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Brian Gavin, President, CEO and Director
Brian Gavin, a certified professional geologist, is responsible for overall corporate strategy and coordination of the Corporation's various projects, investor relations efforts and general corporate development. Gavin has more than 24 years experience in all phases of mineral exploration, project evaluation and project management. He has worked in the field as project manager and consultant in base metal, precious metal and industrial minerals programs in the US, Mexico, Nigeria, Romania and Argentina. Gavin is responsible for grassroots gold, silver and copper discoveries in the United States and Argentina. He holds a B.Sc. (Honours) degree in Geology from the University of London and a M.S. degree in Geology and Geophysics from the University of Missouri-Rolla. From 1981 to 1993 he was a consultant with Ernest K. Lehmann & Associates Inc, a geological mining consulting firm. He is Vice President of Exploration of Minera Andes Inc. He is a director of Minera Andes S.A.
George D. Tikkanen, Chairman
George Tikkanen has been active in the mining and mineral exploration industry since 1956 with more than 22 years at senior corporate and Board level, having retired in 1999 from Cominco Ltd. as Vice President of Exploration and was President of Cominco Resources International from 1987 to 1995. From 1999 on, he has continued to be available as a consultant in the mining and mineral exploration industry. He has held directorships of many companies worldwide. He brings to the Corporation more than 45 years experience in mineral exploration, mining, mine project development, public company management and in relations between mining companies and indigenous groups. His many successes include management of programs that discovered the Polaris zinc deposit in northern Canada, the Kudz Ze Kayah base metal deposit in Yukon and the Hilltop, Aqqaluk and Paalaaq zinc deposits at Red Dog in Alaska. He was intimately involved with the exploration, development and operation of the Red Dog mine; the development and operation of the Buckhorn gold mine in Nevada and the Quebrada Blanca copper mine in Chile, the operation of the Pine Point zinc mine, the Con gold mine in Canada's NWT, the Black Angel zinc mine in Greenland, the Rubiales zinc mine in Spain, the Warm Springs phosphate mine in Montana and the Magmont lead-zinc mine in Missouri.
Bonnie L. Kuhn, Vice-President, Corporate Secretary and Director
Bonnie Kuhn is a solicitor who currently practices law in the areas of natural resources, corporate commercial and securities law. Ms. Kuhn is also a Director, and Secretary of Minera Andes Inc. She received a law degree from the University of Manitoba in 1989, and has practiced law in Alberta since 1990.
Chad Houck, CFO
Chad Houck joined Franconia as Corporate Controller in early 2007. He received his Masters Degree in Business Administration from Eastern Washington University in 1992, and also has Bachelor's Degrees in Financial Management, Business Management and Accounting. In 1999, after successfully completing the requirements as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the US, he worked in the Accounting Department at Sterling Savings Bank until 2005 and subsequently taught accounting at Eastern Washington University and Webster University before becoming a Senior Accountant with Providence Health Care in Spokane, Washington, where he remained until shortly before joining Franconia.
Ernest K. Lehmann, Director
A certified professional geologist and past president of the American Institute of Professional Geologists, Ernest Lehmann has been active in the mineral industry since 1950. In 1951 Mr. Lehmann received his BA in geology from Williams College, Massachusetts. He completed his graduate study in geology at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, in 1951-52. He is currently president of the Minnesota Exploration Association and on the state's Minerals Coordinating Committee and the Governor's Committee on Minnesota's Mining Future. Since managing Kennecott Copper Corporation's successful discovery of the New Lead Belt in Missouri in the mid-1950's, Mr. Lehmann has managed successful exploration programs for volcanogenic massive sulphides in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Maine, precious metals deposits in the western US, Central and South America, industrial minerals properties in North America, managed mining operations in Europe, evaluated mining operations for the World Bank Group in Central Africa, Mexico, Peru and Chile and been involved in numerous evaluations and appraisals of mining properties and operations in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia.
Lewis Lawrick, Director
Mr. Lawrick through his wholly owned company VLL Investments Inc. has provided corporate advisory services to the resource sector since 1994. Specializing in corporate financial advisory work including; corporate restructurings, mergers, acquisitions and capital funding, Mr. Lawrick has a broad range of experience assisting both private and public companies within the mineral industry. Mr. Lawrick has been and is currently a Director of several companies listed on both the TSX and TSX(V). Mr. Lawrick has a Bachelor of Commerce degree (BCOM) having graduated from the University of Calgary in 1986.
Allan J. Marter, Director
Allan Marter brings more than 25 years experience in the financial sector of the mining industry to the board of Franconia Minerals Corporation Mr. Marter recently retired after seven years as Chief Financial Officer of Golden Star Resources Ltd. During his tenure, beginning in 1999, Golden Star transitioned from an exploration company to an emerging mid-tier gold producer. While at Golden Star he was responsible for numerous financings and acquisitions. He currently serves as president of EURO Ressources SA (TSX and Euronext: EUR) and had previously served as an officer and director of a number of North American junior exploration and mining companies. Mr. Marter was president of the Northwest Mining Association in 1993.
James S. Friedlander, Director
James S. Friedlander is an international lawyer who has also worked as a banker during his career (Harvard Law School and University of Wisconsin). He is currently the founding partner of Friedlander & Associates, with an office in Moscow, Russia. He also practices international law from a base in London. He acts as a lawyer and business advisor to companies and high net worth individuals from Africa and the Russian Federation. He has more than 40 years of corporate, financial and negotiation experience at international and senior levels of government and private sector. His experience covers private and public international finance and finance law (Citibank, Nairobi; World Bank and major African investment funds such as AIG African Infrastructure Fund and Modern Africa Growth & Investment Company) and financial and business transactions in Russia and Central Asia. He has worked for more than 23 years as a Consultant to the Foreign Investment Advisory Service of the World Bank, advising on drafting and implementation of investment codes of ten African countries. James lectured on foreign investment and debt swap transactions for many years at the International Law Institute in Washington, DC. He also is a director of: BioPac Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (US) and Salivon Enterprises Ltd. (Eng).
Robert Galyen, Project Geologist
Robert Galyen brings to Franconia over 28 years experience in conducting geologic investigations, principally in minerals exploration and development, in a wide variety of geologic environments. Additionally, he has a solid background in specialized mining/geologic software implementation and integration. Mr. Galyen has supervised or participated in uranium, gold, silver and base metal projects throughout the western U.S, Mexico and Costa Rica . His experience includes conducting grass-roots exploration, designing and supervising drilling programs, ore deposit modeling and project management. Prior to joining Franconia, Mr. Galyen has worked as a geological consultant with a number of resource and exploration companies, most recently supervising mine operations at an open-pit placer gold operation in Nevada. In addition to mineral investigations, he has several years experience in mining related environmental investigations. Mr. Galyen holds a BSc in geology from Northern Arizona University, an MSc in geology from Idaho State University and post-graduate studies in ore deposit geochemistry.
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