The Team

Ros Lund is a mining Specialist within the Department of International Trade helping UK companies to export and invest overseas. Ros has visited Kazakhstan a dozen times for DIT, travelling extensively in country, meeting officials, mining companies and visiting sites.

Ros has directed more than 50 mining conferences, seminars and events in the UK and overseas. In 2011 she ran the largest Critical Metals conference in Europe with 350 delegates. Ros created Mining on Top, a conference focused on mining’s role in development in Africa, which attracted 500 delegates and 13 African Ministers in its second year. Prior to mining, Ros spent 14 years in Payments, working for American Express and Barclaycard in a variety of operational and commercial roles. During her career Ros has completed secondments to Germany, Sweden and Ghana.

Ros is a qualified Six Sigma Black Belt and Corporate and Career Coach. She holds a BA Social Ethics from Lancaster University. Ros is a member of the advisory board for Mines and Money London.

Raphael Heffron is Professor for Global Energy Law and Sustainability at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy at the University of Dundee. He as of July 2019 is a Jean Monnet Professor in the Just Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy awarded by the European Commission. Professor Heffron is a qualified Barrister-at-Law, and a graduate of both Oxford (MSc) and Cambridge (MPhil and PhD). His work all has a principal focus on achieving a just transition to a low-carbon economy and combines a mix of energy law, policy and economics. He has published over 120 publications of different types and is one the most cited scholars in his field worldwide. Professor Heffron has given just over 100 keynote or guest lectures in 37 countries worldwide.

Raphael was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland in 2018. His research and teaching have been recognised by the award of a Jean Monnet Professorship by the European Commission twice in 2016 (-2019) and 2019 (-2022). His teaching has also been recognised in the UK by becoming a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy in 2018. In addition, Raphael is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts.

Raphael’s research has involved funding from UK national research councils (the ESRC and the EPSRC), the EU and currently through the European Commission Jean Monnet Professorship 2019-2022. He is a Research Associate at the national UK Energy Research Centre. He has given expert advice to the EU, UN, World Bank, and various international thinktanks – he currently serves on the UNECE Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity Systems. Raphael is on the Editorial Board of the International Energy Law Review, the Renewable Energy Law and Policy Review and is Consulting Editor of the Halsbury’s Laws of England volumes on Energy Law (the leading practitioner series). Raphael is also co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford University Press Handbook for International Energy Law. He is Editor-in-Chief of the new law and interdisciplinary journal Global Energy Law and Sustainability (published by Edinburgh University Press).

Raphael is currently the Co-Chair of the UK Energy Law and Policy Association; Visiting Professor in Energy Law at the International Hellenic University (Greece); an Associate Researcher at the Energy Policy Research Group at the University of Cambridge; and currently is/has been a Visiting Professor at Paris-Dauphine University (Paris, France), Queen Mary University of London (UK), the University of West Indies (Trinidad-based), Javeriana University (Colombia) and University Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique); a Visiting Lecturer at the ESCP Business School (London and Paris); and a Visiting Scholar at MIT (US), the University Of Texas at Austin (US) and the British Institute for International and Comparative Law (UK).

Raphael read for his PhD at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. He is also a trained Barrister-at-Law and was called to the Bar in July 2007 in the Republic of Ireland. He holds degrees from the University of Cambridge (MPhil, PhD), the University of Oxford (Christ Church) (MSc) the University of St. Andrews (MLitt), and Trinity College Dublin (BA, MA).

Ms. Michele McCarthy is the President of McCarthy Law Professional Corporation, and President and Chief Executive Officer of Independent Review Inc. She is an experienced corporate director and has significant experience in corporate restructuring and regulatory compliance. Ms. McCarthy was the Chair of the boards of Sandy Lake Gold Inc., Big 8 Split Inc., TD Split Inc. and 5Banc Split Inc. She also served as a director and member of the Audit Committee and Risk Management Committees at Equity Financial Holdings Inc. She is the former Chair of the Toronto Port Authority and member of the Small Business Advisory Committee of the Ontario Securities Commission. From 1997 to 2002 she was the Chief Legal Officer, Director Compliance and Corporate Secretary for Deutsche Bank Canada and Deutsche Bank Securities and created its Schedule III bank branch (1997-2002) and consulted on the reorganization of UBS Bank (Canada) and the establishment of UBS AG Canada Branch. From 2007 to 2011, she was the Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary, Chief Privacy Officer, Ombudsman and Head of Compliance for GMAC Residential Funding of Canada, ResMor Trust and Ally.

