Professor Richard Conroy

Chairman

Professor Richard Conroy has been involved in natural resources for many years. He established Trans-International Oil, which was primarily involved in Irish offshore oil exploration. Trans-International Oil initiated the Deminex Consortium which included Deminex, Mobil, Amoco and DSM. Trans-International Oil was merged with Aran Energy plc in 1979, which was later acquired by Statoil.

Professor Conroy founded Conroy Petroleum and Natural Resources P.l.c. (“Conroy Petroleum”). Conroy Petroleum was involved in both onshore and offshore oil production and exploration and also in mineral exploration. Conroy Petroleum, in 1986, made the very significant discovery of the Galmoy zinc deposits in County Kilkenny later developed as a major zinc mine. The discovery at Galmoy led to the revival of the Irish base metal industry and to Ireland becoming an international zinc province.

Conroy Petroleum was also a founding member of the Stoneboy consortium, which included Sumitomo, an exploration group which discovered the world class Pogo gold deposit in Alaska, now in production as a major gold mine.

Conroy Petroleum acquired Atlantic Resources plc in 1992 and subsequently changed its name to ARCON International Resources plc (“ARCON”). The oil and gas interests in ARCON were transferred to form Providence Resources plc. ARCON was later acquired by Lundin Mining Corporation.

Professor Conroy was Chairman and Chief Executive of Conroy Petroleum / ARCON from 1980 to 1994. He founded Conroy Gold and Natural Resources plc in 1995.

Professor Conroy served in the Irish Parliament as a Member of the Senate. He was at various times front bench spokesman for the Government party in the Upper House on Energy, Industry and Commerce, Foreign Affairs and Northern Ireland.

Professor Richard Conroy is Emeritus Professor of Physiology in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Professor Conroy’s research included pioneering work on jet lag, shift working and decision taking in business after intercontinental flights. He co-authored the first text book on circadian rhythms.

John Sherman

Deputy Chairman

John Sherman has over 25 years of public markets investment experience as an equity analyst at J.P. Morgan Securities in New York (’94-’98) and T Rowe Price Group in both London (’01-’18) and Baltimore (’99-’00 & ’18-’23), covering diverse businesses and sectors in Europe, North America and Asia. His most recent assignments at T Rowe Price included generalist coverage of Canadian companies, sector coverage of the European chemical industry and membership on the firm’s proxy voting policy committee. John graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service with an honours bachelor’s degree in international economics. He earned his MBA degree from Stanford University

Maureen T.A. Jones

Managing Director

Maureen Jones has over twenty years’ experience at senior level in the natural resource sector. She has been Managing Director of Conroy Gold since 1998 and was a founding director of the Company. Also a director of Karelian Diamond Resources, she joined Conroy Petroleum and Natural Resources P.l.c. on its foundation in 1980 and was a director and member of the board of Conroy Petroleum / ARCON from 1986 to 1994. Miss Jones has a medical background and specialised in the radiographic aspects of nuclear medicine before becoming a manager of International Medical Corporation in 1977. Miss Jones is also Company secretary.

Brendan McMorrow

Non-executive Director

Brendan McMorrow has over 25 years’ experience in a number of public companies in the oil and gas and base metals mining sectors listed in London, Toronto and Dublin where he held senior executive finance roles. Most recently he was Chief Financial Officer of Circle Oil plc from 2005 to 2015, an AIM oil and gas development and production company with operations in North Africa and the Middle East where he was responsible for all corporate financial and funding matters. Prior to joining Circle Oil Plc Brendan was Chief Financial Officer / Group Finance Manager of Ivernia Inc from 2001 to 2005, a Toronto listed (TSX) base metals mining company which developed and brought into production the Paroo Station lead mine in Western Australia one of the largest lead carbonate mines in the world at the time. From 1988 to 2001 he was Group Finance Manager of Ivernia West plc, a Dublin listed (ESM) base metals mining company which discovered and brought into production along with Anglo American Plc the world class Lisheen zinc mine in Ireland. Brendan is a business graduate of Sligo Institute of Technology and a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.

