The inaugural Hard Assets Rare Earths Investment Summit agenda is currently in development. Please check this website for speaker confirmations or opt-in to receive summit agenda updates.
See Also…
Summit Expert Speakers
Speakers A–Z
Anthony Alfidi
- Alfidi Capital
- Founder and CEO
Anthony J. Alfidi is the founder and CEO of Alfidi Capital, an investment research firm in San Francisco, California. Alfidi Capital publishes free investment research with honesty and humor.
Mr. Alfidi holds a Bachelor's degree in human resource management from the University of Notre Dame (cum laude) and an MBA in finance from the University of San Francisco. He is a life member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the academic honor society for business majors. He has been a private investor since the 1990s.
Michael Berry, Ph.D.
Michael Berry was born in Colombia, raised in Canada and has now lived in the US for many years. After earning a Ph.D. from Arizona State University (quantitative analysis and investment finance), he was a professor at the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. He followed with the Wheat First Endowed Chair at James Madison University in Virginia.
Over time his career evolved into managing small and mid cap value portfolios for Kemper Scudder and Milwaukee based Heartland Advisors.
During the past 6 years he has been a guest lecturer at the Federal Reserve and in 2010 he testified to Congress on natural resource policy.
Currently he publishes Morning Notes by Michael A. Berry, Ph.D. The Notes discuss geopolitical, technological and economic trends and their effect on capital markets. In addition, he identifies opportunities in the area of natural resources, high technology and biotech for the Discovery Investing strategy he developed.
Gary L. Billingsley, C.A., P.Eng., P.Geo.
- Great Western Minerals Group Ltd.
- Executive Chairman
Born in Flin Flon, Manitoba, Mr. Billingsley has a BSc. Advanced degree in Geology from the University of Saskatchewan. He is also a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Saskatchewan; a Professional Engineer and a Professional Geoscientist and a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan. For the last twelve years, Mr. Billingsley has been a director and an officer of Great Western Minerals Group Ltd., a TSX-V listed company, and currently serves as Executive Chairman. He is also a director of Wescan Goldfields Inc., listed on the TSX-V.
Mr. Billingsley has worked in the mining industry for the past 40 years. He was employed as a mine geologist for several years for companies including Granduc Operating Company (an affiliate of Newmont Mining), Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting Co. Ltd., and in surface exploration for Cominco Ltd., Sherritt Gordon and Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Ltd. In 1983, Mr. Billingsley joined Claude Resources Inc., serving as a director and officer until 1992. With Claude, he was a key part of the team that brought the Seabee Gold Mine (Saskatchewan’s largest producing gold mine and still producing) into production, and participated in the discovery of diamond- bearing kimberlite in the Sturgeon Lake area of Saskatchewan. In 1993 and 1994, in his role as a consultant to Great Western Minerals, Mr. Billingsley led the team that discovered two diamond- bearing kimberlites, at Candle Lake, Saskatchewan. For the last seven years he has focused on the rare earth industry and formulated the “mine to market” strategy currently being implemented by Great Western through the active exploration and development of several rare earth projects along with operating two value-added manufacturing facilities specializing in the production of permanent magnet alloys.
Mickey Fulp
- mercenarygeologist.com
The Mercenary Geologist Michael S. “Mickey” Fulp is a Certified Professional Geologist with a B.Sc. Earth Sciences with honor from the University of Tulsa, and M.Sc. Geology from the University of New Mexico. Mickey has over 30 years experience as an exploration geologist searching for economic deposits of base and precious metals, industrial minerals, coal, uranium, oil and gas, and water in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.
Mickey has worked for junior explorers, major mining companies, private companies, and investors as a consulting economic geologist for the past 22 years, specializing in geological mapping, property evaluation, and business development. In addition to Mickey’s professional credentials and experience, he is high-altitude proficient and is bilingual in English and Spanish. From 2003 to 2006, Mickey made four outcrop ore discoveries in Peru, Nevada, Chile, and British Columbia.
Mickey is well-known throughout the mining and exploration community for his ongoing work as an analyst, newsletter writer, and speaker.
Jeb Handwerger
- Gold Stock Trades
- Editor
Gold Stock Trades Editor Jeb Handwerger is a highly sought-after stock analyst and best selling writer syndicated internationally and known throughout the financial industry for his accurate, in depth and timely analysis of the general markets, particularly as they relate to the precious metals, nuclear and rare earth sector. Jeb utilizes both fundamental and technical analysis, especially the study of price volume action to understand the long term macroeconomic trends in the natural resource market. A true renaissance man Jeb has a strong background in stock market history, investment psychology, geopolitics, mining engineering and economics.
Jeb studied engineering and mathematics and received his undergraduate degree from University of Buffalo and a Masters Degree at Nova Southeastern University. Teaching technical analysis to professionals in South Florida for over 7 years, Jeb began a daily newsletter which grew to include thousands of readers from over 40 nations such as China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand amongst many others who are interested in the North American Resource Market.
Before moving into the financial arena Jeb was a professional actor and member of Screen Actor's Guild and Actor's Equity Association. Jeb appeared in several Broadway, TV and Film Productions. During this time in the theater, Jeb studied the art of technical analysis and charting, which he shares with his readers on a near daily basis.
Dr. Gareth Hatch
- Technology Metals Research, LLC
- Founding Principal
Gareth Hatch is a Founding Principal of Technology Metals Research, LLC. He is interested in helping people to understand the challenges associated with the growing demand for rare-earth elements [REEs] and other critical and strategic materials, and how those challenges affect market sectors throughout the entire technology supply chain. Gareth is also President and Director of Innovation Metals Corp, a provider of downstream processing and marketing services to the strategic-metals industry, with a particular focus on rare earths. He is based in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, USA.
