MEET OUR TEAM
EXPERIENCED LEADERSHIP TEAM WITH A PROVEN TRACK RECORD
Emily Sarah Hersh
Founder & CEO
Emily brings global experience to the entire lithium lifecycle from exploration to advanced processing and batteries. Her past advisory roles include billion-dollar American Lithium’s Peru project and Boston-based Pure Lithium metal company. She identified CEL’s Hualilan Gold Project in San Juan, Argentina. She is a non-resident fellow at the Payne Institute of the Colorado School of Mines.
Federico Agardy
Director
Partner and Director at Fiduc Group (Family Investment Office based in Argentina). Federico’s career spans over 25 years of experience as an angel investor and entrepreneur. He has actively participated in the startup and seed raise for over a dozen companies, including serving on the board of several of them.
Erez Ichilov
Director
Mr. Ichilov is a New York based seasoned mining and metals executive, director, advisor and investor, with a legal and financial background (LLB, MBA). In recent years he is focused mainly on responsible mining of Battery Materials and other Critical Minerals and on sustainable exploration, mining and processing technologies enabling the transition to renewable energy sources and electric transportation on route to global Carbon neutrality. During his career, Erez was also involved in various capacities in high-tech ventures, energy, logistics and infrastructure investments and projects as well as gaining deep knowledge of building and operating global supply chains.
Kyran Culhane
Chief of Staff & Head of Latam Projects
Kyran is a business professional who has worked in Latin America since 2010. He brings a wealth of in-country experience overseeing early stage and market entry projects in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. He is specialist in corporate strategy and project development.
ADVISORY BOARD
Stephanie Ashton
Advisor Strategy & Operations
Stephanie has 25 years experience in mineral exploration and development of mining projects including in the diamond drilling services business in the Americas, Eastern Europe and Asia. She has held roles as founder, investor, Director, CFO, in corporate and business development; she has assisted in private placement financing, overseen IPO processes for several junior companies on the TSX and OTC, liaised with investors, property owners and financiers as well as negotiated joint ventures, mergers, sales and acquisitions of projects. She is passionate about the exploration and mining industry and as well as being multi-lingual.
Mike Kobler
Advisor Project Development
Mike is a mining entrepreneur with 30+ years of experience as an engineering project lead on large-scale mining and tunneling projects and later as a founder/CEO of successful energy ventures in oil sands and battery metals, including American Lithium Corp. with USD 1bn market cap. Mike builds companies that discover and develop new energy metals opportunities in the Americas through resource discovery, establishing growth strategies based on regulatory, infrastructure and environmental realities, help secure investments and access to public markets, and put in place a management team poised for long-term growth.
BRAZIL TEAM
Vitor Schettino
Lead Project Geologist
Vitor is an experienced geologist who is a specialist in geophysical interpretation, geoprocessing, and pegmatite structure identification, and is leading our geological team in Minas Gerais, Brazil. He has an exceptional and broad range of experience in mineral prospecting and exploration, geological research, geoprocessing, programming and database analysis, hydrology, topography, aerophotogrametry and thematic cartography that he has gained working with Brazilian companies such as Lihos Geologia Engenharia e Meio Ambiente, MDGEO, Minas Mineracao, Innovare Chemicals, CETEM, MINAX and EMBRAGEO. He also has extensive experience in environmental licensing and sensor automation, and has authored or contributed to various international articles on geoprocessing, thematic cartography and environmental conservation.
PARAGUAY TEAM
Nelson has worked as a project, office, and country manager in the mining sector for 20 years, including for REX Mining and VANE Minerals Ltd. He has extensive experience in managing field teams, company operations logistics, and in government relations and permitting. He was Chief Operations Officer and later, Vice President, of Minas Paraguay where he had oversight of all government, environmental, geological and financial operations of the company. He is fluent in English, Portuguese, Guarani, and Spanish.
Nelson Rojas
Paraguay Country Manager
Paola Parini
Head Exploration Geologist
Paola has more than 20 years of experience in geological and environmental consulting, working for national and international companies, and institutions. Her experience spans prospection, exploration, mineral extraction and administration of projects for gold, silver, copper, iron ore, PGE, RREE and others. She has worked for companies such us, Emperatriz Minning, CDS Energy, Paraguay Gas and Energy, LAMPA (Latin American Minerals- Paraguay), Minas Paraguay (Fair Trade Acquisitions), Lucca Minning (Golden Arrow Resources Corp). Paola has a master’s degree in climate change and sustainable development. She is a GIS specialist and is a lecturer at the National University of Asuncion and has been on the board of the Paraguayan Association of Geologists for the last three terms.