Mr Baxter was appointed CEO of the Minerals Council in 2015. He has 29 years of high-level advocacy and strategy experience in the business and mining sectors. He was involved in the first mineral policy discussions with the ANC in 1992 and in most of the significant minerals policy discussions since then. He has participated in, and often led, the business negotiation teams on a range of issues such as the 2002 Mining Charter, the 1998 Energy Policy White Paper, the 1997 Skills Development Act, the 2009 Royalty Act, the 2010 revised Mining Charter, etc. He has participated in all the Presidential Job Summit and Investment Conferences, and he has played a leadership role in encouraging government to focus on the issues that drive South Africa’s investment competitiveness. He previously chaired the Business Unity South Africa’s (BUSA) Economic Policy Committee and Economic Growth Task Team. He is the Founding Chairman of the World Platinum Investment Council. He recently participated in President Ramaphosa’s 7-a-side NEDLAC leadership team looking at how to revive the economy post COVID-19. He has played a key leadership role in rejuvenating the brand of the Minerals Council and brings material leadership, governance, strategy, investment, and transformation skills to the table.

He is a member of the Minerals Council Board, the BUSA Board, the TEBA Fund Trust Board of Trustees and he chairs the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC). He is Chairman of the Associations Coordination Group of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) and is the current Chairman of the Mining Industry Association of Southern Africa (MIASA). In 2020, Mr Baxter was the winner of the Mining Review Africa, 2020 Mining Thought Leader of the Year award. The article states “Fully committed to the mining industry and a person who pulls no punches when it comes to addressing pertinent matters. These words aptly describe Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter.” In 2018, Mr Baxter was awarded the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s (SAIMM) Brigadier Stokes Platinum medal for his contribution to the South African mining sector. Since the launch of the MiningMX “Rainmaker and Pot-stirrers” publication, Mr Baxter has been listed as one of Africa’s top 100 most influential people in the mining industry.

Prof. Dmitri Bessarabov was recruited for his current position from Canada in 2010. He obtained his Master’s degree in Chemistry in Moscow, Russia and in 1996 his doctoral degree from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He worked in the industrial R&D sectors in Canada for Kvaerner Group, Ballard Power Systems and AFCC (Daimler and Ford JV). He is an internationally-recognised visionary with extensive industrial and academic decision-making experience. Current responsibilities include building effective teams with deep technical capabilities and managing these teams and providing leadership and management in the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Programme (HySA). He is also involved in contributing to the South African National Hydrogen Road Map. He holds SA NRF rating C1, has co-authored more than 150 publications and serves on boards of various scientific committees locally and internationally. He is an expert in the area of hydrogen and electro-catalytic membrane systems for energy applications such as electrolysers and fuel cells. He is passionate about LOHC technology for hydrogen storage, electrolysers, PEM fuel cells, membranes, MEAs and catalyst layers structures.

Sharon is the CEO of HyPlat (Pty) Ltd.  HyPlat is a manufacturer of PGM-based fuel cell and electrolyser membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) using South African technology.  She is from Vancouver, Canada, and prior to coming to South Africa in 2012, she had over 15 years of experience as a tech startup executive, an entrepreneur and consultant.  She was Vice President, Research for a nanomaterials company working in the fields of batteries, hydrogen storage and petroleum upgrading.  She then co-founded a fuel cell company where she served as Vice President, Technology Development. She founded HyPlat in 2014, licensing technology from UCT and Mintek.  She is also Director, HySA Catalysis, with a staff and student team of over 40 people working in fuel cell and electrolyser catalyst and MEA development.  She holds a PhD in Materials Chemistry from Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Jonathan (Jon) Butler is Head of Business Development at Mitsubishi Corporation. Based in London, Jon specialises in the sales and marketing of platinum group metals, silver and gold as well as leading Mitsubishi’s precious metals research and strategy. Jon works closely with the refining industry and key end users in the automotive, pharmaceutical and fine chemical sectors and is closely involved with Mitsubishi’s new market development and investment in the hydrogen industry. Jon previously worked in various marketing and research roles at Johnson Matthey, and holds a PhD and Master’s degrees in earth sciences from the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford. He is a Board and Executive Member of the IPMI and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Platinum Group Metals Refining Council as well as on the LBMA Public Affairs Committee.

Marna Cloete is a registered Chartered Accountant and holds a Master’s Degree in Taxation from the University of Pretoria. In 2006, Marna joined Ivanhoe Mines, and in 2009 she was promoted to Chief Financial Officer and to President in 2020. Marna played an instrumental role as part of the Ivanhoe leadership team, achieving a number of strategic milestones as well as listing the Company on the TSX and concluding multiple strategic partnerships and financings with inter alia a Japanese consortium led by Itochu, Zijin Mining and CITIC Metal. She also serves on the Board of Centamin plc as an independent non-executive director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee. Prior to joining Ivanhoe, Marna forged her career at PwC in 2002, in the Metals and Mining division, subsequently moving on to Group Five Construction.

