance of public and private institutions in Canada, in addition to the Law Society Medal and the David Walter Mundell Medal. Most recently, in 2022, Ms. Puri was awarded the Peter Dey Governance Achievement Award.
Job Titles:
- SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CORPORATE AFFAIRS
Purni Parikh has over 25 years of public company experience in the mining sector including corporate affairs and finance, legal and regulatory administration, and governance. Ms. Parikh joined Solaris in November 2019. Ms. Parikh is President of the Augusta Group of Companies and Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs of its member companies. Previously, Ms. Parikh was Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Corporate Secretary of Arizona Mining Inc. and Newcastle Gold Ltd., and Vice President, Corporate Secretary for Augusta Resource Corporation and Ventana Gold Corp. prior to their acquisition. Ms. Parikh obtained a Certificate in Business from the University of Toronto and a Gemology degree. Ms. Parikh sits on the Board of Directors of Sun Summit Minerals Corp. and holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.
Job Titles:
- EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN
- Business Executive
Richard Warke is a Vancouver-based Canadian business executive with more than 35 years of experience in the international resource sector. In 2005, Mr. Warke founded the Augusta Group of Companies which has an unrivaled track record of value creation in the mining sector.
Ron Walsh has many years' experience advising on corporate tax and business issues and is founding partner of Walsh King LLP. Mr. Walsh is a Chartered Professional Accountant and has held a number of prestigious professional appointments throughout his career, including amongst others, Governor of the Canadian Tax Foundation, President of the Estate Planning Council of Vancouver, and Public Governor of the Vancouver Stock Exchange. In addition, he has frequently lectured on tax and related matters for professional organizations, and spoken at national and international conferences on tax and business advisory issues.
Ms. Lowe brings over 20 years of capital markets, finance, and international accounting, tax and risk management experience. In her most recent role with an Ecuador-focused exploration and development company, INV Metals Inc., Ms. Lowe went beyond the traditional duties of her role as Chief Financial Officer to become a driving force in the completion of a feasibility study, engagement with Ecuadorian government to advance project permitting, and negotiation of an Investor Protection Agreement and Exploitation Agreement, that contributed to the company's successful acquisition by an intermediate producer. Prior to this, Ms. Lowe was Vice President, Finance for Kinross Gold Corp. for two years and Vice President, Internal Audit & Enterprise Risk Management for almost four years. Prior to Kinross Gold Corp., Ms. Lowe worked at Inmet Mining where she held leadership roles of increasing responsibility across functions including Enterprise Risk Management, Global Taxation and Compliance, and Business Systems and Controls. Ms. Lowe is a Chartered Professional Accountant and holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of EMX Royalty Corporation.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Legal
- Vice President Legal for the Augusta Group of Companies
Tom Ladner joined Solaris Resources in November 2020 as Vice President Legal. Mr. Ladner is also Vice President Legal for the Augusta Group of Companies, including Augusta Gold Corp. and Titan Mining Corporation. Prior to joining the Augusta Group, Mr. Ladner practiced law in the Securities and Capital Markets group of a major Canadian law firm. Mr. Ladner has advised on multiple M&A transactions valued in excess of $1B and more than 25 public market financings raising in aggregate more than $750M. Mr. Ladner has his Honors in Business Administration (with distinction) from the Richard Ivey School of Business and his Juris Doctor from Western University.