OUR TEAM
A Blend of Experience and Innovation
C3 BULLION TEAM
At the helm of C3 Bullion is a diverse team of experts, including seasoned mining executives, financial innovators, and digital asset specialists. Our leadership includes a team of specialized professionals, each contributing decades of experience in their respective fields.
Meet The Executive Team
Christopher Werner
Founder and CEO
Mr. Werner is the Past CEO of Ascendant Holdings Ltd., which completed two separate IPOs on the TSX for Canadian mineral exploration companies. He was also the Founder and CEO of River Hills Resources which joint ventured with a Chinese State-Owned company to develop three mining projects in Ecuador. Mr. Werner Co-Founded and was CEO of Gorgona Gold S.A.C. which is a Peruvian-based exploration company with five mining projects comprising 10 concessions covering over 10,000 hectares and was Co-Founder and CEO of Pangea Resources S.A. which is a Nicaraguan based mining company.
Chris founded C3 Bullion in January of 2020 to operate as an alternative mine finance company with a focus on financing early-stage production opportunities.
Martin Gallon
COO and Chief Mining Officer
Mr. Gallon is a registered professional mining executive with over 45 years of experience in all phases of exploration and mining, both open pit and underground, from grassroots exploration through feasibility studies, mine development & construction, to process plant design and operational mine management. He developed, supervised, and authored feasibility and EPCM proposals for major engineering and construction groups and held progressively senior positions including VP of Exploration, President, COO, and CEO. Martin was the managing director of SNC Lavalin and former Senior VP of exploration for Rio Tinto.
More recently, Mr. Gallon focused on project evaluation, financing, development, construction, and advancing a number of projects from grassroots to production in North, Central, and South America where he was responsible for two major exploration discoveries and designed, built, and operated three gold mines.
Luciano Duque
Founder and CIO
Seasoned global business executive and entrepreneur, with 20+ years of experience in the US and international business in a wide range of industries, with a strong focus on Capital Markets and Fintech. Extensive experience in business startups in North, Central, and South America, including the startup/structuring of a US Broker-Dealer. Track record on Investment Banking in LatAm for deal origination, negotiation, structuring, and Placement. Former International Client Advisor for Morgan Stanley. Experience structuring investment funds. Extensive US and International Broker-Dealer, family/multifamily office, and fund allocators network. Knowledge and experience in digital assets, asset tokenization, and secondary trading of securities (ATS). Mechanical Engineer. FINRA licenses: Investment Banking (79), Investment Advisory (66), Securities Broker (7), Commodities broker (3), and Securities Principal (24).
Manuel Olivares
Chief Economist
Manuel Olivares is an expert on Financial risk with specific experience in Credit, Market, and Operational risk gained through over a decade of professional engagements with banking institutions (Lloyds Banking Group), rating agencies (Moody’s), auditor firms (EY), and the British financial regulator (FSA).
He is also an experienced Economist, having developed for different employers models used for scenario analysis, stress testing, and to identify sovereign risks. His professional experience includes a sound knowledge of the business environments and financial regulations across different geographies, based on his fieldwork experience in EMEA, LATAM, and North America. He still maintains active links with academia after holding positions as an academic at the University of Manchester and the University of Wales, he actively collaborates in researching with academics and participates in conducting seminars in different Universities.
His formal academic qualifications include a Ph.D. in applied finance, an M.A. in Economics, an MBA with specialization in Finance, and a BSc in Business Management and Economic Sciences, in addition to specialization courses in MIT, Thunderbird University, and BBA (British Banking Association).
Jim Elgart
CFO
Mr. Elgart founded MarathonCFO, an outsourced accounting and fractional CFO firm based in Boston. Jim has 25+ years of experience as a financial professional during which he has helped many companies scale and grow their financial infrastructure and design and execute a financial strategy. Jim has been the "point" on multiple funding and liquidity transactions, most recently as the CFO of CompleteCase.com which was sold to a private equity firm in 2021. Before joining C3, Jim has been a co-founder or partner in at least six different businesses including the biotech firm Asischem and the fintech company check-print.com. Additionally, Jim has helped establish the financial infrastructure for several private funds, including a fund organized to make hard money loans to contractors and developers, Crowdlending.com.
