Lester Kemp
Chief Executive Officer
Lester Kemp graduated in 1990 with a Master's Degree from the Royal School of Mines, University of London, and went on to work with GeoScience Limited in Ascot before running a gold exploration camp in Guyana for Canarc Resources of Canada. After completing his MBA, Lester worked with various junior resource companies operating throughout Africa, Europe and Scandinavia. Lester was part of Canadian-listed Redaurum Limited which operated the River Ranch Diamond Mine in Zimbabwe and the Kelsey Lake Diamond Mine in the USA. Lester was co-founder and Managing Director of Mantle Diamonds Limited which operated two diamond mines in Africa (Lesotho and Botswana). Lester was also a Non-Executive Director of Levin Sources, a consultancy and social venture company involved in advising international clients on responsible and sustainable mining.
Mark Shimell
Chief Operating Officer
Mark Shimell is Chief Operating Officer for Star Diamond Corporation. He is an exploration geologist with over 28 years of international experience in mineral exploration and 23 years of diamond exploration in Canada. Prior to migrating to Canada to work for Star Diamond Corporation Mr. Shimell worked for A.C.A Howe International U.K on exploration projects within Europe and Africa. Mr. Shimell graduated from Imperial College London (Royal School of Mines) with a degree in Mining Geology in 1995, a Master’s degree in 1998 and is a Professional Geoscientist in the Province of Saskatchewan.
Carmelo Marrelli
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Marrelli brings more than 20 years of financial reporting experience and brings significant experience and support to the Company. Mr. Marrelli is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA, CGA), and a member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, a professional body that certifies corporate secretaries. He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto. Mr. Marrelli is the principal of the Marrelli Group, an organization which has provided accounting, corporate secretarial and regulatory compliance services to listed companies on various exchanges for over twenty years. Mr. Marrelli acts as the Chief Financial Officer to several other issuers listed on the TSX, TSX-V and CSE, as well as non-listed companies, and serves as a director of certain issuers.
George Read
Senior Technical Advisor
Mr. Read is a diamond exploration geologist with over 40 years of international experience. After graduating in geology and geochemistry from the University of Cape Town (BSc. Hons., 1983), Mr. Read joined De Beers in South Africa. During his 12 years with De Beers, he worked on a wide spectrum of diamond exploration projects in Africa (South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, Mali and Tanzania), in addition to Canada and Brazil. Mr. Read came to Canada as a Landed Immigrant in early 1997 and worked as a consultant for several companies in Alberta, NWT, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, in addition to projects in Greenland and Brazil. Mr. Read commenced with Star Diamond Corporation in late 2003 and since that time has led the team responsible for the exploration and evaluation of the Fort a la Corne kimberlites. During his career of almost four decades, he has encountered and solved many of the diverse problems associated with diamond exploration and evaluation programs. Mr. Read is a Fellow of the Geological Association of Canada and a Professional Geoscientist in the Provinces of Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Mr. Read became a citizen of Canada in September 2005.