Management & Board

  • Michael A. Konnert

    President, Chief Executive Officer

    Mr. Konnert is a natural resource entrepreneur experienced in deal-making, financing, team development, and corporate strategy. His primary focus is the founder and CEO of Vizsla Silver Corp. (NYSE: VZLA), where the company has consolidated and is developing one of Mexico’s highest-grade silver and gold districts. He is co-founder and Managing Partner of Inventa Capital. Inventa is a natural resource investor and incubator with the vision of providing the elements the world needs. Previously, Mr. Konnert co-founded CobaltOne Energy Corp, a battery metal exploration company he led as CEO and sold to Blackstone Minerals (ASX: BSX) in 2017. Mr. Konnert is an advisor to several companies and a board member of Vizsla Copper (TSX-V: VCU), Archer Exploration (CSE: RCHR), Vida Carbon (Private), Summa Silver (CSE: SSVR).

  • Simon Cmrlec

    Director, Chief Operating Officer

    Simon is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Ausenco, one of the world’s foremost EPCM companies. In his role he leads teams across Canada, USA, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina.

    Simon began his career with Western Mining at its Olympic Dam Operations in South Australia where he held a number of technical and operations roles. He was one of the Owners Representatives for the Olympic Dam Expansion Project (ODP) where he was involved in the design, construction and commissioning of the Smelter and Hydrometallurgical facilities. Following the completion of the ODP project Simon joined Kvaerner and was involved in the construction and commissioning of various base metals, iron ore and gold projects in the US, South America, Middle East and South Africa. In 2001 he joined Inco on the Goro Nickel project in New Caledonia as the Project Manager responsible for the Refinery facility. Simon held a number of roles on the Goro Nickel project including Senior Project Manager and Construction director in his eight years there. Simon joined Ausenco in 2009 and has held a number of positions with the company including President, Program Management and President APAC/Africa before moving to Canada in 2015 to take up his current role.

    Simon attended the Gartrell School of Mining, Metallurgy and Applied Geology at the University of South Australia and graduated with a B.Eng (Hons) in Metallurgical Engineering in 1994.

  • Mahesh Liyanage

    Chief Financial Officer

    Mr. Liyanage is a seasoned, organized, and responsible Chartered Professional Accountant with more than 20 years of experience across diverse industries. Special strengths in Canadian public company reporting and regulatory compliance, business spin-offs/mergers and acquisitions, treasury management, Canadian and US tax compliance. He has many years of experience with Mexican mining companies and specializes in helping Canadian companies achieve optimal operations in Mexico. He was most recently with Evrim/Orogen and in the past he had worked with the Manex Resource Group.

  • Michael Pettingell

    SVP, Business Development and Strategy

    Mr. Pettingell is a geologist with over 10 years of experience working in both pre-producing and operating mines, as well as the capital markets. Prior to joining Vizsla, Michael spent the last four years working in equity research at Canaccord Genuity covering junior precious and base metal explorers and developers in the mining and metals sector. Prior to Canaccord, Mr. Pettingell worked for Hecla Mining, first in exploration at its Lucky Friday unit, and then in corporate development located in Vancouver. Michael started his career as an exploration geologist for Romarco Minerals at its Haile Gold mine prior to it being acquired by OceanaGold in 2015. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science in both Geology and Economics from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Applied Science in Mining Engineering from the University of British Columbia.

  • Jesus Velador

    VP, Exploration

    Dr. Velador has more than 20 years of experience in precious metals exploration, specializing in epithermal systems. Recently, he worked with Fortuna Silver Mines Inc., where he managed brownfields exploration programs in Mexico and Peru. Dr. Velador previously served as Director of Exploration for First Majestic Silver Corp., where he managed the exploration team that discovered the silver and gold deposit at Ermitaño, located adjacent to the company’s Santa Elena mine in Sonora, Mexico. Dr. Velador started his career working for Industrias Peñoles where his work was instrumental in the discovery of the Valdecañas Vein at the Juanicipio project, a Fresnillo – MAG Silver joint venture. Jesus earned a B.Sc. from the University of Chihuahua, a M.Sc from the University of Texas at El Paso and a Ph.D (Epithermal deposits) from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

  • Hernando Rueda

    Director of Mexico

    Mr Rueda is a Professional Geologist with 20+ years of experience.

    Former Regional Exploration Manager at Capstone Mining and former Project Evaluation Manager with Agnico Eagle

  • Jennifer Hanson

    Corporate Secretary

    Jennifer is a dedicated and versatile Senior Professional that brings more than 22 years of excellence in all aspects of human resource management, accounting, and administration, by generating invoices, resolving problems quickly, designing email system, processing income statement requests, administering HR functions, and achieving outcomes through a people-first method.

