Management & Directors
Allan Serwa, CEO & Director
Mr. Serwa is the founder of Abzu and responsible for undertaking the company's ten concession acquisitions and their initial exploration in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. He has been living and working in Ghana since 2007 where he has brought about responsible corporate growth through alignment with Ghanaian traditional culture and their pride in the national gold industry.
He brings to the company successful corporate and operational management background. Mr. Serwa has been an officer and Director of several private and publicly owned companies in Canada and West Africa. He is currently a Director of Cardero Ghana Ltd.
Dr. Paul D. Klipfel, Ph.D., President
Dr. Klipfel has over 32 years of mineral exploration experience and project development for a wide range of mineral commodities and deposit types in North America, South America, Australia, South Pacific, Africa, and Asia. He has been an effective explorer specializing in the relationship between geologic structure and mineralization. He has been a contributor to the discovery process on several major gold deposits including Las Cristinas, Venezuela (>12Moz); Musselwhite, Ontario, Canada (>5Moz); Esaase, Ghana (4.9Moz); Livengood, Alaska, USA (>10Moz). Deposit modeling at the Musselwhite Mine in northern Ontario resulted in addition to reserves of > 1M oz of gold. He has worked for, or consulted to numerous major and junior companies including Placer Dome Inc., Newmont Mining Corp., Barrick Gold Corp, Kinross Gold Corp., in a range of capacities. He holds a Ph.D. in Economic Geology (1992) and an M.S. in Mineral Economics (1988) from Colorado School of Mines, a M.S. in Geology from University of Idaho (1981), and a B.A. in geology from San Francisco State University (1978). He is currently on the Board of Directors of Trevali Resources Corp. and has been President of Mineral Resource Services Inc., a successful consulting practice based in Reno, Nevada for the past eight years.
Emmanuel Ababio, Managing Director of Abzu's wholly owned subsidiary, Abzu Resources (Ghana) Ltd
Mr. Ababio is a co-founder of the company and has been highly instrumental in every aspect of Abzu's corporate development within Ghana. He is responsible for all logistical functions, personnel management and the acquisition of concessions. Mr. Ababio's strong ties to government agencies, Ministries and businesses have facilitated Abzu in becoming established, respected and a trusted name within Ghana. Furthermore, Mr. Ababio liaises with highly respected traditional figures regarding social issues and appropriate procedures required to develop the land through exploration and mining. He is very dedicated to the advancement of the Ghanaian people and works closely with authorities to protect incoming investors.
Ross McDonald, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. McDonald is a Chartered Accountant, and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia since 1968. He has a broad range of experience in public company accounting and finance, providing accounting, audit and tax services to small and medium sized businesses. The majority of his clients are in the resource industry and include public companies, mining professionals, exploration service companies and consultants. He serves on the Board of Directors of Fjordland Exploration Ltd. and Miranda Gold Corp.
Sue Chipperfield, Corporate Secretary
Ms. Chipperfield has 8 years' experience of working for exploration companies, specializing in Administration and Corporate Secretary field. Since January 2010, she has worked as Corporate Secretary to Balmoral Resources Ltd., a TSXV listed junior exploration company.
Sue previously worked for West Timmins Mining Inc. where she served in the role of Executive Assistant to the President. She was responsible for regulatory filings, compliance and office administration for the Company from May, 2008 until its acquisition by Lake Shore Gold in a deal valued at $424 million which was completed in November of 2009.
Prior to that, Mrs. Chipperfield worked for Gitennes Exploration Inc., a TSX-V listed junior exploration company, for 5 years in a similar capacity.
Quentin Mai, Manager, Corporate Communications
Quentin has extensive experience providing professional corporate communications, investor relations and business development services to publicly listed companies in both the Canadian and US equities markets. He brings 20 years of professional commerce experience to the organization - including five years in Asia. For the five years until December 31, 2010, Quentin served as Vice President, Corporate Communications for International Tower Hill Mines (ITH) directing market awareness and investor programs originating from company inception to market capitalization exceeding $850M. While at ITH, Quentin facilitated equity raises totaling $200M and coordinated over $400M investment in the open market in 2010.
