Carl Timothy Delfeld, Chairman
Hay Seward Economic Security Council
719.201.3680
Managing Partner of Blackthread LLC and co-founder of North America Critical Elements Corp., Carl began his career with the First National Bank of Boston as director of the Japan/South Korea group. He next became the founder of the Asia group for the Robert W. Baird & Company before stints with the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and U.S. Joint Economic Committee and the U.S. Treasury Department. Carl was then appointed as a US Representative and Director of the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines. At the Asian Bank, he participated in the analysis and deployment of $18 billion of capital in emerging Asia. Carl was a co-founder of Pacifica Holdings, columnist with Forbes Asia and the National Interest, served as a member on the US National Committee on Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the U.S. Naval Institute and Japan -US Friendship Commission and was chairman of the Asian Pension Forum. He is the author of Red, White & Bold: Building a New American Century, and most recently, Power Rivals: America and China's Superpower Struggle. He earned a MALD from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University with study and research at Sophia University, Keio University, and Harvard University's Center for International Studies.
Nicholas Vardy
Senior Advisor
Born in Pittsburgh, Nicholas is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and an accomplished investment advisor and strategist who oversaw a portfolio of more than $1 billion in assets. He is a widely recognized expert on global investing and exchange-traded funds. He has been a regular commentator on CNN International and has also been cited in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Newsweek, Fox Business News, CBS, MarketWatch, and MSN Money Central. Nicholas holds a bachelor’s and a master’s from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Lee H. Hamilton
Senior Advisor
Lee H. Hamilton is one of the nation’s foremost experts on Congress and representative democracy is currently a member of the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he represented Indiana from 1965-1999. He also served as President and Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., from 1999-2010. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Hamilton currently serves as a Distinguished Scholar in the School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University. A leading figure on foreign policy, intelligence, and national security, Hamilton served as Vice Chairman of the 9/11 Commission and Co-Chairman of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. Until recently, he served as Co-Chair of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future with General Brent Scowcroft and as a member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
Rare Earths & Critical Materials Supply Chain Security Advisory Committee
Carl T. Delfeld, Chairman
Alastair Neill
Rare Earths and Metals Advisor
Mr. Neill led business development activities for Rare Earth Salts and experience with China since 1995 as part of the management team of AMR Technologies (now Neo Performance Materials). Managed two joint ventures in rare earth separation inside China becoming VP/GM for the rare earth division. From Beijing, negotiated a joint venture in Inner Mongolia, China and then led a turnaround of an American joint venture in China. Key member of Dacha Strategic Metals, purchasing rare earths stockpile in China as its value grew from $20M to $150M. Degree in Material Science Engineering from the University of Western Ontario and MBA from York University, Toronto.
Fabrice Demtare
Chief Africa Critical Minerals Advisor
Mr. Demtare is a professional geologist specializing in the exploration and valorization of critical and strategic minerals.
After his university studies in economic geology funded by work in Cameron mines, Fabrice in 2011 founded Southland Mining, which in just a few years rose to the rank of leader in gold exploration in the country. Now based in both Canada and the USA, Fabrice is co-founder and president of both Geo Squad and NACE Corp, two companies specializing in the exploration of critical minerals. The American branches of Geo Squad and the North America Critical Elements (NACE) Corp. are both based in Golden, CO and are affiliated with the Beck Venture Center at the Colorado School of Mines.
Geo Squad is a geological engineering firm offering mineral exploration services to North American mining companies while the NACE produces responsible and quality critical mineral concentrates in Africa and then exporting them to the United States for refining. NACE is particularly active in the DRC, Zambia and Guinea where the company is developing projects to build concentration plants for Cobalt, Copper, Nickel, and Alumina.