Ms. McCarthy serves on the boards of the McMichael Foundation, The Rekai Centres and the Honourable Company of Freemen of the City of London in North America. She also served on the boards of Canada’s National Ballet School, the St. George’s Society of Toronto, the University of Toronto (Trinity College) and the Humber Memorial Hospital.

Ms. McCarthy holds an LLB and LLM in Securities Law from Osgoode Hall and has been accredited with an ICD.D designation.

Leanne Holmes currently heads up HR at Central Asia Metals Ltd (CAML).Leanne is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and holds a degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Lincoln, UK. Leanne joined CAML as Group People Manager in April 2020. In this role, she is assisting business leaders in supporting an employee-orientated, high performance culture. Prior to joining the Company, Leanne managed HR at Eldorado Gold’s corporate office in Vancouver, Canada. Previously, she managed HR at two UK sites for aerospace and defence manufacturing company, Esterline.

Gulzhan has been qualified as a lawyer for over 12 years and specialized in Mining, Oil & Gas and Energy Law with career history having involved to date a diverse portfolio of roles, including legal, procurement and managerial. Gulzhan maintains considerable in-house knowledge of the region’s subsoil management industry and has worked extensively for a variety of mining and oil& gas corporations as a Head of Legal and Procurement departments and Government Relations Manager by building relationships with various stakeholders.

She obtained LLB from the Kazakh State Law University (Diploma with Honours). Gulzhan also holds an LL.M in International Mineral Law and Policy from the University of Dundee in Scotland (with Distinction) and MBA from the University of Liverpool in England. From September 2019 till October 2020 Gulzhan served as a Legal Manager for 'International Women in Mining' in London.

Gulzhan is also a published author, her research includes an article on 'Tracing Social Licence to Operate in Mining Sector of Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan' (Oil, Gas & Energy Law Intelligence Journal, January 2020). She is a frequent participant in main industry conferences and events globally. Gulzhan is a Kazakh national, fluent in English, Russian and Kazakh.

email: gulzhan@wimkz.org

Natalia has over 15 years of experience in the Government of Kazakhstan. She works for the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan in the Department for Environmental Monitoring and Information. Natalia also heads Kazakh Delegation in UNECE on the adoption of a new Environmental Code of Kazakhstan. Mrs Dauletyarova previously worked for Ministry of Energy (a former Ministry of Oil and Gas) in the Subsoil Use Department. She read an MBA degree at the National University of Oil and Gas "Gubkin University" in Moscow.

Dr Saken Ashirbekova is a Business Development Director at Central Asia Metals Ltd (CAML) Kazakhstan.Saken joined CAML in 2010 in order to oversee the development of the commercial SX-EW plant at Kounrad. She was General Director of JSC Varvarinskoye, a wholly-owned subsidiary of European Minerals Corporation, having worked for that company in Kazakhstan since 1996. Prior to that, she worked for Kazakhmys as a senior metallurgical engineer. She is a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys with a degree and a PhD in metallurgy.

Olga Protassova is a Deputy Director at Department for International Trade, British Embassy Kazakhstan

Turgyn-Zhanat Baidalina is a Chief-Expert at Subsoil Use Department of Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development where she serves over 15 years

Mr. Fitsum Weldegiorgis is an economist and social scientist with research and project interests on sustainable human development effects of economic activities. He is a senior research consultant with affiliations as an Associate with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London and an Industry Fellow with Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) at the University of Queensland (UQ).

Previously, Fitsum led Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) work in his role as Senior Researcher for IIED. Before this, he worked as Researcher with the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM) at SMI for several years conducting applied research on socio-economic impact of large-, medium- and small-scale mining.

He has a long track record of conducting applied and academic research; strategy designs, multi-stakeholder action dialogues; and building capacity, leadership and partnerships through various projects. Fitsum is a Ph.D. Candidate at UQ and holds a Master of International Economics and Finance from The University of Queensland; a Baccalaureus Commercii Honores Degree in Money and Banking from the University of the Free State, South Africa; and a Bachelor of Economics from Asmara University, Eritrea.