Richard Mark Serwa, Manager, Social Development
Mark worked as a Social Planner and Director for several world leading manufacturers before joining Abzu. Aside from planning and implementing large scale social programs, he has personally dedicated himself to safety in the work place and holds several certificates that are recognized around the world. He will be responsible for implementing a three phase social program in the Manso Nkwanta Region of Ghana. He is overseeing Phase I, which employs 25 Ghanaians from local villages. Mark is working directly with the Paramount Chief of the Manso Nkwanta, a traditional leader that also holds a percentage in one of Abzu's senior properties.
Board of Directors
In addition to Mr. Serwa the following parties are the Directors of the Company:
Gordon Neal, Chairman & Director
Gordon Neal has more than 25 years experience in providing corporate finance and corporate governance services to public companies. He founded Neal McInerney Investor Relations in 1991. Through marketing more than $4 billion in debt and equity financings, the company grew to be the second largest full service Investor Relations firm in Canada with offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Los Angeles. Clients included; BCE, Nortel, Bell Canada International, Bell Mobility, Intrawest, Canaccord Capital, BMO Nesbitt Burns, and TVX Gold.
Mr. Neal is currently the Vice President Corporate Development at MAG Silver Corp. He was also an advisor on corporate finance and investor relations to West Timmins Mining. He has raised more than $500 million for mining and resources companies since 2004.
He currently serves on the board of Rockgate Capital with uranium and silver assets in Mali West Africa as well as being a director of Dorato Resources with gold properties in Peru. He is also on the board of Balmoral Resources, a gold company with projects in Quebec and Ontario.
Gordon Neal graduated from Dalhousie University with a B.Sc. in Biochemistry in 1977. He was President of the Dalhousie Student Union in 1976-77. He has also served as a member of the Dalhousie University Senate and Board of Governors.
Dr. Mark Cruise, Ph.D., Director
Dr. Cruise has in excess of 18 years of global experience in the mineral exploration industry from grass-roots exploration through resource definition to production. He spent eight years employed by Anglo American plc where he was responsible for the company's exploration portfolio in Europe and North America. Dr. Cruise is the President and CEO of Trevali Resource Corp. and a director of Dorato Resources Ltd. He has a B.A. Mod (hons) degree in Geology and an industry funded Ph.D. degree in Economic Geology from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Jeff Pontius, Director
Mr. Pontius has 35 years of geological experience. He is currently the Chairman and CEO Corvus Gold Inc. from 2010 till present. Corvus Gold has recently announced a new plus 1 million ounce gold discovery in Nevada. During 1989-1996, as Exploration Manager of Pikes Peak Mining Company (a subsidiary of NERCO Mineral Co. and Independence Mining Company), Mr. Pontius directed the discovery and development work on the Cresson Deposit at Cripple Creek, Colorado, which currently contains over 20 million ounces of gold. He spent 1997 to 2006 at AngloGold Ashanti (USA) Exploration Inc., starting as Senior US Exploration Manager, and became North American Exploration Manager and also as a Director of Anglo American (USA) Exploration Inc. He left AngloGold Ashanti in 2006 to start International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. where he was the President and Chief Executive Officer until his retirement in May of 2011. Mr. Pontius directed the discovery and development of the Livengood gold Deposit which contains over 20 million ounces. Mr. Pontius holds a Masters Degree from the University of Idaho (Economic Geology), a BSc from Huxley College of Environmental Studies (Environmental Science) and a BSc from Western Washington University (Geology). He also holds director positions with several natural resource exploration and development companies.
Advisory Board
Darin Wagner
Darin is currently President & CEO of Balmoral Resources and formerly from West Timmins Mining Inc., where he was President, CEO, Director and Qualified Person from its inception, through the discovery of the high-grade Thunder Creek Gold Zone in Timmins, Ontario and through WTM's sale to Lake Shore Gold Corp. in an all share deal valued at $424 million completed in November of 2009.
Terry Lyons
Terry Lyons is Chairman, Northgate Minerals Corporation. Northgate operates the Kemess Mine in Northern British Columbia, is developing the Young Davidson project in
Terry is a civil engineer (UBC) with an MBA from the