Vancouver, BC, Canada - October 7, 2009, Vancouver, BC, Canada - Rockwell Diamonds announces that it has appointed independent directors Richard Linnell and Willem Jacobs to its board.
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Mr. Linnell has been active in the mineral resources business for nearly 40 years.
He joined Middelburg Steel & Alloys as Marketing Manager for the Stainless Steel division in 1985 and was subsequently involved in the establishment of the Columbus Stainless Steel Project.
Thereafter, he became General Manager of the Manganese Division of Samancor, a joint venture between the then Billiton Plc and the Anglo American Corporation. Samancor held a dominant global position in the manganese and chrome markets.
He subsequently moved on to head Billiton Plc's Exploration and Development activities within Africa, and gained considerable experience in Guinea, Mauritania, Sudan, Morocco, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, and South Africa.
Mr. Linnell retired from BHP Billiton in 2001 and made a successful transition to the junior exploration and mining sector where he has been involved in the development, management, corporate activities, and capital raising of and for several private and listed junior and mid-tier exploration and mining companies.
His roles in these companies has included positions as non-Executive Chairman and Director of companies listed on the Sydney, Toronto, London and Johannesburg stock exchanges. Mr. Linnell has a BSc (Honours) London External Degree from the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which was then an External London College.
Dr. Willem Jacobs has more than 25 years experience. He joined Price Waterhouse in 1984 as a Principal Consultant, managed the Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice in Johannesburg, and was Executive Director of Cullinan Holdings Limited from 1990 to 1995.
During the latter period he was also CEO of Cullinan Precision Engineering, Chairman of Cullinan Minerals, and Chairman of Sud Chemie (SA), a joint venture between Sud Chemie (Germany) and Cullinan Holdings Limited.
He was Managing Director of automotive company ABB Flexible Automation from 1996 to 1998, and CEO of IMERYS Africa and Australia from 1998 to March 2001.
From 2001 to early 2007 he served as a non-executive director of industrial minerals company Europe Minerals Bv, and was Country Manager of Teal Mining and Exploration activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo ("DRC") from 2007 until December 2008. He is currently a Director and Operations Manager of Congo Supply and Maintenance s.p.r.l. which is active in minerals exploration in the DRC.
Dr. Jacobs completed an Honours degree in Public Law at the University of the Orange Free State in 1982, a Master of Commerce at Rand Afrikaans University in 1985, and a PhD in Economics at the University of South Africa in 1998. ■