MINING TEAM
Greg Mosher
Geologist and Mining
Greg is a geologist with strong skills in mineral resource estimation and due diligence assessment of mineral exploration and mining properties, project management of geology, and resource estimation studies, and exploration program design and management. Greg is a Qualified Person for NI 43-101 and JORC technical reporting on many mineral deposit types and mineral resource estimation. Greg has more than 40 years of geology experience with project locations across North and South America, Asia, Greenland, North Africa, and Europe. Consulting contracts have included technical evaluations of mining operations and mineral properties, mineral resource estimations, and design and management of geological exploration programs including mapping, geochemical and geophysical surveying, and diamond drilling.
Julian Rosero
Mining and Engineering
Former Minister of Mines of Ecuador. Managed on behalf of Ecuador the foreign exploration missions conducted by French, British, Japanese, and Chinese from 1970-2010. Held the position of In-Country General Manager for numerous public and private mining companies both exploration and production. Central University of Ecuador professor of geology for 34 years.
Mr. Rosero graduated as an Engineer in Mines in 1973 and with a Post Degree in Mines Geology from the University of Leicester, England 1976. He has served as a field geologist in exploration geochemistry and mapping in the Ecuadorian Geological Survey since November 1972, was a Mineralogy Teacher in the Faculty of GMYP of the Central University of Ecuador from 1971 until October 1985, and Mineral Exploration from November 1985 until 2001, and Director of the Ecuadorian Geological Survey from January to October of 2003 and Vice Minister of Mines from 2004 to 2005.
John Bolaños
Geologist and Mining Operations
Mr. Bolanos has a Master’s Degree (M.Sc.) in Mining Geology from the Camborne School of Mines (M.C.S.M.) of the University of Exeter (the U.K., 1995); P. Eng. Geology graduated from the Central University of Ecuador (Honors Degree - Gold Medal Best Student, 1992); Registered Member (Qualified Person) of the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration of the USA (SME), Member of the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG), Fellow of the Geological Society and has 21 years experience in geology, mining exploration, mining evaluation, development and administration of mining properties in the roles of Consulting Geologist, Exploration Manager, General Manager, Vice-president of Exploration for mining companies in North, Central, and South America.
John is a mining professional guiding key participants in numerous mineral projects that were funded via public transactions. Mr. Bolanos is a "Qualified Person" as defined under National Instruments 43-101 and is also one of three South American geologists who are members of the Society of Mining Engineers.
Oliver Stark
Mining Equipment and Operations
Based in Lima, Peru, he is A Tri-lingual executive with more than 35 years of managerial experience as country head, general and commercial manager in leading local and multinational organizations, active in the mining sector with a solid trading base. Highly experienced in business development, international trade, and contract negotiations. Mr. Stark's experience in the mining sector encompasses managing director positions in mining financial institutions, equipment manufacturers and distributors, refining, metals trading, exploration, and production of gold and copper companies including Austria Duvaz, a 100+ year old continuous mining company.
Dana T. Jurika
Mining Finance
Mr. Jurika has 20+ years of experience in mining and finance. In the 90s he was part of Robertson Stephens, an investment bank then acquired by Bank of Boston. Later he spent several years as a portfolio manager for a Hedge Fund. Mr. Jurika has brought two mineral exploration companies
from startup through IPO. Most recently Dana has been the CFO of CMMC, Redstone, and SensorComm. He previously has sat on the board of several public and private corporations and holds the CFA designation.
PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Carlos Vidal Soria
Managing Director | Institutional Business & Strategy
Advisor and international banker, 25+ years of experience in Investment Banking and Capital Markets, International Finance: designing/managing investment portfolios; advising companies, governments and investors (debt restructuring, commodities trading & hedging, investment management and financial risk management); structuring public and private debt; and financing of investment and COMEX projects in Latam, Europe and MENA.
Strong skills and proven track record providing advice to boutique investment banking firms, family offices, broker-dealers, governments, investment funds, hedge funds, and corporate law firms, in relation to: Global Macro Strategy, debt restructuring, alternative Investments, etc. BSc in Economics, post degrees in Risk Management and Internacional Finance.