Mr. Brian Paes-Braga is a Canadian-born entrepreneur and merchant banking executive. He was the Founder and CEO of Lithium X Energy, which in a period of 2.5 years, raised over C$50 million and was acquired in an all-cash deal for C$265 million. Since founding Lithium X in 2015,  Mr. Paes-Braga has led company-building transactions across a range of sectors, with over C$5 billion in debt and equity financings into growth-oriented businesses. He was a board member of DeepGreen Metals, now TMC the metals company Inc., prior to its go-public transaction on the NASDAQ in September 2021.

Gerard Barron is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of The Metals Company, a role he has held since 2017. A seasoned entrepreneur, he launched his first venture while still in university in Australia and has since built multiple global companies across battery manufacturing, media, technology, and future-focused resource development.

Brian T. O’Neill is COO of SAF Growth & Merchant Banking at SAF Group, a leading structured credit and merchant banking firm that builds, finances, and advises high growth companies, providing flexible, long-term capital solutions to businesses and stable returns for investors. Prior to that, Mr. O’Neill spent nearly a decade in the practice of law with leading Canadian law firm, McCarthy Tétrault LLP. His practice began in the areas of corporate and commercial law, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, corporate finance, intellectual property, and commercial transactions, principally in the high tech and biotechnology sectors. He then shifted his practice to focus on corporate tax matters, with a particular emphasis on the tax-related aspects of mergers and acquisitions and corporate reorganizations.

Hamed Shahbazi brings over 25 years of experience and currently serves as the Founder, Chairman and CEO of WELL Health Technologies Corp. (TSX: WELL.TO), a provider of digital health solutions to doctors and care providers in both the US and Canada. Under his leadership, WELL has become the largest owner and operator of outpatient medical clinics in Canada, with 210 healthcare clinics and a comprehensive practitioner enablement platform used by more than 40,000 doctors or more than 40% of all doctors in the country. The company includes close to 6,000 team members and facilitates more than 8 million patient interactions annually. Prior to WELL Health, Mr. Shahbazi founded TIO Networks (TSXV:TNC), a multi-channel payment solution provider specializing in bill payment and financial services, which was acquired by PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL) for CAD$304 million in 2017.

Mr. Fonseca has over 24 years of experience in the oil & gas and investment banking sectors. He has worked at BP p.l.c., Frontera Energy Corp., Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp., Citigroup Inc., BBVA S.A. and Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF). His experience encompasses corporate finance, structured finance, project finance, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, debt capital markets, bond issuance, corporate restructuring, derivatives, treasury management and more. He has been a part of leading and closing cross border transactions amounting to over US$22 billion, in aggregate.