Suki is the Bank’s Precious Metals Analyst, based in New York. She covers the markets for gold, silver, platinum, palladium and other platinum-group metals, along with the key producing countries and consuming sectors. She joined Standard Chartered in 2015 from Barclays, where she spent 11 years, most recently as Head of Metals Research. Previously, she was a Chartered Accountant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Suki is a member of the Public Affairs Committee of the London Bullion Market Association, and regularly features in the media. She is an ACA Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Catherine joined J.P. Morgan in 2018 and has been covering South Africa-listed PGM and gold stocks since 2020. Catherine holds a Bachelor of Social Science (Hons) from Rhodes University and an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Oxford.

Henk de Hoop is the new CEO of SFA (Oxford). SFA (Oxford) is a world-renowned authority on platinum-group metals and provides in-depth market intelligence on battery raw materials and the hydrogen economy. Henk holds an MSc in Mining Engineering from the University of Technology in Delft and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. After starting his career in South Africa working on the gold mines, he spent the next 12 years working for various stockbroking firms, covering listed mining stocks in the gold, diamonds, PGMs, coal and diversified space. He became the top-rated PGMs analyst for 3 consecutive years from 2005-2007. He joined Rand Merchant bank as a resource sector investment banker in 2008,working on a broad range of M&A, debt, and equity raising transactions, before joining SFA in 2022.

Sandra started her career as an academic, lecturing company and tax law at the University of the Free State, before joining Johannesburg Law Firm Brink Cohen le Roux & Roodt. It was here that she became involved in the South African mining industry, working first on the labour side of the business, before moving on to the corporate and commercial end of practice. Sandra has been with Standard Bank for just over ten years and focuses exclusively on African corporate finance transactions in mining and metals.

Bernhard Fuchs joined Degussa’s precious metals business in 1999, after having worked as a banker and lawyer (Dr. in law). Following his assignment as assistant to the CEO, he was in 2002 appointed as CFO of Allgemeine Gold- und Silberscheideanstalt AG. In 2009 he moved to China as President Umicore Greater China, overseeing the growth of the group in precious metals as well as other specialty metals. Since 2014 he has been responsible for Umicore’s global Precious Metals Management as well as for the global sales organization of the Umicore group. He also serves as Chairman of Umicore AG, Umicore’s largest entity in Germany with 1.000 employees at three sites. He is a board member of the International Platinum Association (IPA), as well as of the German Precious Metals Federation.

Simbarashe is currently Senior General Manager - Mining for Zimbabwe Platinum Mines Private Ltd (Zimplats), a position he has held since 2011. He joined the Group in 2008 as Mine Manager. He has 25 years of mining experience in both underground and open pit mining. He has had mining exposure in several commodities in various operational capacities. Simbarashe holds a Diploma from the Zimbabwe School of Mines.

Adrian joined SBG Securities in August 2014. He started his research career in 2010, firstly at Cadiz and then, after a merger, at BNP Paribas Cadiz. His past coverage has included Precious Metals, Diversified Mining as well as Oil and Gas where he developed a good understanding of the Gold, Platinum and Oil and Gas sectors. Before entering research Adrian spent three years with Hatch, that had given him a study bursary, as a Process Engineer focusing on the platinum industry. Adrian currently covers the PGM, Gold and Chemicals / Oil & Gas sectors.

Gina Handley is Head of Product Marketing and Volume Planning for the Volkswagen Passenger Brand at Volkswagen Group South Africa, having 25 years of automotive experience with the majority of this time spent in various roles at Volkswagen. She holds a BCom Honours degree in Economics from the University of Port Elizabeth (now known as Nelson Mandela University). The automotive industry is going through significant changes with the introduction of new technologies and innovations and Gina is excited to be part of the team that is leading this change at Volkswagen.

Alistair Hodgkinson is the Chief Operating Officer for DRA Global. Alistair joined DRA in 2007 and built up his 25 years of industry experience through his involvement in large scale mining and minerals processing projects across EMEA and implementing various greenfields and brownfields resources projects.  In his current role, Alistair is responsible for managing the operations and delivery of DRA’s diverse projects portfolio. Alistair completed his B.Sc. Eng (Mechanical) at the University of the Witwatersrand, holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town and is a registered professional engineer.

