For more than 25 years, Mr. Friedland has been recognized by leaders of the international financial sector and mineral resource industries as an entrepreneurial explorer, technology innovator and company builder. He has successfully developed a portfolio of respected public and private companies whose initiatives have led to several of the world’s most significant mineral discoveries and mine developments, applications of disruptive technologies and contributions to significant economic growth in established and emerging markets in the Asia Pacific Region, Southern Africa and the Americas.

Robert is also the founder, Executive Co-Chairman, and a director of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd and is the Chairman and President of Ivanhoe Capital Corporation.

Seasoned international leader with 30 years of corporate management in the technology, mining, trading and financial sectors.

Prior to joining VRB® Energy, Charles served as Managing Director and legal counsel for VanSpar Mining Inc., Founder and Executive of Beijing John-Hanseng Investment Co., and Senior Advisor, Zhaojin Mining Industry Co., Ltd.

Mr. Shi brings a wealth of experience to his role, previously serving as Controller and Director of Finance of VRB Energy,
and has been instrumental in shaping the company's financial strategies since 2017. Before joining VRB Energy, Mr. Shi advised multinational clients at Deloitte in both Vancouver and Shanghai and worked in private equity.

Renewable energy executive with 25 years of new product and market development in public and private sectors.

Prior to joining VRB Energy, Jim was formerly Vice President, International Operations of Prudent Energy and former VP Asia for Northern Power Systems and Distributed Energy Systems Corp.

For more than 25 years, Mr. Friedland has been recognized by leaders of the international financial sector and mineral resource industries as an entrepreneurial explorer, technology innovator and company builder. He has successfully developed a portfolio of respected public and private companies whose initiatives have led to several of the world’s most significant mineral discoveries and mine developments, applications of disruptive technologies and contributions to significant economic growth in established and emerging markets in the Asia Pacific Region, Southern Africa and the Americas.

Robert is also the founder, Executive Co-Chairman, and a director of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd and is the Chairman and President of Ivanhoe Capital Corporation.

Mr. Zhou is Executive Vice President, Chief Representative China, of Ivanhoe Mines. Mr. Zhou joined Ivanhoe Mines after a career at BMO Capital Markets where he participated and executed more than 10 Chinese cross-border M&A and financing projects, with a total transaction size of ~30 billion US dollars. He has extensive experience in capital markets, insightful knowledge of regulatory procedures and a broad network of business relationships in China.
Since joining Ivanhoe Mines, Mr. Zhou has established Ivanhoe’s China entity and been actively bridging Chinese elements in supporting the development of Ivanhoe’s mining projects in Africa. He played a key role in multiple strategic investments from Zijin Mining and CITIC Metal, generated total proceeds of over 1.5 billion US dollars for Ivanhoe Mines since 2015. Mr. Zhou graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in Finance and Mathematics.

Mr. Melvin has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Ivanhoe Electric since November 2022. Taylor has over 20 years of experience in the natural resources sector as a senior corporate development professional and investment banker. He was most recently Vice President, Corporate Development for Freeport McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX), a leading international mining company focused on copper, headquartered in Arizona. Prior to joining Freeport-McMoRan in 2008, Mr. Melvin was an Executive Director in J.P. Morgan’s Natural Resources investment banking group in New York. Mr. Melvin received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and his MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mr. Markin is Executive Vice President, Business Development and Strategy Execution, Ivanhoe Electric. He is a seasoned mining lawyer with 24 years of experience Stikeman Elliott LLP where he had been a partner since 2008. Over his career, he has lived and practiced in the world’s mining centers — Sydney, London, Vancouver and Toronto. Mr. Markin’s practice focused on M&A, project development and financing matters for mining companies globally and has been recognized by international legal consultancy Chambers for 11 years as a mining law expert. Mr. Markin has acted for the Company since its inception, as well as other Ivanhoe group companies, including Ivanhoe Mines, but also senior producers, junior exploration companies, and investment banks. His notable transactions outside of the Ivanhoe Group include the 2007 C$1.2 billion initial public offering of Franco-Nevada and the 2015 acquisition by OceanaGold of Romarco Minerals and its Haile Gold Mine located in South Carolina for around C$856 million. Mr. Markin received his Bachelor of Law Degree from the University of Ottawa, Canada, and holds an M.A. in International Relations from the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs, Ottawa, Canada.

Hirofumi Katase currently serves as Executive Vice Chairman, Director General of Industrial Science and Technology and a member of the Board of Directors of I-Pulse since December 2017. Mr. Katase is also President of I-Pulse Japan Co., Ltd., I-Pulse’s operating subsidiary in Japan, since January 2018. Prior to these roles, he most recently served as Japan’s Vice Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of the Economy, Trade and Industry (“METI”) from June 2016 to July 2017. He held numerous management positions in trade, energy and industrial policy at METI since joining in 1982. During his time at METI, Mr. Katase served in multiple Director General positions, including for the Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau and Trade Policy Bureau, where he led efforts that contributed to the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, among other international agreements. He also was previously Deputy Secretary-General of the Secretariat of Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy at the Cabinet Office, where he helped establish the Office of National Space Policy — the headquarters responsible for Japan’s development of space policy and deployment of space infrastructure. He also was Director of the Oil and Natural Gas division at METI, where he led Japan’s upstream hydrocarbon policy for four years. Also at METI, he was Director of the Aerospace and Defense Industry division where he worked on launching the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) program and cultivated international partnerships for the development of aircraft and aircraft engines. He has been a director of MinebeaMitsumi, a manufacturing company, since June 2021. Mr. Katase earned a Bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Tokyo and a Master’s degree in applied economics from the University of Michigan. Mr. Katase resides in Kanagawa, Japan.

Mr. Riggall is Managing Director and CEO of Sunrise Energy Metals which he joined in 2013. He was previously Executive Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Planning at Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. In that role he was responsible for securing the agreement to develop the Oyu Tolgoi copper / gold mine in Mongolia, as well as managing Ivanhoe’s other global business development opportunities. Prior to that Sam was with the Rio Tinto Group for over a decade, covering project generation and evaluation, business development and capital market transactions. Sam is a graduate in law and economics from Melbourne University and has an MBA from Melbourne Business School.

Mr. Chunhavajira is Chairman of BCPG Public Company Limited (BCPG), former Board Member of Bank of Thailand, former Director of PTT Exploration and Production PLC. BCPG is among Asia-Pacific’s leading companies in renewable energy with solar power, hydropower, wind power and geothermal power businesses in Thailand, Japan, Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, and it has recently expanded into the United States with several clean energy investments.