Based in the US, Dr Dunmead is a global business executive who brings over 30 years of strong operational leadership experience in the US based global materials industry to the role of Non-Executive Director. He served as Chief Operating Officer at SWM International (NYSE: SWM) in Georgia where he was responsible for over 3,000 employees across 20 sites of the company’s global operations in North and South America, Europe and Asia, accounting for US$0.8 billion of revenue and US$180 million in EBITDA. At SWM International he led the business into the high growth and high margin filtration and medical sectors.

Prior to SWM International, Dr Dunmead spent over 15 years at OM Group (NYSE: OMG) in Ohio where he was a member of the Corporate Executive Team and had responsibility for six businesses with more than 6,500 employees across 32 sites in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Together, these businesses represented US$1.5 billion in revenue and US$255 million in EBITDA. Dr Dunmead started his career as a research engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. He later joined the Dow Chemical Company where he held a variety of research and business development positions.

Dr Dunmead holds a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California at Davis, as well as a MS and BS in Ceramic Engineering from The Ohio State University. He holds 25 US Patents on Advanced Materials and Specialty Chemicals.

Based in the US, Mr Nikeas is an experienced investment and private equity professional who brings over 17 years of US finance experience to the Board. Mr Nikeas is currently a Principal investment manager for Weston Energy LLC, a portfolio company of New York private equity group, Yorktown Partners LLC. Prior to this, he was Lead Partner and Principal of Traxys Capital Partners, a private equity vehicle focused on mining, chemicals and industrial investments in partnership with The Carlyle Group.

Before moving into private equity, he served as the Head of Corporate Finance Advisory for Materials, Mining and Chemicals for North America for BNP Paribas for five years. Other investment banking roles included Partner in Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory at Hill Street Capital for eight years and as a Corporate Finance Analyst at Morgan Stanley, where he began his career. Altogether, he has advised on over US$25 billion of mergers and acquisitions transactions. Mr Nikeas holds a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College in Massachusetts, US.