Meet The Team
Board of Directors

Founder & Managing Director
Barry Davis BSc MSc MAusIMM
Barry has over 35 years of experience in the mining industry within exploration and production companies, globally, with primary focus on Central A sia and China. He has extensive experience in corporate consultancy and management at a board level including start-up companies to IPO’s on AIM, HKSE & TSX (A sia Gold Ltd, Eureka Mining Plc, Pan Pacific Gold/Dragon Mountain Gold Ltd and IRGEM Inc).
Barry has a strong record on environmental and health and safety in the workplace. Through his work, he has demonstrated success in bringing geological conceptual models involving different precious metals to discoveries.
Barry is qualified as a “Competent Person” (CP) according to JORC code to produce Independent Reports and Valuations of mineral resources for Au, Fe, Ag, Cu, Pb, Zn and U. He received his Bachelor of Applied Science (Geol) from the University of Canberra in Australia and a MSc in Global Management from University of Salford Manchester UK, and is a member of the AusIMM & AIG in Australia.

Director
John Emmott BA Ll.B.
John is a Solicitor of the High Court of Australia, Supreme Court of New South Wales (admitted 1978) and Supreme Court of England and Wales (admitted 1985).
He has extensive global experience acting for companies and investors in the resource sector, focusing in particular Russia and the former Soviet Union. John has advised a number of governments on energy, investment and arbitration law, including the governments of Azerbaijan and Georgia on the Energy Charter Treaty, the State Duma of the Russian Federation on securities legislation, the Supreme Economic Court of Uzbekistan on international arbitration and the Government of Kazakhstan on various resources and arbitration issues.
John has represented the government of Kazakhstan and agencies of the government of Uzbekistan in international arbitrations.
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Director & General Director Altyn Kokkus LLP
Dmitry Tkachenko
Dmitriy has over 25 years experience in the finance and mining industries. He has extensive experience in banking, project finance/management and valuation, working in and with leading commercial banks in Kazakhstan and Russia, involved with mining, oil & gas, port management/shipping, chemicals, aviation, real estate, telecommunications and others, where he also gained experience in Central & Eastern Europe and Turkey.
Dmitry also held positions in Kazakhstan's National Business Chamber and National Investment Promotion Agency, Kazakh Invest, a subsidiary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At Kazakh Invest, he headed both support of the Chinese/Kazakh interstate investment program and the industrial direction of mining and metallurgy and petrochemicals.
Before joining Scythian in early 2022, Dmitriy was also working with large international companies with investments in gold, copper, and ferrous metals in Kazakhstan.

Director, Kazakhstan
Kairat Imanov
Kairat has over 25 years of experience in the finance and industrial sectors. He held the positions of Director of Treasury and General Manager of TAIB Kazakh Bank, and as an independent member of the Board of Directors of the JSC Fattah Finance, where he gained expertise in financial investments from Bahrain to Kazakhstan.
Since 2012, he has been the President and CEO of ISS Corporation, a multi-profile holding company, where he participates in management of projects connected to copper and gold deposits, including the hydro-metallurgical processing of oxide copper and tailings. He also has involvement in management of projects connected to power production and distribution, telecommunications, production of equipment and chemicals for oil & gas and mining sectors.
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Management

CFO and Company Secretary
Andrew Paine
Andrew is a qualified Banker with extensive experience across Central A sia and natural resources.
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Formerly, he was a managing director and member of the Executive Committee of Al Rajhi Holdings group of companies based in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland.
Andrew has more than 30 years international banking, investment and operational experience. He is a partner in Gluon Group, a business dedicated to developing global sustainable projects.

Deputy General Director
Ruslan Ibraev BL MBA
Ruslan has over 10 years of management experience in gold and copper exploration and mining in Kazakhstan.
He also has extensive experience in government and public relations.
Ruslan's previous roles include acting as a Leading Specialist for the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and as an Engineer for the Geophysical Observatory in Kazakhstan.

Renewable Energy Advisor
Phillip Ward, BA, MSc,
Phillip has over 20 years of experience in Kazakhstan in senior management positions in technical, operations and project supervision for mixed operation companies serving the Mining and Oil & Gas industries, and latterly the Renewable Energy Industry.
He has recently been involved with renewable Energy projects in both wind and solar with a personal interest in renewables and climate change mitigation as demonstrated by his MSc dissertation: “Evaluating the willingness of Kazakh people to accept changing personal transport practices to help mitigate climate change."