Tim Ingle is Senior Vice President, Precious Metals Services, based in Iselin, NJ - a position he has held since March 2022. In this role, he is responsible for leading BASF’s global platinum group metal services and recycling business. Tim previously served as Vice President, Precious Metals Refining, Chemicals & Battery Recycling from October 2018 to February 2022. He joined BASF in 2004, starting in the catalysts division working in sales and strategic planning until 2011. From there, he worked in business management in Performance Chemicals, supported the CEO of BASF Corporation in a staff role and held a leadership role in procurement. He has a wide range of experiences across functions, businesses and countries, including successfully leading transformations. Tim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA in Finance and Management from Tulane University, A.B. Freeman School of Business.

Kirsti Kuhn is the General Manager for Heraeus PGM South Africa. Heraeus South Africa was established in 1988 and has been actively manufacturing and refining PGM-containing products for 25 years. Today the company employs 79 people at its sites in Gqeberha and Boksburg. Kirsti started her career at Heraeus shortly after graduating from Nelson Mandela University with a Master of Science in Inorganic Chemistry. She is passionate about the dynamic nature of the precious metals industry and inspired to be a young woman leader in an organisation that has initiatives such as digitalisation, sustainability and diversity at the core of its strategic focus. She enjoys constant learning and has a particular interest in the field of natural science. Kirsti is a member of the Women in PGMs network and has more than 10 years’ experience in the precious metals industry.

Nico Muller holds a BSc Mining Engineering degree from the University of Pretoria and has a 28-year mining career across a range of commodities, including platinum. He has a proven track record as a successful operator and is a highly-rated leader and strategic thinker. Nico was appointed to the board of Implats as both Chief Executive Officer and an Executive Director in April 2017. Prior to this he served as Executive Vice-President of Gold Fields’ South African operations (South Deep) for three years, where he fulfilled a pivotal role in re-energising and repositioning the mine for a sustainable future. He also served as the Chief Operating Officer at Royal Bafokeng Platinum, and in various other high-level positions at Anglovaal, African Rainbow Minerals, Avgold and De Beers.

Benny Oeyen is from Belgium but was born and grew up in Germany.  He has worked and lived in Belgium, the USA, Switzerland, Germany, China and now the UK.  He has a Masters’ Degree in Economics from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.  He has 28 years of global automotive experience.  He worked for Mazda Motors European HQ in Brussels as their European Product Manager. Benny was with DaimlerChrysler as a Senior Product Manager at their European HQ, as a Senior Manager, Product Strategy at their World HQ in Detroit, USA, and finally as Managing Director in Zurich, Switzerland.  He has also worked for Hyundai Kia as their Chief Marketing Officer for Europe in Frankfurt, Germany and at General Motors China as their Vice President, Product Strategy in Shanghai.  Since Nov 2017 he has been the Executive Head, Market Development for Anglo American in London.  

Steve Phiri is an admitted attorney to the High Court of South Africa. His qualifications include a B Juris degree, University of the North; LLB, Vista University; Diploma in Corporate Law, Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) and an LLM degree from the University of Johannesburg. His significant wealth of mining and business experience has been gained over a period of more than 15 years. He was appointed CEO of Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) in April 2010. Prior to this, he was the CEO of Merafe Resources, a public company listed on the JSE, for a period of 6 years. He has previously served as a non-executive director on the Boards of Impala Platinum Limited for 3 years until April 2010; Zurich Insurance Company SA and the South African Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator. In addition, Steve has also served as President of the International Platinum Association (IPA) for 5 years until October 2019. In 2017, Steve was elected as one of the Mineral Council South Africa’s three Vice presidents, a position he held until 2021.

Phoevos Pouroulis is the Chief Executive Officer of Tharisa plc, with responsibility for overall strategy and management. Phoevos has held various senior managerial and operational positions in his more than 19-year career. He has extensive experience in project management, mining design, commissioning and mining operations, including PGMs and chrome, having been involved in South Africa's mining industry since 2003. He has served as Commercial Director for Chromex Mining plc and was a founding member of Keaton Energy. Phoevos currently serves on the board of the World Platinum Investment Council. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Science and Business Administration (Boston University, USA).

Jaco Prinsloo has been the CEO and on the Sylvania Board since March 2020. Since January 2012, he has served in senior positions at Sylvania - initially as Executive Officer: Operations and as Managing Director of the South African operations from March 2014, until his appointment to his current position. Prior to joining Sylvania, Jaco was principal metallurgist at Anglo American for Anglo Operations Limited, which followed eight years at Anglo American Platinum Limited from 2002 in various senior metallurgical positions across the group. During the past 20 years in the mining industry. he has been exposed to various operational and technical aspects of both the South African as well as international mining landscape and he has gained experience in both the precious and base metals sectors. Jaco is a metallurgical engineer and holds a Bachelors of Engineering in Metallurgy from Pretoria University, a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration and an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (UP).

