The Board
ARM’s maximum authority is the Board of Director’s, which is why its deliberations are of mandatory compliance. It guides and manages the organization. It is responsible for defining the direction of the Foundation, in line with the interests of its various allies and actors in the supply chain.
People who serve on ARM’s Board of Directors do so voluntarily and without monetary remuneration. They are committed to dedicating approximately 3 days per month to the Foundation – including meetings, reunions and other activities.
Some key functions of the Board of Directors include the design of high- level policies and strategies, the provision of advice on specific subjects, public representation of ARM and ensuring appropriate financing for the organization.
As of August 2023, Patrick Schein assumes as Chairman of the ARM Board of Directors, succeeding the esteemed leadership of Felix Hruschka, who has served with passion in this role for the past five years.
Patrick Schein
Chair
Patrick is a French entrepreneur graduated in Finance/Marketing. Since 1992, Patrick has been active in the precious metals Industry. Based in Paris, he runs a Precious Metal Trading & Refining Company that brought him to be in contact with Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) networks around Africa and South America.
In 2004, he started working on how to adapt Fair Trade Principles to Gold in order to increase the revenues of the small producers. Patrick is working today towards defining the industry standards for Fair Trade gold refining and processing. His aim is to create a Small-Scale Gold Commodity. Patrick assisted the UNIDO as an expert analyzing how this new Commodity could help alleviate poverty in the Artisanal and Small-scale Mining sector.
Harbi has a degree in Economy and Financial Administration and works as an artisanal and Small-scale miner. Harbi is an associate of the miners cooperative COODMILLA LTDA in the municipality of La Llanada in Nariño, Colombia, and has been part of its directive board on different occasions. As manager of COODMILLA LTDA in 2005, Harbi reached an agreement with regional and local governments for the establishment of a commercial platform for the cooperative, generating significant benefits to the mining community of the region. Harbi is now president of ASOMIRCOL (Asociación por la Minería Responsable y Comercio Justo del Suroccidente Colombiano) which was created by miners and local organizations from Nariño, Colombia to work towards Fairtrade and Fairmined (FT&FM) certification. As President of this organization, he has represented miners and ASOMIRCOL in ARM’s international workshops on the Fairtrade and Fairmined (FT&FM) standard in different countries of Latin America and Africa.
Harbi Guerrero Morillo
Vice Chair
Cristina Echavarría
Cristina led ARM as the Executive Director from 2005 to July 2011. She has over 30 years of experience in applied research for sustainable development and the participatory management of natural resources with indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and Artisanal and Small-scale mining communities. Cristina has extensive experience applying gender and cultural studies at a territorial level with emphasis on the social, environmental and governance dimensions of the sustainable development of mineral-rich regions. Cristina created the Mining, Environment, and Communities research group at the University of Antioquia (Medellin) in 1997, and between 2000 and early 2005 she was the Director of the Mining Policy Research Initiative of Canadian International Development Research Centre, and regional coordinator in South America for the Mining, Minerals, and Sustainable Development Project (MMSD). She works as a consultant for international agencies, governments, communities, NGO’s and mining companies, and has several publications to her name.
Felix Hruschka
Felix Hruschka is a mining engineer with a PhD in mineral economics. He is based in Austria and provides consulting services through his company since 1992. Long-term assignments in Ecuador and Peru, as resident project manager of Swiss-funded development projects in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector from 1993 to 2006, provided a sound basis of expertise on a wide range of development issues of the minerals sector. Since 2004 these long-term projects became increasingly accompanied and enriched by short-term consultancies in Asia, Latin America and Africa on behalf of bi- and multilateral development agencies, civil society organizations, and the private sector. In 2005, the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) invited Felix to join its Technical Committee for the development of “Standard ZERO”, the first prototype standard for responsible artisanal gold mining. In 2007 he was appointed advisor to the board and for many years he acted as ARM’s Standards Director, leading the development of the FAIRMINED Standard and the CRAFT Code. In 2015 Felix was elected member of the Board of Directors, and since September 2018 he serves as Chair of the Board.
Toby Pomeroy
Toby Pomeroy works as a jewelry designer since 1967 and has pioneered the movement towards sustainably-sourced jewelry in the North American market. A talented artisan as well as a creative visionary, he was recognized by Jewelers’ Circular Keystone Magazine as one of the 7 most influential designers in 2008. Toby has been a key leader in the socially responsible jewelry movement since 2005 when he inspired two of the largest precious metals suppliers in the U.S, Hoover & Strong and Stuller, Inc., to offer recycled gold and silver to their clients as an alternative to unsustainably mined metals. His leadership on environmental issues in the jewelry business has garnered coverage in publications such as TIME, Vanity Fair, Elle, Shape, and Oprah. Toby was featured in the Sundance Channel TV documentary “Eco-trip Gold” in 2009. In 2010, his design studio received a top “A” grade in an industry-wide report generated by Washington, D.C.-based Earthworks’ “No Dirty Gold” campaign.