Mr. Jeff Parshley is a SRK Consulting’s Global Chairman and a Corporate Consultant with more than 37 years of environmental and closure experience in the mining industry including closure planning and closure cost estimates. In addition to planning and analysis work for mines, he has also been involved in the management of several abandoned mines and implementation of actual closure works at several mines in the western United States. He has worked with legal and policy aspects of mining projects since his early career, regularly works on World Bank and IFC compliance projects and is also one of SRK’s most experienced mine closure strategists and regulatory specialists. He has contributed to the development of several regulatory guidelines for mine closure and closure cost estimating and assisted a number of clients develop corporate standards and guidance documents for closure planning, implementation and cost estimating. In 2016, he lead a team that prepared a World Banks sponsored Comparative Study of Financial Mechanisms for Environmental and Social Sustainability of Mine Sites after Closure in Kazakhstan. This study was used by the government in the preparation of a new Subsoil Use Law in Kazakhstan.

Anna Fardell, is a Senior Resource Geologist and the Geology Team Leader in the SRK Almaty Office. She has 14 years’ experience in the mining sector specialising in estimating and auditing Mineral Resources in accordance with international reporting codes. These include Competent Persons Reports, NI 43-101’s and Independent Engineers Reports in support of stock exchange listings, project financing and acquisitions. She is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and a member of Women in Mining UK. She has worked with junior explorers, mid-tier miners, major mining companies and state operators throughout her career and since 2015 has been mainly involved with projects in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. She is also the Co-Chair of the SRK Diversity and Inclusion Committee and is passionate about creating a more diverse and inclusive mining sector, promoting mining within the education sector and works with STEM educational outreach programmes in the UK.

I was born on October 6, 1959 in South Kazakhstan region of the Republic of Kazakhstan. My father was an agriculture scientist, my mother – a housekeeper. We are nine children in the family. In 1970, we moved to another region, to Zhanatas town of Zhambyl region, where I graduated from a secondary school in 1977. The same year, I was enrolled in Kazakh Polytechnic Institute in the specialty “hydrogeology and engineering geology”. During my student years, I pursued scientific work, took part in contests and became a prize-winner of the All-Soviet Contest of student works “For the best scientific student work (1980).
In 1982, I finished my studies and was sent to Central Kazakhstan, to work in Karaganda city. It is a capital of Kazakhstan coal industry. First three years I worked at the Scientific Institute of Mining Geomechanics, then I took a job in exploration expedition "Karagandauglerazvedka". I worked as a geologist and a hydrogeologist, during 8 years I was engaged in exploration of coal and groundwater, underground hydrogeological surveys of mine workings, organized monitoring of groundwater at 26 coal mines of the Karaganda coal basin. From 1993 to 2001, during the severe economic crisis in the country, I quit my profession and raised my son. Then the economic recovery began and I returned to profession, joined the civil service in State Geology Department of Central Kazakhstan. From 2001 to 2011, I worked as a chief specialist and a senior inspector for mineral resources protection, subsoil use monitoring, was involved in groundwater exploration, assessment of their reserves, water supply to settlements and enterprises, including the inspection of mining companies.
In 2011, I left the State Department and from 2012 I worked in Kazakhmys Corporation as a lead hydrogeologist of the Technical Department. In 2014, I joined KAZ Minerals Group companies, where I continue working up-to date. My job in the company was appreciated by the gratitude of the company's management and government awards.
I do not have a specific hobby, but I like sewing, knitting, interested in interior design, photography and travel. I started recently painting the interior pictures. I am taking the first steps in this direction so far. I have a big family including my 33 year old son Anuar and beloved grandson Zhangir (3.5 years old) and many nephews and their kids.

Yelena is a strong accounting and finance professional with over 10 years of experience in accounting/finance field - audit, financial and management controlling, transactions services (due diligence) in oil and gas, mining, banking and commercial sectors. She started her career at KPMG Audit, gained extensive consulting experience in deal advisory at KPMG Tax and Advisory and finance expertise at METRO Cash and Carry. Yelena is ACCA-qualified professional; graduated KIMEP with honours majoring in Accounting.