Below you can find biographical details on all of our key personnel, as well as meet some of our other team members.
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Ian Telfer
Chairman
Ian Telfer was elected Chairman of the World Gold Council in September 2010. He is also Chairman of Goldcorp and has been a senior executive in the gold mining industry for the past 25 years.
During this time Ian financed, developed and operated mines in 12 countries throughout the Americas, Asia and Australia.
He served as a director and officer of a number of mining companies, including Lihir Gold, TVX Gold and Goldcorp's predecessor, Wheaton River Minerals.
Ian is a member of the Canadian institute of Chartered Accountants and holds a BA from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the University of Ottawa.
Leadership Team profiles
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Aram Shishmanian
Chief Executive OfficerAram was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the World Gold Council with effect January 2009.
Aram has over 30 years experience as a management consultant. He has worked with many leading financial institutions, at board and senior executive levels, and brings extensive international experience to the role of CEO.
During 27 years at Accenture, Aram held a number of leadership roles, including Global Managing Partner of the financial markets industry practice, before becoming a senior partner.
Subsequently, he was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Resolution plc, the Senior Non-Executive Director of Victoria plc, a Non-Executive Director of a Swiss based asset-management company and several other companies. Prior to joining the World Gold Council he was an independent member of the International Executive of Hogan Lovells LLP, one of the leading global law firms. He holds a BA in Economics and an MBA.
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Brenda Bates
Director, Corporate CommunicationsBrenda Bates joined the World Gold Council in June 2011. As Director of Corporate Communications, she is responsible the strategic development and management of the World Gold Council’s communications across all markets.
Prior to her appointment to the World Gold Council, Mrs Bates was Director of Communications at BPP, University College of Professional Education. At BPP she was responsible for the team which delivered a multi-channel communications strategy that successfully promoted BPP as the first private for profit university to be awarded university college status in the UK.
Previously Mrs Bates worked as an independent consultant specialising in asset management and professional services firms. She also ran the specialist financial PR firm Mainland PR. Her in house corporate communications expertise and experience was gained at Aon, where Mrs Bates was member of the board. Mrs Bates established the corporate communications function at Aon and was responsible for all aspects of brand, corporate PR, marketing and communications. Prior to Aon, Mrs. Bates was a Managing Director at the communications consultancy, Gavin Anderson & Company, working with a range of corporate and financial clients.
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Albert L. H. Cheng
Managing Director, Far EastAlbert Cheng joined the World Gold Council in 1993 and became Managing Director, Far East, in 2003. His role includes responsibility for all operations in the region.
During his early career in the 1980’s, Albert was with Dentsu, Young and Rubicam, Hong Kong, as a Dentsu Account Director.
He subsequently worked for the Royal Canadian Mint, where he was responsible for marketing the Maple Leaf family of bullion products. He helped build the marketing and distribution network in Asia Pacific for the International Olympic Committee, Centennial Coin Programme.
A member of CAM in the UK, Albert holds a degree in Business Administration with a major in marketing from the Chinese University in Hong Kong.
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Jeanette Gooding
Managing Director, OperationsJeanette joined the the World Gold Council in May 2009 as Director, Operations. Her responsibilities include human resources, infrastructure, knowledge management, IT services and business policies.
Jeanette has operated in a variety of environments, primarily in the financial services industry. She has experience in developing teams, strategy implementation and capability development.
Prior to joining the World Gold Council , Jeanette was Head of HR at GSA Capital, a spin-off from Deutsche Bank. Other roles included senior positions at Lehman Brothers and Prudential Banking (Egg).
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Marcus Grubb
Managing Director, InvestmentMarcus Grubb joined the World Gold Council in June 2008; he leads investment research, marketing gold as an asset class and has overall responsibility for product innovation including the development of BullionVault.
Marcus has over 20 year’s experience of the global investment banking industry, in particular in equities, swaps and derivative products.
Prior to joining the World Gold Council he was the founder Chief Executive of Swapstream, which was the largest inter-bank dealing exchange for interest rate swaps, now owned by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
As Global Head of Equities at Rabobank, Marcus built and ran the global primary and secondary equities business. Prior to Rabobank, Marcus was a top-rated senior investment strategist at UBS, Salomon Brothers and SBC Warburg.
Marcus received an honours degree in Modern History & Economics from the Queen’s College Oxford University.
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David Lamb
Managing Director, Jewellery
David Lamb joined the World Gold Council in July 2010. David has overall responsibility for the strategic development of the gold jewellery market worldwide with a particular focus in building the premium market in the US.
Prior to his appointment to the World Gold Council, David was an Executive Director of the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), the sales and marketing arm of De Beers, as Worldwide Marketing Director and subsequently Chief Strategy Officer. There he was widely credited with significantly increasing consumer demand for diamond jewellery, principally through a series of powerful global innovations such as the Trilogy concept (“For your past, your present, your future”), which he devised.
Previously David spent more than 20 years at leading international advertising agencies, notably JWT Worldwide where he was Executive Vice President and held various leadership positions including Head of Worldwide Account Planning and latterly Head of Multinational Clients.
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Robin Lee
Chief Financial OfficerRobin joined the World Gold Council in 2010 as Chief Financial Officer. He carries responsibility for financial reporting and control, financial planning, audit, treasury operations, tax, risk management and company secretariat.
Robin was previously Senior Vice President Finance for Millennium & Copthorne Hotels PLC, a UK FTSE-250 group, where he supported the CEO in corporate strategy, driving profitability and shareholder value. He also spent four years as a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, focusing on corporate finance and corporate strategy.
Previously, Robin was head of research and strategy at the Securities Commission in Malaysia where he supported the establishment of the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board. Robin qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG in London, having graduated from Oxford University in 1990 with a degree in Classics.
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Ajay Mitra
Managing Director, Middle East and India
Ajay Mitra joined the World Gold Council in March 2007. His responsibilities extend to all operations in the region, developing enduring relationships with trade and retail partners and maintaining communications with the Indian Government.
Prior to joining the World Gold Council, Ajay was Commercial Director for Melcosmetics in the Russian market. He also spent 11 years at Coca Cola, holding various positions in both India and Bangladesh, culminating in the role of country manager for Bangladesh.
Ajay holds a degree in economics from St Xavier's College and a post graduate qualification in Marketing Management from Mumbai University.
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Jason Toussaint
Managing Director, US and Investment
Jason Toussaint joined World Gold Council in April, 2009. Jason is responsible for the World Gold Council’s US operations and Investment Sector worldwide. He is also the Managing Director and Principal Executive Officer of World Gold Trust Services, the Sponsor of the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), the world’s largest gold exchange traded fund.
Jason has worked in the investment management industry for more than 17 years with a focus on portfolio management and quantitative strategy. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President and Senior Investment Strategist at Northern Trust Global Investments (NTGI) based in London.
Jason previously was based in Hong Kong, where he managed the Asia Pacific region for Morgan Stanley Capital International. He was also a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at JP Morgan Investment Management in New York.
Jason received a bachelor’s degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School Of Business.