Further to the Notice dated Monday, 30 May 2022 convening the LBMA’s 34th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association, the following nominations for Full Member vacancies of the LBMA Board were duly received and verified.
Full Member Nominations:
- Wenjian Fang, Bank of China
- Praveen Baijnath, Rand Refinery Limited
- Hitoshi Kosai, Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K.
As the number of Full Member nominations fulfils the number of vacancies, a vote at the AGM will not be required. Hitoshi Kosai & Wenjian Fang have been duly re-elected onto the Board for another two-year term. We are also delighted to have Praveen Baijnath (CEO, Rand Refinery) join us as our newest Board member. Congratulations to the successful candidates.
Mehdi Barkhordar (Chairman of the Board of Directors, MMTC-PAMP India Pvt. Ltd.) will be stepping down from LBMA’s Board at the AGM which will take place on Thursday, 7 July 2022. LBMA wishes to thank Mehdi sincerely for his hard work and dedication on behalf of the industry.
Praveen Baijnath
Chief Executive of Rand Refinery and Director of Prestige Bullion, a JV with the South African Mint
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Praveen Baijnath
Chief Executive of Rand Refinery and Director of Prestige Bullion, a JV with the South African Mint
Prior to joining Rand Refinery in June 2015, Praveen was Group CEO of then JSE listed Delta EMD Limited, with strategic responsibilities for manganese battery materials refining operations in both South Africa and Australia and continued to serve on that board as a non-executive director until December 2020.
Prior to Delta EMD, he was CEO of Gold Reef Speciality Chemicals, and worked for 20 years in various senior management and chemical engineering roles within Huntsman Corporation titanium-di-oxide business.
He is currently Chairman of the Ekurhuleni Jewellery Project (EJP), which is involved in community SMME development and jewellery manufacturing incubation programmes.
Praveen studied chemical engineering, holds an MBA with distinction from the University of Wales and completed his executive development programs at the University of Cape Town. He is a motorsport enthusiast and spends his spare time on his collection of modern and classic cars.
Hitoshi Kosai
Chief, International Planning Office & Head of President’s Strategy at Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. & TANAKA HOLDINGS Co., Ltd
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Hitoshi Kosai
Chief, International Planning Office & Head of President’s Strategy at Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. & TANAKA HOLDINGS Co., Ltd
A graduate of Shizuoka University, majoring in Inorganic Chemistry, Hitoshi’s main roles since 2000 has been providing advice to the Management at Tanaka Holdings on international precious metals issues and representing Tanaka on a number of international precious metal organisations such as LBMA, LPPM, WGC, IPA, IPMI, PMC, OECD, etc. This has involved extensive travel throughout Europe and North America.
Hitoshi has participated in almost all meetings of the LBMA and LPPM Referees Groups in person and with one exception (Mumbai) and has attended every LBMA conference. In 2002, Hitoshi arranged for Tanaka to provide the LBMA (and the other new members of the referees group) with the technique for producing gold reference samples. Also as a member of the LBMA Referees Group, he has contributed to the technical development of the GD System including the introduction of Proactive Monitoring in 2004 and the introduction of Responsible Gold Guidance.
Since its establishment in 2008, Hitoshi has been a member of the LBMA’s Reference Material Steering Committee. Tanaka produced the LBMA’s first gold Certified Reference Materials in 2009 and late last year was awarded the contract to produce the next set of silver Certified Reference Materials. Since 2010, Hitoshi has provided advice on the LBMA’s gold assaying Proficiency Testing Scheme which is now carried out annually and since 2004, has acted as advisor for the LBMA’s Assaying and Refining Conference.
Tanaka has been very active not only in the Asian market places but also in both Europe and North America. Hitoshi was for several years a member of the Board of Tanaka’s Korean JV, d Heesung Metals Ltd. The LBMA’s engagement with the Asian market is a vital part of its strategy in coming years and Hitoshi hopes that his membership of the LBMA Board will allow him to contribute to the maintenance and growth of the LBMA’s position in Asia.
Concerning the European market, Tanaka’s involvement is reflected in Hitoshi’s attendance during the past decade at almost every meeting on REACH organised by the PMC (Precious Metals Consortium where Tanaka has been the only non-European refiner full member.) In addition, to help it focus on European issues, Tanaka established a representative office in London in 2013 under Hitoshi’s leadership as Tanaka’s permanent representative. As for Gold usage for technical applications Hitoshi has been a member of International Advisory Board of the Conferences organised by major market players, academic organizations, industrial enterprises and industry organizations such as WGC.
Wenjian Fang
CEO, Bank of China (UK) Limited
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Wenjian Fang
CEO, Bank of China (UK) Limited
Wenjian joined Bank of China Head Office in 1996. Wenjian was the Deputy General Manager and the Chief Credit Officer of Bank of China London Branch, and also the Chief Risk Officer of Bank of China (UK) Limited from December 2004. Wenjian has served as a Director and the Chief Executive Officer of Bank of China (UK) Limited since November 2018. Wenjian was educated at Beijing Foreign Studies University in China to postgraduate level, and received his MBA with Distinction from University of Hertfordshire in 1996. He has been a CFA Charter Holder since 2008.