J. Peter Pham served as the United States Special Envoy for the Great Lakes (2018-2020) and Sahel (2020-2021) Regions of Africa, with the personal rank of US Ambassador granted by President Donald J. Trump.

Since September 2023, he has been Chairman of Ivanhoe Atlantic, an American company developing US-aligned critical and strategic mineral projects to power America’s future, including the ultra-high grade Kon Kweni iron ore project in Guinea. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Senior Advisor at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University, and a Ben Franklin Fellow. Pham was previously Vice President for Research and Regional Initiatives at the Atlantic Council as well as Director of the Council’s Africa Centre. Earlier in his career, he was a tenured professor of justice studies, political science, and Africana studies at James Madison University, where he was director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

From 2008-2017, he was concurrently Vice President of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) and Editor-in-Chief of ASMEA’s peer-reviewed quarterly Journal of the Middle East and Africa. He is the author of several books and more than 350 articles, essays and reviews on African politics, security, and economic issues. He currently also serves as a Non-Executive Director of Africell Global Holdings and of Rainbow Rare Earths as well as a strategic advisor to several other companies, with a particular focus on managing geopolitical risk and developing business in Africa.

Pham is the recipient of numerous state honours and awards from African countries in recognition of contributions made over the course of his career to strengthening relations between the United States and Africa. In 2022, he was elected a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.

A chartered accountant, David is an investor and advisor to companies in the Asian and North American capital markets.

David has been the Chairman of Wolmar Investments Ltd., a private investment company, since November 2001.

He was previously a senior partner of Grant Thornton in Hong Kong, and a director of Ivanhoe Capital Pte Ltd., a private company based in Singapore.

David is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and a Member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

He currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of I-Pulse Group, where he is responsible for overseeing the company’s global financial strategy, governance, and capital allocation to support its growth and long-term objectives.

Bradley is a seasoned business executive with over 32 years of experience in funding, building, acquiring, advising, and managing businesses across various industries. He began his career in 1988 at Billiton Ltd. (now BHP), where he held various roles until 1997, including international business development and strategy for Samancor Limited, the world’s largest producer of manganese and chrome ore and alloys.

Bradley has worked in corporate finance at Kleinwort Benson Ltd. and as an investment banking consultant at The International Bank of South Africa (a joint venture between Dresdner Bank and BNP Paribas).

From 1999 to 2001, he served as a senior executive in the special projects division at Mercantile Bank. In 2002, he served as group business development executive at South African management consultancy, the IQ Business Group leading the business process practice.

In 2002, Bradley co-founded Decorum Capital Partners and served as the Chief Investment Officer and executive director of the New Africa Mining Fund (NAMF) until 2006. He currently holds the position of Chief Operating Officer at I Pulse Inc. and serves as a non-executive director of African Gold Acquisition Corp (“AGAC”).

Daniel Pfeffer has spent the majority of his career in the global critical minerals space, with technical, financial and managerial experience across a variety of operating and investment roles. Mr. Pfeffer currently serves as Chief of Staff to the Office of the Chairman at I-Pulse Inc. Prior to that he was a partner at New York-based hedge fund Bornite Capital. Mr. Pfeffer ran metals and mining investments at Point72 in Connecticut and served in the Natural Resources Fund at 3G Capital in New York. Before his buyside experiences, he was an investment banker in Morgan Stanley’s Basic Materials Group in London and worked as an exploration geologist.

Erik Bethel is a global finance professional with extensive experience in both the private and public sectors. In 2020, he was nominated to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Panama. Previously, he was nominated by President Donald J. Trump and confirmed unanimously by the Senate to represent the United States at the World Bank. During his tenure, Mr. Bethel participated in the analysis and deployment of over $100 billion in capital across the developing world through grants, loans, equity investments, and other financial products.

In the private sector, Mr. Bethel’s career has centered on emerging markets, with a specialized focus on the natural resources and mining sectors. He served as a managing director at Franklin Templeton Investments, where he executed private equity transactions in Latin America. Prior to this, he was based in Shanghai, China, as Managing Partner of SinoLatin Capital and Managing Director of ChinaVest. Earlier in his career, Mr. Bethel held a variety of private equity and investment banking positions at J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley in both New York and Mexico City, where he concentrated on resource-related opportunities. Mr. Bethel earned a BS in economics and political science from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin.

Samantha Carl-Yoder is the co-chair of the international and critical minerals practices at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. In her nearly 20 years of service at the U.S. State Department, she worked in both Washington, D.C. and embassies across the world to build strategic partnerships for companies expanding domestically and overseas. Prior to joining the private sector, she served as a foreign service officer in Indonesia, Peru, Myanmar (Burma) and Brazil. She also held senior positions in the Trump and Obama administrations, including chief of staff to the Undersecretary for Political Affairs at the State Department, chief of staff to the Assistant Secretary of State at the Bureau of Energy Resources and as a senior advisor to two deputy secretaries. Samantha is also on the board of the Atlantic Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s U.S.-Africa Business Council.

A distinguished retired Senior Foreign Service Officer with a 30-year career in the U.S. Department of State, Amb. Fitrell most recently served as the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea. He is a recognized architect of U.S. economic policy in the region, having developed and implemented a comprehensive U.S. Commercial Strategy for Africa that continues to shape trade relations.

Amb. Fitrell’s leadership in economic diplomacy earned him the prestigious Cobb Award for Excellence in Commercial Advocacy and the Secretary’s Award for Excellence in Labor Affairs. Renowned for his expertise in critical minerals supply chains, energy partnerships, and political-risk navigation, he excels in driving market-entry execution and transformative private-sector growth initiatives that foster enduring economic opportunities and strengthened bilateral ties.