Management

Marc Fogassa has been a director and our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since 2012. He has extensive experience in venture capital and public company chief executive management. He has served on boards of directors of multiple private companies in various industries and has been invited to speak about investment issues, particularly as related to Brazil. Mr. Fogassa double majored at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), graduating with two Bachelor of Science degrees in 1990. He later graduated from the Harvard Medical School with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1995 and also from the Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration degree in 1999 with Second-Year Honors. At Harvard Business School, he was Co-President of the Venture Capital and Private Equity Club. Mr. Fogassa was born in Brazil and is fluent in Portuguese and English. Mr. Fogassa is also the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jupiter Gold Corporation and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Apollo Resources Corporation, two companies in which we own equity positions.

Joel de Paiva Monteiro, Esq. has been our Vice-President, Administration and Operations, since 2020; our Chief of Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (“ESG”) matters since 2021; and our Secretary since 2022. Previously he was a partner of the Brazilian law firm PRA Advogados with three offices and headquarters in Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais. Mr. Monteiro has worked with all aspects of Brazilian business law and has extensive experience in a wide range of areas, from strategic business planning to litigation. His prior clients included large corporations in a variety of economic sectors in diverse states in Brazil. Mr. Monteiro has a law degree from the Milton Campos Faculty in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Subsequently, he achieved a post-graduate degree in Business and Civil Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais. Mr. Monteiro is also a director of Jupiter Gold Corporation and Apollo Resources Corporation, two companies in which we own equity positions.

Volodymyr Myadzel, PhD, Geol. has been a consultant to us since 2021 and became our Senior Vice-President, Geology, in 2022. Under Regulation S-K 1300, he is a Qualified Person for lithium, iron, and gold, among other minerals. Dr. Myadzel is a geologist with over 23 years’ experience acquired in mines and projects in Russia, Ukraine, Guinea, Uruguay, and Brazil in a variety of minerals, including lithium, iron, and gold. His primary expertise entails geological modeling, resource estimation, and QA/QC analysis. Dr. Myadzel has extensive experience in auditing mineral projects on behalf of investors or acquiring companies. He is a principal at VMG Consultoria e Soluções Ltda, a company that has provided geological expertise to large global companies with mines and projects in Brazil. Dr. Myadzel received Bachelor and Master degrees in Geological Engineering and a PhD degree in Geology, all from Kryvyi Rih National University in Ukraine.

Areli Nogueira da Silva Júnior, Geol. has been a consultant to us since 2018 and became our Vice-President, Mineral Exploration, in 2021. Under Regulation S-K 1300, he is a Qualified Person for lithium, iron, and gold, He is the Founder and was the Chief Technical Officer of MineXplore, a consultancy focused on mineral rights in Brazil. Mr. da Silva Júnior has been a consultant geologist with GeoEspinhaço, a firm that undertakes geological studies in a variety of minerals across Brazil. Mr. da Silva Júnior has also been a college faculty member teaching geology. Previously, he worked at the Brazilian mining department and before that as a geologist at Usiminas Mineração. Mr. da Silva Júnior has a Master of Geology degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and an undergraduate degree in Geological Engineering from the School of Mines of the Federal University of Ouro Preto, the oldest mining college in Brazil. Mr. da Silva is also a director of Jupiter Gold Corporation, a company in which we own an equity position.

Gustavo Pereira de Aguiar has been our Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer, and Treasurer since 2022. From 2016 until 2022, Mr. Aguiar was the Controller of Jaguar Mining, Inc., a Canadian publicly traded company with two producing gold mines in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil and current market capitalization of approximately $270 million. From 2013 to 2016, Mr. Aguiar was Controller at Grupo Orguel, an enterprise in the construction equipment rental sector in Brazil which received funding from Carlyle, a U.S. private equity group, and from 2010 to 2013, Mr. Aguiar worked at Mirabella Mineração, which at the time was developing its nickel project in the state of Bahia in Brazil. From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Aguiar was an auditor with Deloitte in Brazil. Mr. Aguiar has undergraduate degrees in Business Administration and in Accounting from Universidade FUMEC in Brazil. He has an executive MBA and further post-graduate education in finance from Fundação Dom Cabral in Brazil. Mr. Aguiar is fluent in Portuguese and English and is a licensed accountant in Brazil.

Igor Tkachenko is a Ukrainian-American who was one of the early investors in Brazil Minerals (now Atlas Lithium). He later transitioned to a strategic advisory role within the company. As a US-trained physician, Igor Tkachenko combined his scientific interests and entrepreneurial spirit through several successful business ventures. Serving as a strategic advisor to Atlas Lithium since February 2020, Mr. Tkachenko contributed his leadership skills and hands-on private sector business expertise to Atlas Lithium’s mission to become the premier mineral resources company for the green energy revolution.

In 2022, Igor Tkachenko became Director of Strategic Development at Atlas Lithium. In that role, Mr. Tkachenko oversaw the company’s expanding investor relations campaign. He participated in the design and execution of the company’s organizational growth strategy that led to the company’s up-listing to Nasdaq in January 2023. Following this milestone, Mr. Tkachenko transitioned from his full-time academic position as a Clinical Assistant Professor to serving as Vice President of Corporate Development for Atlas Lithium.

Education: Bachelor of Science (Summa Cum Laude), Doctor of Medicine.

Nicholas Rowley joined the Atlas management team following a lengthy and highly successful career at Galaxy Resources Limited, a lithium-focused company with assets spanning Australia, Canada, and Argentina where he held several key roles, most notably Director of Corporate Development. In this position, he contributed significantly to the growth and enhancement of the Galaxy portfolio of assets through partnerships and divestitures and later to the implementation of its AUD 6 billion merger with Orocobre Limited in 2021, creating Allkem Limited, one of the world’s largest lithium producers.

Mr. Rowley is also the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Electramin, a global battery metal trading company. In addition, he is the founder and executive director at R-Tek International, which has offered mining engineering, planning and business development services to hard-rock lithium explorers and producers worldwide. Mr. Rowley holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Finance and Management from the University of Notre Dame, Australia.

Brian W. Bernier has been our Vice-President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations since 2019. From 2010 to 2017, Mr. Bernier was at Four Spring Capital Trust, and from 2017 to 2019, he was at Noble Capital Markets. Mr. Bernier graduated with a degree in Management from Boston University.

Rodrigo Menck has over 25 years of experience in project finance, complex equity and debt transactions, as well as investor relations at mining and financial institutions. Most recently, Mr. Menck was the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Sigma Lithium Corporation. Previously, he was the CFO at Nexa Resources S.A., a major Brazilian mining group. Mr. Menck supports Atlas Lithium in certain critical aspects related to the capital allocation, budgeting, and timelines for its hard-rock lithium project. He is based in São Paulo, Brazil. Menck holds an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of São Paulo, and is fluent in Portuguese and English.