Management

Mr. Jutras, a professional mineral exploration geologist, has 29 years experience in the exploration industry and has worked in over 15 countries on four continents, with numerous public companies including Placer Dome, Prism Resources, Golden Star Resources and Jade Leader Corp.

He was the President and a Director of Tyler Resources Inc. from 2001 until March 2008 when Tyler was taken over by Jinchuan Group Ltd. of China for Cdn $214 million. Mr. Jutras then remained as Feasibility Study Coordinator 2008 to 2010 for Tyler Resources Inc., post-takeover transaction.  Mr. Jutras is also currently a Director and Vice-President of Canex Metals Inc. 

In the late 1980’s while working in Northern British Colombia, Canada, Mr. Jutras had an opportunity to take some jade samples home from a mine visit which became the beginning of a parallel avocation to his mineral exploration career now spanning almost 30 years as a student and collector of jades from all over the world, gemstone carver, faceter and metalsmith. It was this parallel path which led to Mr. Jutras being invited to participate and compete for the first time as an International carver at the prestigious Zi Gang Bei Jade and Gemstone carving exhibition, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province in November of 2016 (and 2017), where he received a silver medal for one of his competition entries.

While in China, the scale of the changes in the Jade industry became obvious, leading to a one month research journey to some of the major jade carving centers and markets in China, leading the refocus and rebranding of Manson Creek Resources to Jade Leader Corp. as it enters the International Jade space and seeks to establish itself as a Leader in Jade exploration.

Ms. Kosek is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Chartered Accountant with twenty five years’ experience working in senior level financial reporting roles in public, private and not for profit organizations.  After completing her CA with Grant Thornton she spent 17 years in oil and gas, gaining expertise in US and Canadian public company reporting, risk management, tax reporting and corporate governance.   Leaving the industry in 2013, she spent the next ten years in various CFO roles, assisting small private companies with top line growth, improvements to systems of internal control and financial reporting, acquiring and divesting of assets and enhancing the overall value of the enterprise.  Most recently she spent four years in Victoria, BC as the CFO of the Oak Bay Marine Group, a private Canadian company with operations on Vancouver Island, Canada, Newport Oregon and Long Island, Bahamas.  There she further developed her skills in strategic planning, contract negotiation and cross boarder currency and financial transactions.  Now, semi-retired, Ms Kosek offers her expertise as an independent consultant to small companies requiring part time CFO services.

Ms. O’Neill has been Corporate Secretary for a number of TSX and TSX Venture Corporations primarily in the mining industry, both nationally and internationally, for the last 25 years. She has extensive experience in public offerings, public listings and Exchange matters, share and asset acquisitions and dispositions, restructurings, securities regulatory requirements for public issuers and other related business transactions. She is currently Corporate Secretary of Jade Leader Corp. and Canex Metals Inc., CanadaBis Capital Inc. and previously Corporate Secretary of CDG Investments Inc. and Tyler Resources Inc.

Dr. Peter K.M. Megaw, is a Consulting Geologist (PhD University of Arizona, 1990) President of IMDEX/Cascabel and co-founder of Minera Cascabel and MAG Silver. He is well known as a metals exploration geologist and received the PDAC’s 2017 Thayer Lindsley Award for discovery of the silver-rich Juanicipio Vein system in Fresnillo, Mexico.  Peter is also a passionate mineral collector with strong relationships throughout the international mineral and gem community stemming from 33 years as Exhibits Chair for the world-famous Tucson Gem and Mineral Show™.  This job has given him the opportunity to visit most of the world’s major mineral museums, mineral shows and private collections.  His personal collection focusses almost exclusively on Minerals of Mexico and he has published extensively on specimen localities there. He is photo-moderator for submissions on Mexico to Mindat.org and co-moderator of the FMF Mineral Forum. A combination of the above led him to be awarded the prestigious Carnegie Mineralogical Award for 2009.  From 2013 to 2015 he was an invited guest at the first three Hunan, China Mineral Shows where he developed an appreciation for the importance of Jade in the International gem markets and an interest in the geological aspects of Jade formation and exploration.  Dr. Megaw is currently Chief Exploration Officer for MAG Silver Corp, a Director of Minaurum Gold Inc. and a Technical Advisor to Garibaldi Resources Corp as well as Barksdale Capital Corp.    Dr. Megaw was elected a director of Jade Leader Corp. on March 14, 2018.

Dr. Lavinsky has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Rice University and earned his doctoral degree from the University of California-San Diego in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics in 2000.  However, his passion for mineral specimens led him to focus on building his company, The Arkenstone, into one of the world’s premier sources for world-class, museum to collector-quality mineral specimens. Since 1984, he has purchased many significant private mineral collections, and has donated important mineral specimens to the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Arizona, as well as other significant institutions.  To honor his contributions to mineral research and museum curation, a recently discovered new mineral species was named Lavinskyite.

The Arkenstone currently maintains a main 20,000 square foot private sales office and gallery in Dallas, Texas as well as an office and private gallery in Shanghai, in addition to its large online reach through the website www.irocks.com.

Dr. Lavinsky serves as chief foreign editor and adviser to the Hunan Museum of Geology and also sits on the boards of the systematic mineralogy project at University of Arizona (RRUFF PROJECT) and the new Tucson Gem and Mineral Museum, as well as the advisory boards of the American Museum of Natural History Mineral Hall Project and the Rice Museum. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Mineralogical Record.

Rob has built a personal collection of Chinese mineral specimens used for outreach and teaching. In addition, he organized and planned the Chinese Crystalline Treasures exhibition at the University of Arizona in 2013 (www.chinacrystallinetreasures.com). The book on the exhibit was a short introduction and primer to collecting fine minerals that was translated and published in Chinese by the Hunan Provincial Government (the first officially authorized and translated U.S. mineral magazine of any kind in China). He takes his mineralogical educational mission in China very seriously.

Amongst some of Dr. Lavinsky’s additional projects was to be a sponsor of The World’s Most Precious Treasures, a reality television show following gem tanzanite from the mine to the market in Tucson; which was made by French National Television in association with the gem company Cartier of Paris.

Andrew Shaw is a British former BBC reporter who gave it all up to travel to China to study the craft of Jade carving. He has become a gold medal winning master carver and now lives with his wife in the city of Suzhou where they run a tea house and Jade gallery. Andrew has a unique style which mixes traditional Chinese ideas with modern Western designs. He is the only foreigner living and working as a Jade carver in the middle kingdom and has gained a certain amount of fame as a result. Documentaries and TV programs are often made about him. He has collected a wealth of information about the modern Jade industry unmatched in the Western world. There are a lot of people who know about ancient Jades collecting dust in museums but no-one in the West knows more about the huge modern Jade industry in China than he does. (Introduction to the Book “Jade Life”, a recently published international bestseller by Andrew Shaw on the current state of Jade culture and industry in China).

Mr. Shaw is very active in the international Jade community, and  maintains an educational and sales website at www.jadefiend.com.