Industry Advisory Council

Mr. Ryan T. Bennett is a Senior Partner at Resource Capital Funds. He serves as the Head of Denver office and has been with the firm since inception. From 1992 to 1998, Mr. Bennett served various positions within NM Rothschild & Sons in Denver and Rothschild Australia Limited, where he was principally responsible for the technical analysis of mining projects seeking debt finance. Prior to joining Rothschilds, he served as a geologist for the United States Bureau of Mines and a private exploration company focused on Alaska, as well as a mining engineering consultant for Caterpillar. Mr. Bennett served as Assistant Vice President of Arrow Capital Pty Ltd. He serves on the Board of Directors of Coastal Ventures, Connors Drilling, and Tam Drilling Company. He serves as Director of Basin Perlite Company and Asian American Coal, Inc. Mr. Bennett served as a non-Executive Director of Forbes and Manhattan Coal Corp. from October 21, 2010 to May 21, 2013. He served as a Director of EuroZinc Mining Corp. since April 26, 1999; Avanti Mining Inc. since December 15, 2008; and Lithic Resources Ltd. from June 7, 2002 to May 25, 2007. Mr. Bennett holds a MS in Mining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and BS in Geological Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mr. Gunesch is a founding partner and principal mining engineer of Global Resource Engineering, a mining consulting firm based in Denver, Colorado. He holds a B.S. degree in mining engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and has over 15 years of design and management experience in the mining industry. His experience spans many commodities including coal, oil shale, industrial minerals, aggregates, precious metals, and base metals both working directly for mining companies as well as an outside consultant. The majority of his experience is in economic assessments, mine design, optimization, detailed mine sequence planning, resource and reserve calculations, short and long range planning, reclamation designs, and ore quality control and assurance. He also has experience in hydrogeologic and geotechnical field programs and has managed engineering designs for heap leach pads. In addition, he has worked as a front line shift supervisor and has managed survey teams and laboratory quality control and assurance personnel. Mr. Gunesch also gained experience in construction and contract management during the construction of a tailings dam where his responsibilities included contract negotiation, engineering oversight, contractor payment approval, contract closure, bid comparison, and environmental and safety policy enforcement. Mr. Gunesch is fluent in both written and verbal communication in English and Spanish, and has extensive field experience in North America, Latin America, and India. He is a registered professional engineer in Alabama and fulfils the definition of a Qualified Person in accordance with Canadian NI 43-101 standards.

Recently appointed to the NIOSH position of Associate Director for Mining, Dr. Kogel is recognized industry leader with more than 20 years of technical experience in the mining industry Jessica has held positions in Research and Development and Operations. Previously, she led the Geology and Mining Group for IMERYS’s North American kaolin operations and is responsible for exploration, mineral resource development, mine planning, reserve reporting, permitting and reclamation for over 100 active mine sites in Georgia and South Carolina. In this role she focuses on the strategic development and alignment of mineral assets across multiple markets to ensure a sustainable reserve platform for the business.  Over the past 10 years at Emerys, Jessica has become increasingly involved in sustainable development and mining’s contribution to sustainability. She is actively engaged in capacity building and sustainable development for the global mining industry through the World Federation of Engineering Organizations Task Force on Sustainable Mining. Her interest in sustainable development has led to publications in peer reviewed journals, serving as a delegate to CSD-19 at the United Nations in 2011 and lecturing at national and international events.She is a Distinguished Member of the Society for Mining Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) having served on numerous committees, the Board of Directors and most recently as the 2013 President of SME. She is also an active member of the Clay Minerals Society and served as its president in 2003. Jessica earned MS and PhD degrees in Geology from Indiana University after completing undergraduate work at U.C. Berkeley in Earth Science and Paleontology. Jessica is motivated by challenge and the opportunity to make lasting contributions through innovation and collaborative teamwork.

Tom leads the Alight Mining & Metals business. He brings over 30 years of experience in the mining industry in operations, M&A due diligence, and providing expertise on asset management and capital planning. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies, such as Caterpillar, Citibank, Freeport-McMoRan, Newmont, Barrick, PT Indkia Energy, EMIRSA, BNP Paribus, and Petrosea. Prior to Alight, Tom was principal of Struttman Consulting, a management consulting firm dedicated to the mining industry. Prior to Struttman Consulting, Tom spent over 20 years at Caterpillar as a global account manager responsible for pioneering a global account framework that reshaped the company’s service delivery model, enabling the organization to transition from a transactional to a strategic-relationship model. He holds a BS degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois.

Matt Swinton is a Senior Vice President of Kiewit Infrastructure Co., part of Kiewit Corporation. He serves as District Manager for Kiewit’s nationwide underground tunneling and foundations contractingoperations. Matt is responsible for the overall planning and direction of construction, engineering, estimating, bidding and administration of all work for the Underground District. Matt joined Kiewit in 1999 after receiving his Bachelor of Science, Mining Engineering and Geological Engineering degrees from the Colorado School of Mines. He began his career in Kiewit’s operations as an Engineer-Estimator with the Underground District in Omaha. He was the Project Engineer on the $112- million Chattahoochee Tunnel project in Atlanta, Georgia; Job Superintendent on the Cape Creek Tunnel project in Oregon; Job Superintendent on the DFW J1A Tunnel in Texas; and Project Manager on the Marathon Cavern in West Virginia. From 2009 to 2014, he served as Sponsor for projects such as the Deep Rock Tunnel Connector in Indianapolis; the Euclid Creek Tunnel in Cleveland, Ohio; and the Kemano Backup Tunnel in British Columbia. Matt was promoted to Senior Vice President in 2014. Kiewit is a Fortune 250 company and one of the largest and most respected construction, mining and engineering organizations in North America. The company has revenues of more than $10 billion.