Board and Management

Mr Tighe started his working career in the family-owned JH Leavy & Co business, which is one of the longest established fruit and vegetable wholesaling businesses in the Brisbane Markets at Rocklea and has been trading since the late 1800s. As the owner and managing director of JH Leavy & Co, Mr Tighe expanded the company along with highly respected farms and packhouses that have been pleased to supply the company with top quality fruit and vegetables for wholesale/export for over 40 years.

Mr Tighe has been a director of Brisbane Markets Limited (BML) since 1999. BML is the owner of the Brisbane Markets® site and is responsible for its ongoing management and development of its $400m asset portfolio. As the proprietor of the site, BML has over 250 leases in place including selling floors, industrial warehousing, retail stores and commercial offices. BML acknowledges its role as an economic hub of Queensland, facilitating the trade of $1.5 billion worth of fresh produce annually, supporting local and regional businesses of the horticulture industry. As a Board member Mr Tighe has held roles in various sub-committees which include: 

• Chairman of Safety and Tenant Advisory Committee
• BML Strategy Investment Committee
• Legal and Compliance Committee

In 2016 the JH Leavy & Co business was sold but Mr Tighe has continued in the senior management of Global Fresh Australia, trading as JH Leavy & Co, to ensure a successful transition of ownership.

Mr Tighe (with his wife Patty) own Magic Bloodstock Racing (MBR), a thoroughbred horse racing and breeding company. MBR has acquired many horses which are trained and raced across Australia and around the world including “Winx”, one of the greatest thoroughbreds of all time winning more than $26m in prizemoney.

BA LLB (UQ)

Mr Williams holds both Bachelor of Arts and Law Degrees from the University of Queensland and practised as a corporate and commercial lawyer with Brisbane legal firm HopgoodGanim Lawyers for 17 years. He ultimately became an equity partner of HopgoodGanim Lawyers before joining Eastern Corporation as their Chief Executive Officer in August 2004. In mid-2006 Mr Williams joined Mitsui Coal Holdings in the role of General Counsel, participating in the supervision of the coal mining interests and business development activities within the multinational Mitsui & Co group.

Mr Williams is well known in the Brisbane investment community as well as in Sydney and Melbourne and brings to the AKN Board a broad range of commercial and legal expertise – especially in the context of mining and exploration activities. He also has a strong focus on corporate governance and the importance of clear and open communication of corporate activity to the investment markets.

B.Sc. (Geological Engineering)

Mark is a highly accomplished resources executive with over 35 years of experience. His skills and experience include strategic business planning, feasibility, project management, organization design, mine engineering and mine management. Mark’s combination of skills and depth of experience has consistently produced profitable and sustainable outcomes in complex settings delivering increased shareholder value.

Mark’s extensive global leadership and operational experience includes senior positions with Placer Dome Inc and Barrick Gold Corporation over a period of decades. In his last corporate role, Mark was President of the Global Copper division for Barrick Gold Corporation, executing the development strategy for its portfolio of key copper assets in South America, Africa, Middle East and Asia.

PhD (Economic Geology), Grad Cert (App Fin)

Kylie is an experienced geologist and technical leader with more than 25 years’ experience within the international and resource sector. She currently holds the position of Managing Director at Helix Resources Limited (ASX: HLX) and has worked across a range of different operating jurisdictions, including significant in-country assignments and expatriate roles. This has included substantial business development, project technical and economic evaluation, and commercial management including direct interaction with a range of stakeholders in global resource capital markets.

Previously the Managing Director at leading industry consultant Mining Associates, Dr Prendergast has held senior leadership roles with Felix Gold Limited (Managing Director), Mawarid Mining (Oman – GM Exploration and Business development), Batu Mining (Mongolia – Senior Geologist) and Gold Fields St Ives (Project Generation Geochemist). Prior to that she worked in technical geology positions with BHP Billiton, Ivanhoe Mines (Mongolia) and North Limited.

BA(Acc), Grad Dip (App Fin), Grad Dip (Corp Gov), FCPA, FFin, AGIA

Nick is a Certified Practicing Accountant (FCPA) with extensive executive and senior management experience across the resources and agribusiness sectors in the areas of finance, commercial, corporate governance and company administration. He possesses significant experience in equity raisings, debt funding, management and statutory reporting, corporate governance, financial modelling and the preparation of feasibility studies.

Nick has held the roles of Executive Director, Chief Financial Officer, and Company Secretary through his professional services company for a number of ASX listed junior exploration companies over the past 16 years, taking some of these through to the evaluation phase and into development and production.

Prior to this, over a 20-year period, Nick has held senior finance management positions within WMC Resources, Normandy Mining/Newmont Australia and Beach Energy across various commodities including gold, copper, nickel, uranium, industrial minerals and oil and gas.

LLB, ACA

Paul Marshall is a Chartered Accountant.  He holds a Bachelor of Law degree, and a post Graduate Diploma in Accounting and Finance.  He has 30 years professional experience having worked for Ernst and Young for ten years, and subsequently twenty years spent in commercial roles as Company Secretary and CFO for a number of listed and unlisted companies mainly in the resources sector. 

Mr Marshall has extensive experience in all aspects of company financial reporting, corporate regulatory and governance areas, business acquisition and disposal due diligence, capital raising and company listings and company secretarial responsibilities.

MGeoSc, MComm (Finance), BMSc

Mr Bittar was previously Senior project Geologist at Pantoro Limited’s Norseman Project in Western Australia, where he supervised the planning and execution of near-mine exploration and resource development programs as part of the Definitive Feasibility Study program at Norseman.

Previously, Mr Bittar held Senior Geologist roles with Millennium Minerals (Nullagine Gold project) and Pilbara Minerals (Pilgangoora Lithium project), and Exploration Geologist roles with Sumitomo Metal Mining Oceania and Northern Minerals (Browns Range rare earths project in WA). In these roles Mr Bittar gained extensive experience in taking projects from greenfield exploration to resource development and up to mine-ready feasibility study stage. This experience included supervision of multiple drilling campaigns, geological interpretation, data management and project reporting. Mr Bittar has also maintained a strong commitment to company safety policies and procedures.