Christopher Ecclestone
Hallgarten & Company - Chief Mining Strategist and Analyst
Mr. Ecclestone is a Principal and mining strategist at Hallgarten & Company and is based in London. Prior to founding Hallgarten & Company in 2003 he was the head of research at an economic thinktank in New Jersey which he had joined in 2001. Before moving to the U.S., he was the founder and head of research at the esteemed Argentine equity research firm, Buenos Aires Trust Company, from 1991 until 2001. Prior to his arrival in Argentina, he worked in London beginning in 1985 as a corporate finance and equities analyst and as a freelance consultant on the restructuring of the securities industry. Earlier, he worked for the Federal and State governments in Australia. He is a native of Melbourne, Australia. He graduated in 1981 from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Melissa Sanderson
Resource Diplomacy, Negotiation & ESG
Ms. Sanderson is the globally experienced and forward-looking Founder of Ethically Sustainable Growth (ESG+), advising boards and companies how to position themselves for sustainable success by embracing diversity, inclusion and compassion. Her 30-year international career includes diplomacy, negotiation, and business. She currently is a Professor of Practice at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona. Melissa served as a senior diplomat, including as Charge d'Affaires in charge of the US Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. As VP International at Freeport-McMoRan she coordinated Freeport's environmental, social and governmental functions in Peru and Chile, as well as the DRC. Melissa is the recipient of numerous awards, including the U.S. State Department Superior Honor Award and inclusion in the Who’s Who of American Women Bankers. She serves on several boards, including American Rare Earths Limited and the Critical Minerals Institute, and currently chairs the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations and the Arizona District Export Council.
David R. Henderson
Rare Earths, Rare Metals and Manufacturing Advisor
Mr. Henderson is president of Rittenhouse International Resources, LLC and has a forty plus year career in specialty materials including with Cabot Corporation. He has experience with products and markets such as tantalum, niobium, rare earths, scandium, gallium, lithium, beryllium, and superalloys. David is co-founder, Director, and CMO of Nanoscale Powders, a manufacturer of elemental and alloyed metal and ceramic powders and is a graduate of Pomona College and Harvard Business School.
Gregory D. Wischer
Cobalt Advisor
Mr. Wischer is Vice President of Government Affairs at Westwin Elements—an American company poised to build and operate the first major cobalt refinery in the United States. He has experience in both the public and private sectors, including with National Defense University, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, US House of Representatives, J.R. Simplot Company, and Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, India. Mr. Wischer has spent substantial time overseas, most extensively in sub-Saharan Africa and India. His writing has appeared in the Washington Times, RealClearMarkets, Newsweek, The National Interest, and Georgetown Security Studies Review. A North Dakotan, and he received his BA in International Business from Boise State University, where he also captained the men’s tennis team, and his MA in Security Studies from Georgetown University.
Francisco Molinero
Dual Use Technologies
National Security Innovation
Mr. Molinero is the current prime contract Deputy PM helping lead a group of ~70 contractors in support of the National Security Innovation Network at the Department of Defense (NSIN, OUSD Research & Engineering). He has over 17 years of experience at the intersection of national security innovation, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and Fortune 500 corporations - equity and debt placements for companies in industrials, transportation, retail, energy, and defense, completing ~$1.2B in transactions at Castle Placement, a NY-based investment bank.
Previously worked at Cummins’ corporate venture group and as the U.S. partner of 4i, a corporate venture advisory services firm that served Forbes Global 2000 energy and defense companies. Before that, he was a project director at the AES Corporation, helping to lead a new subsidiary focused on managing global power delivery risk.
Completed doctoral studies (all but dissertation) in Mechanical and Chemical Engineering from Carlos III University of Madrid, has done extensive research at Yale University and holds MBA and diplomacy degrees from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and School of Foreign Service. Also graduate of the London Business School’s Project and Infrastructure Finance Executive Program. FINRA Series 7 and 63.