Maria Laura Barreto
Maria Laura is a lawyer and Ph.D. in Mineral Engineering with over 25 years of experience in the field of extractive industries and environmental law. Her career involves three major phases in different locations: Mozambique, Brazil, and Canada. In Mozambique, she was a senior legal advisor to the Minister of Mineral Resources. In Brazil, for 17 years, she worked in the Academia, both as researcher and professor, and continued her work as a Senior Legal and Policy Advisor for the Secretary of Mining and Metallurgy, particularly in the area of international environmental negotiations. Arriving in Canada in 2002, she co-founded a consulting company, the Materials Efficiency Research Group, which has been actively engaged with a range of governments, companies, and NGOs in the field of environmental law and extractive industries. She is also a visiting professor at universities in British Columbia, Spain and the USA. During recent years, she has worked primarily with the University of Ottawa at the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. Maria Laura is also a member of RESPOMIN, the Iberoamerican network for responsible ASM coordinated by ARM, and advisor on regulatory and public policy issues relating to ASM.
Manuel Reinoso
Manuel is a Peruvian artisanal miner since 1993. In 1999 he became a shareholder of the mining Enterprise La Victoria S.A. becoming general manager in 2001. That same year he worked alongside other miners and organizations in the drafting of a law project for the formalization of Artisanal mining in Peru. With the support of international cooperation, he helped to organize the first artisanal miners’ encounter gathered in the city of Arequipa, where he was elected president of the Coordinating Commission of Artisanal Miners of the Mid-south. Manuel, and other leaders from Puno and Madre de Dios regions in Peru, were key actors for passing the law 27651 of Formalization and Promotion of Small Scale and Artisanal Mining. In July of 2002, he assumed the presidency of the Regional Association of Artisanal Miners Producers of the Mid-south and Center of Peru, AMASUC.
Juan Pérez García
Juan Pérez García holds a degree in International Relations from the Complutense University of Madrid and a Master in Governance of International Development Organisations from the University of Grenoble-Alpes. He has worked in the international cooperation sector for the last 4 years on issues related to artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), water and sanitation, human rights and advocacy in different African countries, such as Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali and Niger, and Latin American countries, such as Colombia and Haiti.
He currently holds the position of Project Coordinator Africa at the Alliance for Responsible Mining and has been a member of the Foundation’s board of directors since 2023.
Urica Primus
Urica started in the philanthropic world at sixteen years old. Ms. Primus was elected President of the Guyana Women Miners Organization at the age of 24; after serving the organization as an Executive Committee member since the organization’s origination. Ms. Primus has been striving for gender equality in the mining sector, as well as increased opportunities for women in mining. She served as Vice Chairman on the Board of Directors of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission twice within the last three years. During her tenor Ms. Primus has written five approved policies for the Commission to aid in the development of the industry.
Furthermore, Ms. Primus has been actively involved in combating human trafficking in Guyana by planning rescues and implementing measures to improve the organization’s data collection. She currently serves as both the Director and a member of the Board of Directors of Together in Peace, Guyana’s first safe home for victims of Trafficking in Persons. Ms. Primus is a United Nations Alliance Of Civilization alumni and a member of the How Women Lead global network and an international advisor for the Emmanuel Ivorgba Foundation.
Emmanuel Yirenki Antwi
Emmanuel is the Managing Director and owner at Key Empire Resources Ltd and Gold Empire Resources Ltd. He has over 9 years of experience with the ASGM sector in Ghana and Africa. He thus has acquired immense experience in mining especially small-scale mining, gold sales and risk management, investments and systems review of private sector organizations including the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners. He also has extensive experience in Business IT solutions and Investment portfolio management and training for organizations especially business associations and NGOs. He is also experienced in Marketing and Media communication design, implementation and reviews for organizations.
Matthew David Chambers
Matthew is an impact investor, social entrepreneur and chair of the Chambers Federation, an award-winning, accredited impact investment firm based in the United States. Recipient the US Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE), the Federation specializes in investments into women empowerment, responsible sourcing and value addition in the artisanal cocoa, coffee and gold sectors. Matthew is the lead investor and co-founder of the brand ‘I Am Origins’, highlighting woman-led value addition and material provenance in conflict-affected and high-risk areas. This brand commercializes premium in-country value-added products to international markets.
Managing the family business for the past 20 years, he has founded a variety of social enterprises in the Philippines, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo including the first chocolate facility and jewelry production line in the DRC, with value chains made up entirely of women, as well as a woman-owned construction company which built Kenya’s first entirely woman built road. Linkedin.
Ana Gabriela Factor
Ana Gabriela is a Social and Environmental Impact specialist and trainer with over 20 years of experience in international environmental and development projects in Latin America, Europe, Greenland, South East Asia and Africa. Her clients include IFU, EKF, IFC, WB, EIB, KfW, Danida, Finida, SIDA, local governments, large retailers, mining and oil & gas companies, private investors and NGOs. Linkedin