Board of Directors

Mr. Michael began his career at CIBC World Markets, in Toronto, where he established and successfully managed the firm’s first commodity and foreign exchange proprietary trading desk. Subsequently, he held senior commodity and foreign exchange trading positions at Lehman Brothers, Standard Bank and Graham Capital Management. More recently, Mr. Michael acted as Chairman and CEO of a DIFC based investment banking firm. Mr. Michael has successfully founded and managed both investment firms and traditional companies. Mr. Michael holds an Honors in Business Administration (HBA) degree from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario.

Mr. Shahin has 25+ years experience in the global physical and financial precious metals markets. He began his career at CIBC World markets in Toronto on the spot gold desk before moving to Republic National Bank (RNB) in New York as Chief Dealer; at the time, RNB had the largest gold desk in the world. Mr. Shahin then held a similar position at Lehman Brothers in New York prior to joining Rudolf Wolff and Co, in London, a founding member of the London Metal Exchange. In 2000, Mr. Shahin moved to Dubai with ARY Traders where his strong governance polices, risk management programs and hedging/trading strategies enabled ARY to become one of the major physical gold trading firms in the region. Mr. Shahin served on the DMCC Gold Advisory Board, 2002-2007; and holds a BSc. in Civil Engineering from University of Texas at Austin.

David is Professor of Finance at New York University School of Engineering. Previously, he was Director of the Treasury and Risk Support Business Unit at Novantas, Inc., and Managing Director of NewOak Capital LLC. He was also co-founder and president of Risk Capital Management Partners LLC (acquired by Towers Perrin), Principal and Head, Risk Management Advisory at Bankers Trust Corporation (acquired by Deutsche Bank), and Vice President, Head of Risk Management Research at J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. He was Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Southern California and Senior Lecturer of Finance at Harvard Business School from 2000 to 2004. Mr. Shimko holds a PhD in Management Economics and Finance and a degree in Economics from Northwestern University.