For several years Gareth was Director of Technology at Dexter Magnetic Technologies, where he focused on the design & application of innovative magnetic materials, devices and systems, in order to solve real engineering problems. He led a stellar team of engineers who helped customers and clients in the aerospace, defense, medical, data storage, oil & gas, renewables and industrial sectors. He holds five US patents on a variety of magnetic devices.
Throughout his career, Gareth has been particularly interested in the strategic challenges faced by the permanent-magnet industry and its supply chain, in the face of growing demand for REEs as well as the increased use of permanent magnets in the areas of renewable-energy production and electric vehicles.
A two-time graduate of the University of Birmingham in the UK, Gareth has a B.Eng. (Hons) in Materials Science & Technology and a Ph.D. in Metallurgy & Materials, focused on rare-earth permanent-magnet materials. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering & Technology, a Chartered Engineer and a Senior Member of the IEEE.
Jon Hykawy
- Byron Capital Markets
- Head of Global Research, Clean Technologies and Materials Analyst
Jon is Byron’s Head of Global Research. As a leader in Byron’s Research Department, Jon leads both by example and as a mentor to ensure that Byron’s analysts and associates are considering and developing new insights and fostering deeper levels of analyses into global industries and markets. Jon has demonstrated how a thoughtful, talented, hard-working and persuasive voice from a Canadian-based independent investment dealer can shape the debate in an entire sector worldwide. Jon is a preeminent global thought leader in regard to rare earth elements and “electric metals” (a term coined by Byron Capital Markets in 2009).
In regard to Jon’s specialization, Jon’s intellectual leadership is in the supply and demand of rare earth elements and related materials, their uses and the feasibility of their extraction and production. Jon is able to combine his business acumen and industry experiences with his academic training and his passion for both knowledge and investigation with the result that he reliably produces investment reports and recommendations that are important to the entire sector.
Jon has also gained extensive experience in the solar, wind, and battery industries having conducted significant research in the area of rechargeable batteries (including rechargeable alkaline, lithium-ion and flow batteries). Jon began his career in the investment industry in 2000 when he began work as a research analyst broadly covering the technology sector. Jon later refined his focus to clean technologies and alternative energy companies. This focus was further refined to his current focus.
Education
- Ph.D. (Physics), University of Manitoba, 1991
- MBA, Queen’s University, 1997
Louis James
- Casey Research
- Senior Editor, Metals Division
Louis travels the world, visiting highly prospective geological targets, grilling management and company geologists, and interviewing natives. His background in physics, economics, and technical writing prepared him well for his role as senior editor of the International Speculator and Casey Investment Alert. Wherever he is, Louis is on the lookout for the next double-your-money winner.
Louis evaluates dozens of companies every month, conducts due diligence on the best, and then compares notes with Doug in order to bring only those most likely to provide rapid high returns to our subscribers’ attention. Louis also reads all the press releases, financial statements, and an enormous quantity of related information to keep track of all of our mineral companies, and has become something of a walking database on same.
Jack Lifton
- Technology Metals Research, LLC
- Founding Principal
Jack Lifton is a consultant, author, and lecturer on the present and projected future market fundamentals of the technology metals, the name he has given to those strategic rare metals the electronic properties of which make our technological society possible. These include the rare earth metals group, lithium, and most of the 32 “rare metals,” defined by Jack as “those metals produced at a rate below 32,000 MT/year in 2009.” Jack advises both OEM high tech industry and the global institutional investment community on the natural resource issues that impact either a proposed business model or a high volume manufacturing plan for the mass market. His work today is principally as a due diligence consultant for institutional investors looking into opportunities where rare and technology metals availability are a factor in determining the probability of commercial success of a metals related venture. Jack Lifton, educated as a physical chemist specializing in high temperature metallurgy, was first a researcher, then both a marketing and a manufacturing executive, and, finally, a metal trader specializing in the field of technology metals and of rare metals. Today, after 48 years of industry involvement he focuses on consulting, writing, and speaking about rare metals and technology metals. Jack Lifton is also the co-founding principal of Technology Metals Research, www.techmeatlsresearch.com. A commercial information and analysis resource at which he also publishes on a wide variety of metals related topics for the general public.
John Thomas
- www.madhedgefundtrader.com
- The Mad Hedge Fund Trader
John Thomas graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in Biochemistry and a minor in Mathematics in 1974. He moved to Tokyo, Japan to join Dai Nana Securities as a research analyst of Japanese companies, becoming fluent in Japanese.
In 1976 he was appointed the Tokyo correspondent for The Economist magazine and the Financial Times. He was one of the first American correspondents to cover China during the Cultural Revolution. He reported on the American attempt to climb Mount Everest and guerilla wars throughout Southeast Asia. The major figures he interviewed included China’s Premier Deng Xiaoping, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, the UK’s Margaret Thatcher, the PLO’s Yassir Arafat, and of course President Ronald Reagan.
In 1982 John Thomas moved to New York as the US editor of a major business magazine. As a member of the White House Press Corps he covered the early years of the Reagan administration. In 1983 he was hired by Morgan Stanley to build a new division in international equities. In 1985 he was promoted to vice president and transferred to London to head up the sales and trading of Japanese equity derivatives in Europe and the Middle East.
Seeing the incredible inefficiencies and severe mispricing offered by the popping of multiple bubbles during the Great Crash of 2008, and missing the adrenaline of the marketplace, he returned to active hedge fund management.
His career has taken him up to 20,000 feet on Mount Everest, to the edge of space at 90,000 feet in the Cockpit of a MIG-25, and to the depths of a sunken Japanese fleet in the Truk Lagoon. Why they call him "mad" he will never understand.