  • Craig Parry

    Chairman

    Through the course of his career, Craig Parry has been a founder, director, CEO, senior executive and geologist working across a broad range of commodities with several companies.  Craig is a Co-Founder and Partner of Inventa Capital Corp., a venture capital advisory firm dedicated to the acquisition and development of assets in the natural resource sector. He is currently Chairman of Skeena Resources Ltd and has been a Director since Dec. 15, 2016. He is a founder and Chairman of Vizsla Silver Corp. (since December 18, 2018), Vizsla Copper Corp. (since September 1, 2021), Gold Bull Resources (since June 29, 2020) and Outback Goldfields Ltd (since January 2019). He is a Director of Surge Copper Corp. (since September 29, 2020).  He was a founder, CEO and/or director of IsoEnergy Ltd (TSXV:ISO), NexGen Energy Ltd (NYSE:NXE), EMR Capital, Tigers Realm Coal (ASX:TIG), Tigers Realm Minerals, and G-Resources Group. He worked for Rio Tinto from 2000 to 2008.

    Craig has led teams and been involved in a number of exceptional discoveries and resource projects including Vizsla's discovery of new veins at its Panuco-Copala silver district, IsoEnergy's Hurricane uranium deposit, NexGen's Arrow uranium deposit and Tigers Realm Coal's Amaam and Amaam North coking coal deposits.


    Craig graduated from The University of New South Wales and holds a Bachelor of Science (Applied Geology) with first class Honours and the University Medal. He is a member of the AusIMM.

  • Harry Pokrandt

    Director, Chairman Audit Committee

    Capital Markets Executive with 30+ years experience in mining and technology. Former Managing Director at Macquarie Capital Markets, CEO of Hive Block chain, Director of Kore Mining, Gold X Mining Corp., BQ Metals Corp, Lithium X and Fiore Exploration

  • David Cobbold

    Director

    David is a veteran investment banker with 25 years of financial services experience. Currently, he is Vice Chairman of Metals and Mining, Macquarie Group where he is responsible for sourcing and leading merger, acquisition, sale and defence transactions for clients ranging from exploration and development companies to global metals & mining companies. David clients are based in Canada, US, U.K., South Africa and Australia.

    In addition, David has extensive experience in global commodity and securities markets. David joined Macquarie in 2011 as a Managing Director, Head of Mining, Macquarie Capital Markets Canada. Prior to joining Macquarie, David worked at CIBC World Markets and CIBC Capital Partners for 13 years in various capacities, including as a Managing Director, Global Mining Investment Banking and Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets.

    David holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, University of Western Ontario and Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Harvard Business School.

  • Eduardo Luna

    Director

    Mr. Luna has spent over forty years in the precious metals mining industry and has held prior senior executive and board positions at several companies including Industrial Peñoles, Goldcorp Inc., Luismin SA de CV, Wheaton River Minerals Ltd., Alamos Gold Inc., Dyna Resource, Inc. and Primero Mining Corporation.

    He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rochester Resources Ltd., a junior natural resources company with assets in Mexico. He formerly served as a member of the Board of Directors of Wheaton Precious Metals Corporation. Mr. Luna is the former President of the Mexican Mining Chamber and a former President of the Silver Institute.

    He is an inductee in the Mexico Mining Hall of Fame and serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Faculty of Mines at the University of Guanajuato where he received a degree in Mining Engineering.

Special Advisors

  • Charles Funk

    Lead Technical Advisor

    Charles has over thirteen years of industry experience, most recently as the Vice President of New Opportunities and Exploration at Evrim Resources. Previously, Charles worked as a geologist and geophysicist for Newcrest Mining and Oxiana/OZ Minerals with a focus on business development and early stage exploration in North and South America, Australia and South-East Asia. Mr. Funk also has a wide range of experience in porphyry, epithermal and Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) deposits in both North and South America and the Asia-Pacific region.

    Charles holds a degree in Space Science from La Trobe University and an honours degree in Earth Science from the University of Melbourne.

  • Dr. Peter Megaw

    Advisor, Technical Committee

    Dr. Peter Megaw, C.P.G., has a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Arizona and more than 30 years of relevant experience focused on silver and gold exploration in Mexico. He is a certified Professional Geologist by the American Institute of Professional Geologists and an Arizona Registered Geologist. Dr. Megaw has been instrumental in a number of mineral discoveries in Mexico including new ore bodies at existing mines, Excellon Resources’ Platosa Mine, and MAG Silver’s Juanicipio and Cinco de Mayo properties; discoveries for which he was given PDAC’s 2016 Thayer Lindsley Award. Peter is the author of numerous scientific publications on ore deposits and is a frequent speaker at academic and international exploration and mineralogical conferences.

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