Bio

Jim Bannantine is a multi-industry CEO/President with success in start-up, growth, merger and turnaround situations, in public and private companies. Most recently he was President and CEO, Aura Minerals, Inc., a publicly traded (TSX symbol ORA) Canadian copper and gold mining company, with $200 million revenue and 2,000 employees in Canada, Brazil and Mexico. Over five years he led restructuring to significantly reduce costs, both operating costs (25% reduction) and G&A costs (50% reduction), while maintaining or increasing production. This was critical in an environment of generally declining commodity prices and lack of financing. During this time the company paid off approximately $40 million of debt, and managed projects to replace production from two expiring mines with a new mine in Brazil. Mr. Bannantine previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Broadwing Corporation (NASDAQ symbol BWNG): an $880 million revenue, 1,700 person telecom rollup, turnaround and sale. He also co-founded and served as Managing Partner, Atlantic Capital Group, a $40 million private equity firm located in Baltimore (www.atcapgroup.com). Mr. Bannantine held several positions over multiple years at Enron, culminating as CEO of Enron South America: a $1.5 billion revenue, 4,500 person roll up of energy assets into a company in both regulated electric and gas utilities and unregulated power and pipeline energy services, infrastructure development and financing. Mr. Bannantine holds a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with Distinction. He has a Bachelor of Science, mechanical engineering concentration, from West Point where he graduated in the top 1% of his class. He is a licensed Professional Engineer, fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and served 12 years in the US Army Corps of Engineers, including 3 years as Assistant Professor of Finance at West Point.