Michelle Robson is a Senior Investment Manager with AP Ventures focused on investment, portfolio management and management of the Fund’s portfolio construction. Michelle is a director on the board of Starfire Energy and HPNow, and an observer on the board of Amogy and Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies. Michelle has extensive experience in portfolio and business development, commercial strategy creation and implementation and new and innovative deep tech and digital technologies. Her international experience spans Europe and Australia. Prior to AP Ventures, Michelle held a number of group and commercial strategy roles within Anglo American including establishing and leading Anglo American’s first digital and innovation function. Before this, Michelle was a Manager with boutique management consulting firm L.E.K. Consulting. Michelle received her first-class honours degree in Industrial Chemistry (Engineering) from the University of New South Wales (Australia).

Fahmida is a Chemical Engineer by profession and has been in the PGM mining industry for 25 years. The last 14 years of her career has been focused on market development, particularly on the hydrogen and fuel cell sector. Fahmida leads Anglo American’s market development work on hydrogen in South Africa, where she works closely with the South African Government as well as local and international industry players. Her current focus is on the development of a South African Hydrogen Valley and a heavy duty hydrogen freight corridor.

Richard Stewart has 20 years’ experience in South Africa’s geological and mining industries, is a Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa and is a Registered Natural Scientist. Prior to joining Sibanye-Stillwater in 2014, he served on the Gold One Executive Committee, from 2009 to 2014, in both Technical and Business Development related roles. Richard was also the CEO of JSE listed Goliath Gold Limited, from 2013 to 2014. Prior to that he was an Investment Consultant for the Private Equity Group, African Global Capital Proprietary Limited and held management positions at Uranium One and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Mining Technology division.  He was a co-founding member and director of Shango Solutions, a geological consultancy firm.

Grant is the Global Head of Sibanye-Stillwater’s recycling operations. Prior to his recycling role, Grant was focused on Sibanye-Stillwater’s sustainability agenda through his role as Senior Vice President Environment. This role followed as a logical extension from his role as the Vice President for the West Rand Tailings Retreatment Project (WRTRP). The WRTRP involved the recycling and responsible waste management of the vast quantity of tailings material scattered over the West Rand for the economic extraction of gold and uranium and the associated environmental and socio-economic benefits. Grant has long been associated with the Randfontein Surface Assets. In 2007 he was the lead on the uranium project for Harmony Gold. In this role within Harmony he lead the creation of Rand Uranium and in which Harmony sold a 60% interest.  Grant continued his journey with Rand Uranium as the Executive for Corporate Development. Gold One acquired Rand Uranium in 2011 and Grant joined Gold One as the head of Investor Relations. In addition to this role, Grant managed the joint venture that was established between Gold Fields and Gold One to exploit the vast surface tailings resources (WRTRP). Grant joined Sibanye-Stillwater following the acquisition of Rand Uranium by Sibanye from Gold One in 2013. Prior to joining Harmony, Grant was a senior manager within the strategy and innovation practice at Deloitte. His management consulting spanned 10 years over a wide range of industries. Grant has a BSc in Chemistry and Chemical Sciences and a post-graduate qualification in Business Administration from Wits Business School.

Wilma Swarts joined Metals Focus as Director of PGM Research in April 2020. Prior to this she headed the commercial services and marketing functions at Lonmin Plc. Prior to joining the mining sector, she worked in the automotive industry. She holds a M.Sc. in International Business Administration from the University of London and an honours degree from the University of Johannesburg.

Emma joined Implats in February 2019 and provides support across a number of group functions including marketing and commercial, investor relations and strategy. She joined Implats after an 18-year career as an equity analyst at a number of domestic and international banks, where she was involved in commodity and equity research on precious metals and producers, with a particular focus on PGMs.

Arnold has 18 years’ mining-related financial experience, 15 of which is in equity research. Arnold joined Nedbank in 2016 as an Equity Analyst covering platinum and gold producers. Prior to joining Nedbank, he worked in equity research at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the Royal Bank of Canada (London & Johannesburg) and Investec Securities. Arnold started his career at Ernst & Young's mining team in Johannesburg, with secondments to practices in Manchester and New York. Arnold is a Chartered Accountant, and holds a Bachelors of Commerce (Honours) degree from the University of Pretoria. Arnold is an avid outdoorsman.

Natascha has served as Anglo American Platinum’s CEO since April 2020, also sitting on the Anglo American Platinum Board and the Group Management Committee of Anglo American plc. Prior to that, she spent five years as Group Head of Processing for Anglo American. Natascha is a seasoned senior executive, bringing 28 years of operational experience from across the mining industry, spanning many different countries, metals and minerals including, of course, PGMs. Viljoen's operational executive experience also includes six years at Lonmin, where her last post was Executive Vice President of Processing. Viljoen holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from North-West University, in South Africa, and an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Cape Town.