Howard Bird,  

Non-executive Director

Mr. Howard Bird is an internationally experienced Professional Geoscientist (diamonds, gold, platinum and base metals) and has over 30 years’ diverse junior and senior mining company exploration, development and mining experience, including over 15 years at senior executive management level.Mr. Bird was the Senior Vice President of Exploration and Geology at TSX listed Brigus Gold Corp. where he led the exploration team in the discovery of three new gold deposits at the Grey Fox Project. He was also part of the corporate development team adding the acquisitions of the Black Fox producing mine, near Timmins, Ontario and the Box mine deposit in northern Saskatchewan. Brigus was later acquired by Primero Mining Corp. in March 2014. Prior to Brigus, Howard was the Senior Vice President of Global Exploration for TSX and AIM listed SouthernEra Diamonds Ltd., where he spent over 15 years in the diamond industry. He has extensive worldwide experience and was involved in programmes that have led to the discovery of over 100 kimberlites, working in Canada, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana and Gabon. Mr. Bird was involved in the discovery to production success of several new economic diamond deposits while at SouthernEra, including the Marsfontein pipe, Sugerbird Blow and Klipspringer mine in South Africa, and he worked on one of the world’s largest pipes, the Camafuca kimberlite in Angola. While at SouthernEra, Mr. Bird was also involved in many of the grassroots kimberlite diamond discoveries in the Northwest Territories of Canada, these included joint-ventures with Rio Tinto. While at SouthernEra, Mr. Bird’s added responsibility included Vice President, Global Exploration for TSX listed Southern Platinum and he was a member of the team that brought the Messina (Limpopo) Platinum mine into production in South Africa.

Professor Garth Earls

Non-executive Director

Garth Earls is Consulting Economic Geologist and Professor in the Department of Geology, University College Cork. He has been a Board Member and Managing Director of both AIM and TSX listed companies and has worked globally on a wide range of gold and base metal projects. In the 1980s he was part of the team that discovered the Curraghinalt gold deposit in Co. Tyrone. He is a former Director of the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland and former Chairman of the Geosciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy. 

Marian Moroney

Non-executive Director

Marian is a recognised and accomplished leader in the exploration and mining industry with over 30 years’ experience in exploration, mining, strategic planning, governance, identifying new business opportunities, joint venture management and oversight, and mergers and acquisitions.

Marian spent over 20 years with Barrick Gold Corporation in senior roles and was named as one of Barrick’s inaugural partners in 2015, followed by her being voted as one of 100 Global Inspirational Women in mining in 2016. Her time with Barrick included 5 years as Vice President – New Exploration Opportunities where she had specific responsibility for identifying, reviewing and securing new operating districts for Barrick through multiple and innovative earn-in agreements.

Marian led and coordinated a large multidisciplinary team to progress the Alturas gold deposit through the various exploration stages to establish a resource base of more than 9Moz of gold and delivered a comprehensive scoping study document envisaging potential development and production scenarios.

Cathal Jones

Non-executive Director

Cathal Jones qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC in 1999 and worked in accountancy practice for over 15 years. He moved to Deloitte in 2002 where he was a senior manager and Director in the Corporate Finance department, acting in lead advisory roles primarily in the natural resources and renewable energy sectors assisting clients with project finance, capital raising, M&A and overall strategic direction.

Cathal joined Ardilaun Energy Limited in 2014 as finance director. Ardilaun Energy Limited acquired the Irish oil and gas assets of AIM quoted San Leon Energy plc in 2014. He is also a founding director of Dunraven Resources plc which acquired the Tunisian offshore oil exploration assets of Circle Oil plc in 2018 (the formerly AIM quoted oil and gas development and production company).

He is currently the Company Secretary for Conroy Gold and has been working in a consultancy role with the Company for a number of years assisting with the preparation of financial statements and other corporate finance matters including joint venture negotiations. Cathal holds a degree in Law and Accounting from the University of Limerick and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.