Dr. Roderick G. Eggert
Critical Materials Senior Advisor
Mr. Eggert is Viola Vestal Coulter Foundation Chair in Mineral Economics at Colorado School of Mines, where he has taught since 1986. He also is deputy director of the Critical Materials Institute, a research consortium established by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2013, to accelerate innovation in energy materials. His research and teaching focus on mineral economics and public policy – especially, in recent years, on critical minerals and materials. He chaired the U.S. National Research Council committee that wrote the 2008 book, Minerals, Critical Minerals, and the U.S. Economy (National Academies Press). He has testified on critical minerals and materials at committee hearings of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and European Parliament. Mr. Eggert has a PhD, Mineral Economics, Pennsylvania State University, 1983, MS, Geochemistry and Mineralogy, Pennsylvania State University, 1980, and a BA, Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, 1978.
Dr. Tom Brady
Rare Earths, Rare Metals Research Advisor
Dr. Brady is the Executive Director of the J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities at the University of Colorado Denver Business School. Prior to this, he was the Chief Economist at Newmont Mining Corporation where he was responsible for generating key commodity price, foreign exchange and other financial assumptions used throughout the company. In this role, Dr. Brady also developed methods to effectively quantify and communicate the economic impact of Newmont’s operations to host communities and countries. Prior to this position, he led Newmont’s Strategic Planning function that developed and implemented portfolio modeling analytics. Before Newmont, Dr. Brady was a Senior Manager at Risk Capital Management, a consultancy that advised energy and natural resource companies on financial risk, valuation and commodity hedging. He has also worked with CQG, Inc. where he developed a suite of automated trading systems for commodity futures contracts using the company’s short-term, price and volume charting methods. He holds a Ph.D. in Mineral Economics with research emphases in commodity markets from the Colorado School of Mines.
Terence R. Kooyker
Senior Advisor
Mr. Kooyker co‐founded Valent after serving as Partner, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Blenheim Capital Management (BCM). At Blenheim, he led its expansion into coal, minor precious metals, rare earth elements and other physical metal markets. From 2016, as Partner, he helped oversee the Firm's overall risk exposure and operation, and served on BCM’s allocation committee which determined PM allocations of the $9 billion in peak assets. Kooyker graduated with honors from Columbia Business School with an MBA, with distinction from Oxford University with an MSc in Science and Medicine of Athletic Performance, and Brown University with a BSc in Neuroscience. He serves as Senior Advisor to the World Bank for Sustainable Development in South America.
Joseph Mullin
Senior Advisor, Precious Metals & Copper
Mr. Mullin is the CEO of QuestEx Gold & Copper Ltd. since August 2019. He is a Partner and Director of Mount Arvon Partners LLC, and he was previously the CEO and Director of Buckingham Copper Corp. He is an Independent Director of Industria Metals. and Pure Energy Minerals Limited. Mr. Mullin has over 20 years of experience in corporate finance, private equity, restructuring, resources and consulting. He has served as a Consultant, Trust Advisory Committee Member, Chief Restructuring Officer, Creditor Committee Member and executive to several companies through Joseph E. Mullin LLC. He began his career as a Financial Analyst in the Corporate Finance Department at Goldman Sachs, was a Private Equity Analyst at WL Ross / Invesco Ltd. and a Portfolio Manager at Millennium Global Investments Ltd. He has a B.A. from Harvard University.
Daniel McGroarty
Rare Earths, Rare Metals Economic Security Advisor
Mr. McGroarty has fifteen years of experience in advising companies in the resource sector, with a focus on critical and strategic materials and supply chains. He has consulted for more than a decade with firms ranging from Fortune 50 companies to start-up ventures. Daniel was a Special Assistant to George H.W. Bush and Presidential Appointee to two U.S. Secretaries of Defense. He has a Master’s Degree from Boston College in Massachusetts.
David S. Abraham
Rare Earths, Rare Metals and Environmental Advisor
Mr. Abraham runs the Technology, Rare and Electronics Materials Center and is author of The Elements of Power. David’s career spans from commodities trading on Wall Street to the White House where he oversaw international and natural resource programs. He researched rare earths and rare metals at Tokyo University, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
