|

Management Team.

Pat Ryan, P.Eng.

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Ryan founded Neocon International in 1993, a leading automotive OEM design and manufacturing firm. He spearheaded its growth, focusing on innovations like light-weighting for fuel efficiency. With over 25 years in the industry, he’s collaborated with giants like Honda and General Motors, earning accolades including Toyota’s Platinum Quality Alliance Award in 2016. His expertise in global supply chains positions him at the forefront of vehicle electrification. Joining Ucore in 2014, he delved into critical metals essential for modern technologies. A frequent speaker and mentor, he holds an Engineering degree from Dalhousie University and has received the APENS Award for ethical service.

Peter Manuel

Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer & Corporate Secretary

Peter Manuel has been Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Ucore for 14 years.  Prior to joining the Company, he practiced as a Chartered Accountant for more than 17 years providing consulting services to companies in a range of sectors, with a focus on the financial services and resource sectors. He spent 10 years in England and The Republic of Ireland providing assurance, strategic planning, corporate finance and other consulting services to a portfolio of both public and private entities including licensed banks, proprietary trading operations, and international corporate treasuries. Mr. Manuel holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Dalhousie University.

Michael Schrider, MEng, P.E.

Vice-President & Chief Operating Officer

Since 1989, Mr. Schrider has excelled in manufacturing and engineering complex projects. A multidisciplinary engineer and business leader, he has spearheaded Ucore’s projects since 2016. He founded and led engineering firms SAi and ABD for over 17 years. Previously, he worked in North American shipyards and a lubricant facility. He holds a Bachelor’s from the University of New Orleans and is a registered engineer in Louisiana. Additionally, Mike has a Master’s in engineering from The University of Arizona.

Geoff Atkins

Ucore Vice President of Business Development

Mr. Atkins, with 30 years in mining, including 15 in the critical mineral sector, is Ucore’s new Vice President of Business Development. He’s been pivotal in establishing two rare earth operations: Mt. Weld with Lynas and Nechalacho with Vital Metals. At Lynas, he oversaw the Mt. Weld project and strategic planning. Leveraging his expertise in project delivery and strategy, he founded Cheetah Resources, later acquired by Vital Metals. He’ll strategize for Ucore, ensuring diverse supply sources with minimized risks. Notably, he brought the Nechalacho project to operation in 2 years, a significant feat compared to the usual 10-year timeline. His accomplishments make him ideal to spearhead Ucore’s feedstock acquisition.

Jaan Hurditch, CEng

Ucore Engineering Director

Mr. Hurditch, now Engineering Director at Ucore, previously worked with its subsidiary IMC for over two years, leading the RapidSX™ platform’s development. This platform is currently being tested in Ontario and will be deployed in Louisiana from 2023-2024. Holding a Bachelor’s from Queensland University in Australia, he boasts 18 years of experience across continents. Hurditch excels in both management and technical innovation, skilled in team building, 3D design, and rapid prototyping technologies.

Mark MacDonald

Vice-President of Investor Relations

Mr. MacDonald has over 25 years experience implementing award winning business development and marketing programs at a regional and national level. As Vice President of Sales, Mr. MacDonald was responsible for Mediapro Communication’s growth as AT&T Canada’s leading Canadian Business to Business sales partner. Mr. MacDonald subsequently took over all responsibilities of the Atlantic Regional Vice President of AT&T Canada Corp. As VP of Operations for Premier Executive Suites Mr. MacDonald consolidated four business units into one regional operation that was awarded Atlantic Canada’s, “Best Places to Work” in 2009/10/11. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Dalhousie University.

Dr. Ahmad Hussein

Ucore Advisory Board Member and Government Liaison

Ahmad Hussein is a trailblazing scientist and entrepreneur in renewable energy. He excels in commercial scale-ups, strategic alliances, and IPOs, leveraging a global network to fast-track projects. He founded Nile Fiber Atlantic Canada, producing innovative renewable feedstock. Quickly, he partnered with six top universities, leading to a major contract with the European Union. Before this, Ahmad contributed to the H1N1 vaccine with IMV and facilitated its listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange. He sits on advisory boards for various companies and charities, emphasizing community growth. In 2020, he was celebrated as a top immigrant in Atlantic Canada, underscoring his commitment to environmental sustainability.

Board of Directors.

Geoff Clarke, MBA, LL.B., LL.M.

Director
Mr. Clarke is a Partner in the Toronto office of Miller Thomson LLP, a full-service national law firm with approximately 550 lawyers. Mr. Clarke is the Head of the Firm’s Mining Department. Mr. Clarke has over 20 years of experience in investment banking, financial advisory services, corporate and securities law. His law practice focuses on advising public companies, institutional investors and investment banks in regard to securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, shareholder activism, continuous disclosure, stock exchange matters and securities regulatory compliance matters. His M&A experience includes advising special committees in connection with take-overs, reorganizations, and searching for and prioritizing strategic alternatives. Mr. Clarke has extensive experience with clients in the mining sector. Mr. Clarke was formerly a partner at a large international business law firm that was a six-times recipient of a global “Mining Law Firm of the Year” award. Geoff is also the past-President of a Canadian investment dealer that serviced international and domestic institutional investors as well as many publicly listed companies. His role at the dealer included providing financial and strategic advice to mining industry companies regarding off-take agreements, joint-ventures, strategic partnerships and raising capital. Geoff also has experience serving on advisory committees for securities regulators in Canada such as IIROC and the Ontario Securities Commission. Geoff also taught Business Law at York University as an Adjunct Professor and he currently teaches Corporate Finance at the University of Windsor Law School, which is a course that he taught every year since Sept. 2007. Geoff is recognized by the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory for his expertise in Corporate Finance & Securities (2018) and by Best Lawyers in Canada for Mining Law (2021).

