Board of Directors

Mariana Fregonese is the Director of Social Performance and Development at Pan American Silver Corp. With over 17 years of experience in mining, social performance, and sustainability in the Americas, she is passionate about responsible mining and enhancing the quality of life of local communities. Mrs. Fregonese also manages strategic relationships with governments, public agencies, and non-governmental organizations to achieve effective and sustainable community development. She is a Certified Sustainability Practitioner (CSR-P) and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Occupational Therapy (Hons) from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Kettina Cordero is a seasoned Investor Relations professional with over 15 years of experience working with publicly listed Canadian public companies, predominantly in the mining sector. Her experience includes working with small and large-cap mining companies in the precious metals and copper sectors with operations throughout the Americas such as Pan American Silver, Alexco Resource, Capstone Copper and more recently Aris Mining.

Kettina is fluent in English and Spanish. She holds a Diploma in Commerce and Production from the BBZ Institute (Alexander von Humboldt Institute (Perú) and achieved the Canadian Investor Relations Institute (CIRI) CPIR (Ivey School of Business) designation in 2012.

Amina Juma is a corporate and securities lawyer in Vancouver at Fasken. She acts for both public and private companies across a range of industries, including mining, oil and gas, and technology. Amina advises on matters relating to mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, regulatory and stock exchange compliance, continuous disclosure obligations, corporate governance, and general corporate law.

Prior to joining Fasken, Amina practiced corporate and securities law at a national law firm, and served as in-house counsel to an international resource company where she advised on corporate, commercial, and securities law matters.

Ms. Boldt is a professional accountant (CPA, CGA) who has held progressively senior financial leadership roles with several public companies in the mineral exploration and development industry. Prior to her appointment as the CFO & Corporate Secretary of Lucara Dimond Corp., Ms. Boldt served as the CFO & Corporate Secretary of Kaminak Gold, where she was responsible for corporate due diligence and the negotiation, documentation, and execution of a Plan of Arrangement for an acquisition transaction valued at $520 million. Prior to Kaminak, Ms. Boldt was the Vice-President, Finance & CFO for Stornoway Diamond Corporation where she was a member of the senior management team responsible for arranging financing in excess of $900 million for the development of the Renard Diamond Mine in Quebec. Ms. Boldt is an independent Director of Bluestone Resources Inc. Ms. Boldt currently serves as a director of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), where she represents the Diamond, Gold and/or Platinum Group Metals Producer Forum.

Sarah Martin is an associate at Fasken who works with clients on a wide range of mining, energy and environmental matters, with an emphasis on commercial and regulatory issues. Sarah assists with due diligence and risk assessments for acquisitions and other corporate transactions, as well as environmental assessments, permitting and compliance issues. Sarah discovered her interest in mining transactions as an articled student at Fasken and looks forward to helping advance women in the industry through her work with WIMBC.

Sonia D’Ambra is Mining Rock Mechanics Engineer with over 20 years of experience in academia and consulting related to rock mass characterization, slope engineering design, interaction analysis, and numerical modelling for surface and underground excavations. Sonia has been involved in the design, operation and management of pit slopes, underground mines and civil works throughout North America and overseas.
She enjoys passing on her knowledge as a mentor and a university lecturer and is an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University.

Kaeli Gattens specializes in the development and execution of corporate communications strategies that enhance social impact and stakeholder value. Ms. Gattens holds over a decade of international experience working in various roles across the natural resource sector. Prior to her appointment as Director of ESG at the JDS Group of Companies, Ms. Gattens gained her passion and holistic approach to sustainability working at Goldcorp Inc., Finning, VRIFY, and Sun Peak Metals Corp. Ms. Gattens holds a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from SFU, a Bachelor of Political Science and Economics, and a Diploma in Intercultural Communications from UVIC. Ms. Gattens sits on the Board of WIMBC and is an active volunteer with both the Canadian Cancer Society and Special Olympics B.C.

Paola Ricardo is the Investor Relations Manager at NexGen Energy Ltd., a Canadian company focused on delivering clean energy fuel for the future with the world’s largest low-cost uranium mine. Paola oversees the company’s investor relations and capital markets strategy and manages shareholder communications and events, connecting with both institutional and retail investors. With over nine years of expertise in corporate development, M&A, capital markets, and investor relations, go-public transactions, forging commercial partnerships, corporate governance and corporate finance, she has supported TSX, CSE, NYSE, ASX, and NASDAQ-listed companies across mining, energy, healthcare, cannabis and food and beverage.

She has been a WIMBC volunteer since 2023.

Sean Kingsley has 17 years of experience in mineral exploration and mining, focusing on corporate development, strategy, finance, and communications. He serves as President & CEO of Gold Hunter Resources, a mineral exploration and development company, and as President of Investor.Events, an event management company for VIP Issuers to Investor experiences. Sean has supported numerous companies within the sector and contributed to various boards for private and publicly listed companies, showcasing his ability to advise and raise capital globally. His commitment to the mining community is demonstrated through his leadership in chairing the Association for Mineral Exploration BC’s Communications and Marketing committee from 2014-2018, continuing his service since 2012, and his participation in the Executive and Advisory Council for the Centre of Training Excellence in Mining since 2016. Sean also organizes networking events like Mining 4 Beer – Vancouver and the Groundup Networking Reception, attracting thousands of professionals. As the first male board member of Women in Mining BC, he is dedicated to enhancing sponsorship and opportunities for women in the sector.

Virginie Pochard-Linage is responsible for developing and promoting Geoscience BC as a Communications and Membership Manager. She has over 25 years of international experience in leading projects from conception to completion with a robust knowledge of global brand management and events. Her experience spans over a variety of B2B industries and sectors such as Agency, Government, Mining, Engineering, and Not-for-Profit organizations in France, Switzerland, United States and Canada.

Prior to her position at Geoscience BC, she worked at Bureau Veritas North America and helped WIMBC to raise funds through charity golf tournaments. She sat on the Board of Directors at Alliance Française of Vancouver for 4 years, advised ACEC-BC Membership Affairs Committee, provided marketing support at ITS-STI Canada, and volunteered at her son’ school for many years.