LEADERSHIP
Drawing leadership expertise from some of the most reliable projects, the cross-functional team driving the success of Black Swan has the pedigree and skills to get the job done.
Harry Swan
Chairman
Mr. Swan is the owner and CEO of Thomas Swan and the fourth generation of the Swan family to lead the Company. He joined in 2002 to launch the new Carbon Nanomaterials business. He took over as Managing Director in 2006 and became CEO in 2018. He is also a Non-Executive Director and Council Member of the Chemical Industries Association and Chairs the Innovation Committee of the Chemistry Growth Partnership. He also chairs the Advisory Board of the Centre for Education Collaboration at York University.
After graduating from Durham University in 1998. Harry started his career at Monsanto, followed by two years at Regester Larkin Ltd. His focus is now on leading Thomas Swan into a new sustainable future, developing their credentials as an innovative global player.
Simon Marcotte
President & CEO, Director
Mr. Marcotte is a Chartered Financial Analyst with nearly 25 years of experience focused on commodities, including more than 12 years in executive positions for junior mining companies.
In 2018, Mr. Marcotte was instrumental in the launch of Arena Minerals Inc. in the lithium brine industry in Argentina, and the subsequent strategic investments by both Ganfeng Lithium and Lithium Americas Corp., which ultimately acquired Arena Minerals in 2023. In 2012, Mr. Marcotte co-founded Mason Graphite Inc. and held the position of Vice-President of Corporate Development until February 2018. Under his leadership, Mason Graphite was awarded: the TSXV’s recognition as “Top 10 Performing Stock” in 2013, the “Best 50 OTCQX” in both 2016 and 2017, and was nominated for best investor relations in both 2016 and 2017. At the end of 2017, Mason Graphite reached a peak market capitalization of $365 million, with approximately 35 institutional shareholders, uncommon for a junior mining company. Based on shareholders’ desire, he then negotiated and orchestrated an option and joint venture agreement between Mason Graphite Inc., and Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. for the Lac-Gueret Project.
In 2010, Mr. Marcotte joined Verena Minerals Corp., which was then renamed Belo Sun Mining Corp., as vice-president corporate development, working alongside the president and chief executive officer on all decision-making processes and helped develop and implement the company’s turnaround strategy and assisted in more than $100 million in funding. Mr. Marcotte has also been involved with several other mining companies, either as an officer or a director, including with Alderon Iron Ore Corp. between 2010 and 2013.
Mr. Marcotte is also President & CEO of Northern Superior Resources Inc., since its acquisition of Royal Fox Gold Inc., a company he founded in 2021. Northern Superior is now focused on advancing several projects near Chibougamau, Quebec. He is also a Director of Freeman Gold Corp., a company he co-founded, which is advancing the Lemhi gold project in Idaho, United States.
Prior to his corporate involvement, Mr. Marcotte was working in senior positions in capital markets with CIBC World Markets, from 1998 to 2006, and with Sprott Securities Inc. and Cormark Securities Inc., from 2006 to 2010, where he was also a member of the board of directors. Mr. Marcotte is also actively involved in merchant banking activities in the junior mining industry. Mr. Marcotte is a CFA Charterholder and is a graduate from the University of Sherbrooke
Michael Edwards
Chief Operating Officer, Director
Mr. Edwards has more than 30 years of manufacturing and business experience. Prior to joining Black Swan Graphene, he was Business Director at Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. responsible for the development of the graphene business. Mr. Edwards has a BSc(hons) in Electronics (University of Wales, Cardiff), an MBA, and is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET). Previous experience includes microprocessor and computer systems design at Ferranti, 15 years as General Manager of Toshiba Electronics Europe in Düsseldorf where he introduced flash memory into Europe and presided over Toshiba’s dominant DRAM position as Windows was launched into the PC market. Subsequently worked in several start-up companies mainly in global sales, marketing, and business development roles, including 3 years as Global Commercial Director at Oxford Advanced Surfaces and global commercial director at Cambridge Nanotherm, responsible for taking advanced materials to global LED market.
Greg Duras
CFO
Mr. Duras has over 15 years of corporate and project finance experience in the resource sector. He is also the acting Chief Financial officer of Emerita Resources Inc. and the Managing Directors of Metallica Resources.
Some of his previous positions include Vice President of Finance and Administration at S.C. Rosia Montana Gold Corporation S.A. (RMGC), a mineral exploration and mining development company based in Romania, and several senior finance roles, including Controller of TSX listed Gabriel Resources Ltd. and High River Gold Mines Ltd.
He is a Certified General Accountant and a Certified Professional Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Administration from Lakehead University.
Paul Hardy
VP Corporate Development
Mr. Hardy’s career spans 30 years in Capital Markets and private enterprise with CIBC World Markets and as the Managing Director of Institutional Equities for Desjardins Securities overseeing offices in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver. He was intricate in the evolution of the European Trading and was responsible for over $100 million in equity positions in domestic and international markets. He simultaneously grew the revenues by over 800%, in only 8 years.
More recently, he Co Founded Thorium Power Canada Inc. where he served as Vice President and helped launch the Thorium Small Modular Reactor business worldwide, meeting with government agencies and regulators along with institutional and private investors from the USA, Mexico, Indonesia, China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Chile.
Chris Herron
VP Research & Product Development
Dr Herron brings over 10 years of direct experience in the graphene industry, with a strong background in research, development, and applications.
He holds a PhD in Chemistry from Durham University, United Kingdom, earned following a first-class honours Master’s degree.