Jarda Dostal, Ph.D., P.Geo.

Director
Dr. Dostal is Professor Emeritus of Geology at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. He obtained a Ph.D. in Geology from McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario). He has over 40 years of experience in geology, ore deposit studies, and geochemistry. He has published more than 300 scientific papers and is a widely acknowledged expert on rare metal mineralization in granitoids and volcanic rocks. At Saint Mary’s University, he was on the Board of Governors and the executive committee of the Senate and established a regional geochemical center. He was the Canadian project director of the CIDA project in Mongolia, the Canadian project director for the NAFTA project, North American Mobility in Higher Education (Geology), Chair of the Earth Science committee of Science Atlantic, a member of the McMaster University Nuclear Reactor Management Board and Chair of the Volcanology and Igneous Petrology Division of Geological Association of Canada. He has also been Honorary Professor of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology in Ulaanbaatar, Visiting Professor at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, Adjunct Professor of Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Adjunct Professor of Department of Geological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA and Visiting Scholar of Department of Earth Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. He also had faculty appointments at Universite Aix-Marseille 3, Universite de Montpellier 2, and Universita di Modena. His research has been recognized by scientific awards including the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Atlantic Geoscience Society (Gesner Medal), the Career Achievement Award of the Volcanology and Igneous Petrology Division of the Geological Association of Canada and the Hawley Medal, Mineralogical Association of Canada.

Steven Meister

Director
Mr. Meister has over 30 years of management and business development experience across Canada. Since 1995, he has been strategically involved in various key business initiatives involving the mining industry, oil and gas industry and utility companies across northern and western Canada. He is a long-standing member of the Board of Directors for the Akaitcho Business Development Company, an Indigenous NGO providing optional funding for northern business start-ups and building partnerships with other community organizations to provide technical advice, business skills development counselling and access to business capital. Most recently, Mr. Meister worked at Williams Engineering Canada Ltd. (“WEC”) as a member of the senior leadership team and WEC Board of Directors. As the Director – Client Development and Project Delivery, Mr. Meister’s key responsibility in addition to overseeing operations in northern Canada focused on providing leadership for the company’s overall business development and engineering deliverables. Previously, Mr. Meister worked at Stantec (formally Jacques Whitford Stantec AXYS) as the operations manager for northern Canada and Business Development Manager for ARDICOM, an indigenous partnership between Northern Aboriginal Services Company (NASCo), Arctic Cooperatives Limited (ACL) and Northwestel. He has also worked with various communities and key stakeholders, including many Indigenous businesses and regional organizations.

Randy Johnson

Director
Mr. Johnson is the President of Tyler Rental Inc., an Alaska-based enterprise with over 100 employees, which he founded as a start-up in 1989 and subsequently grew to a multi-state enterprise. Mr. Johnson formed Alaska Ship and Drydock (“ASD”) to operate the Ketchikan Shipyard under contract with the State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities in 1993. Working in conjunction with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), he guided an $80 million shipyard expansion project at ASD, including a new 2,500 ton dry-dock, upland ship berthing and an 80,000 square foot ship assembly hall and production support complex. He sold the company to Vigor Industrial in 2012, having grown it into a thriving enterprise with annual revenues of $35 million and up to 200 employees. In addition to Tyler and ASD, Mr. Johnson’s business operations and ownership experience includes such Southeast Alaska enterprises as Ty-Matt Construction and Ketchikan Ready Mix and Quarry. Mr. Johnson currently serves on the Board of Directors for Alaska Power and Telephone (AP&T) and has resided in Ketchikan, Alaska, for 40 years.

Amira V. Abouali, H.B.Sc, LL.B, LL.M, ICD.D

Director

Ms. Abouali has over 16 years of experience in the areas of corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, banking, corporate governance and corporate/commercial law. Currently, Ms. Abouali is the Vice-President, Legal and Governance of Meridian Credit Union Limited, the largest credit union in Ontario and the 2nd largest in Canada with over $32 billion of assets under management (AUM), over 380,000 client members and more than 2,000 employees. Ms. Abouali also currently teaches Corporate Finance at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law. Previously, Ms. Abouali was the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Jaguar Mining Inc., a publicly traded TSX company with mining operations in Brazil, and prior thereto was an associate in the business law group at Fasken LLP. Ms. Abouali received a Master of Laws degree (LL.M) in Business Law from Osgoode Hall, York University, a Bachelor of Laws degree (LL.B) from the University of Ottawa, a Hons. Bachelor of Sciences degree in Biology (H.B.Sc – Biology) from Western University, and most recently, the Institute of Corporate Directors designation from ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program.

Newsletter Signup

Join our Newsletter for regular updates on Ucore and RapidSX™

 

Recent News


Devember 4, 2024
Ucore Secures Strategic Advantage with Louisiana Foreign Trade Zone Amid Proposed U.S. Trade Policies

December 3, 2024
Ucore Provides Corporate Update

 

Our Team

Our Team

"Ucore's success is a testament to our management team's expertise and passion. Together, we're shaping a sustainable future in the critical metals industry."
- Pat Ryan, CEO & Director