Vancouver, BC, Canada - August 29, 2014, Vancouver, BC, Canada - West African Iron Ore Corp. announced that Philippe Fackler has been appointed as chairman of the board.
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Mr. Fackler is the founding partner of Drake & Bart, which he founded in 2004. From 2001 to 2004, he served as the director in charge of the energy, chemistry and utilities unit at Ernst & Young Corporate Finance in Paris, France. He was also part of mergers and acquisitions at Gaz de France, and held several positions at Framatome and Cogema.
Mr. Fackler has served as an adviser to governments, financial institutions, and leading energy and mining companies in Africa, including the Niger Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Chad Oil Ministry, the Congo Finance Ministry, Societe Generale, Petronas, Murphy Oil Company, among others.
Mr. Fackler was instrumental in drafting the oil legislation and profit-sharing agreements for the Niger and Chad government. He has a doctorate in astrophysics from Paris University and an MBA from HEC in Paris.
The company also announced that Jorge Cantonnet stepped down as Chairman of the Board.
Mr. Cantonnet is a senior financial industry executive with more than 30 years of experience in establishing and managing private equity, investment banking and direct investment businesses in global emerging markets.
Mr. Cantonnet has held many senior board, executive and committee positions, including: Chairman, Executive Committee, Investment Committee, Risk Committee, Underwriting Committee and Human Resources Committee of several publicly listed financial institutions and private equity funds.
Mr. Cantonnet held the positions of Managing Director, Executive Management Member and Chief Investment Officer of Instrata Capital BSC, a Bahrain Central Bank regulated asset management firm. From 2009 to 2011, he was the Managing Director and Head of Private Equity and Investment Banking of Al Rajhi Capital Company, based in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Cantonnet was Owner and Partner of Global Capital Networks LLC in New York. From 1998 to 2005, he was Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Emerging Markets Capital Markets at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. in New York. From 1995 to 1998, he held the position of Vice President and Co-Head of Emerging Markets Capital Markets Latin America at UBS Securities in New York. ■