After his post-doctoral research post at Durham University, Dr. Herron joined Applied Graphene Materials PLC, where he established the graphene characterisation laboratory, scaled up the dispersion process, and led numerous successful commercial customer projects.
Brad Humphrey
Independant Director
Mr. Humphrey has over 25 years of international mining experience and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of NiCAN Limited (TSX-V: NICN), a Canadian explorer advancing nickel projects in the province of Manitoba. Prior to joining NiCAN, Mr. Humphrey was CEO of QMX Gold, a Canadian resource company that was ultimately acquired by Eldorado Gold in a $132 million transaction. Prior to QMX Gold, Mr. Humphrey worked for Morgan Stanley as an Executive Director and North American Precious Metals Analyst. Mr. Humphrey was also a Managing Director and Head of Mining Research at Raymond James and covered precious metal equities at CIBC World Markets and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Humphrey has held a variety of mining industry roles from contract underground miner to CEO. Mr. Humphrey was recently on the board of Royal Fox Gold Inc., until its acquisition by Northern Superior Resources Inc.
Dr. David Deak
Independant Director
Dr. David Deak is President of Marbex LLC, running a portfolio of projects at the interface between mining, energy, and technology domains – with a special focus on lithium and related battery materials. Dr. Deak has built his career advancing initiatives in lithium mining, renewable energy, energy storage, and electric vehicles. He was formerly the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice-President of Lithium Americas Corp., where he spearheaded technical, project, and marketing developments of two major lithium assets in Nevada and Argentina. Before Lithium Americas, Dr. Deak led special supply chain projects and battery engineering programs for Gigafactory 1 at Tesla Inc. Prior to working in the electric vehicles business, he managed product and process development programs for Ambri Inc., a Bill Gates-backed energy-storage start-up spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Deak has also acted as a consultant for multinational engineering conglomerates, start-ups, government entities and institutional investors, involving projects from technology scouting to materials supply chain analysis. His professional career started in the Chief Technology Officer’s office at Siemens Wind Power in Denmark, where he focused on supplier technology development and component warranty cases. Dr. Deak holds a D.Phil. in Materials Science from Oxford University and a B.A.Sc. in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto.
Henri Wilhelm
VP Technology
Mr . Henri Wilhelm has more than 15 years of experience in R&D and development of graphite-based products for energy storage applications.
He worked for major synthetic graphite producers such as Imerys Graphite & Carbon and SGL Carbon groups as well as for the French National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS).
He is active as technical advisor for product development and implementation in battery applications. Henri Wilhelm holds a PhD in Physics and Chemistry of Matter and Materials from the University of Lorraine (France).
Roy McDowall
Director
Mr. McDowall is currently Vice President Corporate Development at Pyure, a private Florida based manufacturer of commercial air purifiers.
A capital markets professional with over 25 years of experience with Canadian based boutique and bank owned investment firms, Mr. McDowall served as Managing Director, Head of Equity Sales for Macquarie Capital Markets Canada. He also held similar positions with Orion Securities, Credit Suisse, CIBC World Markets and National Bank Financial. Mr. McDowall recently served as Vice President of Investor and Communications at Turquoise Hill Resources, a Montreal based mining company of approximately $8 billion of market capitalization listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. Over his career, Mr. McDowall has been instrumental in over 500 financings for companies globally with a focus on the mining industry, leveraging self-established relationships with Canadian and international institutional investors.
Peter Damouni
Executive Director
Mr. Damouni has over 20 years of corporate and investment banking experience with a focus on Natural Resources. He has served as a director or executive officer of a number private and public companies listed on the TSX, TSXV, and LSE and has been instrumental in developing and executing corporate strategy, financings, restructuring, acquisitions and sale process which has created significant value for shareholders.
He is currently Executive Director of Mason Graphite, Executive Director of Black Swan Graphene, and a Director of Arena Minerals. He also co-founded Chesterfield Resources plc which has Altius Minerals and Polymetal International plc as strategic partners and a Director of Gatling Exploration which is being acquired by MAG Silver Corp. Mr. Damouni received his economics and business degree from McGill University. He is a Canadian and British citizen, residing in the United Kingdom
Aidan Sullivan
VP Strategic Initiatives
Mr. Sullivan has over 20 years of experience building and financing private and public companies in North American and China, where he was one of the first foreign entrepreneurs to receive venture funding for starting a digital media company.
Subsequently, Mr. Sullivan cofounded BrightMind Ventures providing consulting services as well as M&A advisory for the Chinese market.
Mr. Sullivan’s expertise spans natural resources, advanced materials, automotive, technology, and media.
He is a graduate of the University of British Colombia
Ben Edwards
Marketing & Operations
Mr. Edwards is a BSc honours graduate from the University of Bristol where he studied Social Policy with Management. He graduated with a First Class honours degree in 2018. He previously worked as an Analyst for eVestment (part of Nasdaq) and held Business Operations Analyst and Customer Success roles at Polecat Intelligence.
Bill Landers
Research Scientist
Mr. Landers is a MEng graduate from the University of Manchester who studied Materials Science and Engineering, specialising in Nanomaterials and Advanced Composites. During his studies he worked in collaboration with Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. and the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC), completing his final project on graphene nanocomposites and achieving his First-class honours degree in 2022.
Deena Siblock
Corporate Secretary
Ms. Siblock has over 20 years of experience and a proven track record of excellence in corporate governance, communications, and risk management. Throughout her career, Ms. Siblock has held numerous senior management and board positions in both the public and private sectors and served as Corporate Secretary for several private and public companies, including for Arena Minerals Inc., until its acquisition by Lithium Americas Corp. in 2023.
