John Crowther serves as Deputy Commissioner of Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, working under Commissioner John Boyle to manage the Divisions of Oil and Gas and Geological and Geophysical Surveys, as well as the Office of Project Management and Permitting and the Mental Health Trust Lands Office. He has worked for the State of Alaska for a decade, serving under eight DNR Commissioners and spending time in the Nation’s Capital as Director of the Governor’s Washington, D.C. office. He has also served on the staff of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. John grew up in Anchorage and graduated from Grace Christian School. He received his law degree from Georgetown University.

Jessica Mullen is a Technology Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Pittsburgh, PA. Mullen lends her scientific expertise and leadership to manage the Critical Minerals & Materials (CMM) Program. In this role since 2021, Mullen oversees CMM program execution which entails a robust research, design, development, and demonstration portfolio of projects built around feedstocks sourced from unconventional and secondary materials and with the goal of creating an environmentally benign, economically viable, just, technically feasible, stable and secure, domestic critical minerals supply chain necessary for the clean energy transition. Previously, Mullen was a Federal Project Manager for a variety of NETL-funded external research and development projects in technology areas including advanced sensors, rare earth elements, water management, and advanced materials, among others. Mullen earned mechanical engineering degrees from University of Missouri (B.S.) and University of Illinois (M.S./Ph.D.).

As Chief of the Energy Resources Section, Marwan Wartes provides administrative and technical leadership for the Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) various applied energy research programs around the state of Alaska. He also leads the Brooks Range foothills and North Slope program, an ongoing multi-agency collaborative effort to acquire and publish high quality geologic data to improve our understanding of the regional petroleum system and entice new exploration investment in Alaska. Over the last decade, this has involved field programs across the central North Slope, focusing on stratigraphic and structural problems that bear on the hydrocarbon potential of the region. DGGS integrates these topical field studies with available subsurface data to better inform bedrock geologic mapping. Wartes also participates in DGGS’s Cook Inlet and interior basins programs, offering expertise in sedimentary geology and tectonics. Wartes’ background is primarily in outcrop-based clastic sedimentology and stratigraphy. He has experience in a variety of depositional systems, ranging from lacustrine to fan-deltaic to deep water fan deposits. He has conducted fieldwork in a number of regions, most notably Permian nonmarine basins in northwestern China, the Cretaceous foreland basin in northern Alaska, and Jurassic-Cenozoic forearc strata in Alaska's Cook Inlet. His main research interests involve the application of sequence stratigraphy and provenance to regional tectonic problems and petroleum geology. Wartes served on the Board of Directors, Alaska Geological Society from 2009-2011 and is an Affiliate Professor, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Department of Geoscience. He holds a B.S. from UAF and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin.

James Patten is the Senior Vice President of Technology, and Director Business Development (past president, CEO, Chairman of BOD) at Red Leaf Resources, Inc. He is also an adjunct research faculty member dedicated to the CORE-CM program at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He is also a member of the CORE-CM program management team at the University of Utah and coordinates that program’s carbon derivative products team. Previously, Patten was the Vice President for Non-Conventional Petroleum Resources and the Vice President for Advanced Energy Systems at Battelle. Earlier, at Cummins Engine Company, Patten was the Executive Director of Materials Engineering, Exhaust Aftertreatment, Fuels and Lubricants, Manufacturing Processes Research, and Contract R&D and was the Technology Lead for the Off Highway Business Group (Construction, Mining, Ag, Marine, Rail, Military).

Mike Selover is the Corporate Accounts Manager for Vermeer Corporation’s Specialty Excavation Division. At Vermeer, the Specialty Excavation Division consists of the large track mounted trenchers and the Surface Excavation Machine (SEM) used in the mining industry for Continuous Surface Mining. Mike’s role with Vermeer is to grow the category and create demand for the product category by educating the mining and aggregate industries, academia, and engineering consultants to the new Continuous Surface Mining technology as an alternative to drilling and blasting. Mike has a diverse background, he has held key management positions in several fortune 200 companies, as an entrepreneur started a successful engineering services company and now is responsible for growing a new market segment within a $2 billion dollar company. Mike has a background in Mechanical Engineering and secured a MBA degree early in his career.

Benson Chow is a professional geologist with more than 24 years of experience in mining, geology, exploration, and environmental permitting with NACCO Natural Resources. He has been NACCO’s Principal Geologist for the past 16 years focusing on new project development, exploration, and support for existing operations. Prior to his current role, Benson spent 8 years as an on-site mine geologist and environmental specialist at NACCO’s Red Hills Mine. Benson received his B.S. in Geosciences from Mississippi State University and his Applied Geostatistic Citation through the University of Alberta. He has been a Qualified Person for resource disclosures for Canadian NI 43-101 and US SEC S-K 1300 Technical Reports. Benson is a licensed professional geologist in good standing with the states of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. He is also a Register Member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration for geology and resource modeling.

David Szumigala (known as Zoom), is a mineral exploration geologist with a wide range of knowledge about the geology related to mineral deposits. He has more than 30 years experience in Alaska, in bedrock geologic mapping, mineral exploration, and ore deposit research. Dave's research has focused on igneous-related mineral deposits, particularly lead-zinc skarns, and Fort Knox and Donlin Creek types of plutonic-related gold deposits.

Evan Granite is the Program Manager for Carbon Ore (Carbon Products from Waste Coal) and a Senior Technical Advisor at Department of Energy's headquarters. Evan is an adjunct professor of chemical and petroleum engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He initiated, developed, and led the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory Research and Innovation Center (NETL R&IC) research program on Rare Earth Detection and Recovery. He also developed and led the new NETL R&IC effort on Emissions Control as the Technical Portfolio Lead. Evan’s research has focused on mercury and carbon dioxide capture from flue and fuel gases, carbon products from coal, and detection and recovery of rare earth and critical elements from abundant coal by-products.

Kevin Torpy is Vice President, Operations for Graphite One (Alaska), Inc. He is a mining engineer with twenty-seven years of experience developing, building, and operating mines, primarily in remote, northern regions. Kevin’s other Alaska experiences include late state exploration, feasibility, and construction phases at Ambler Metals’ Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, the Kensington Mine, and the Pogo Mine. Kevin was General Manager of the Brucejack Mine in British Columbia and has worked in technical services roles on projects in Mexico and Argentina. Kevin has a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from Montana Tech and received the E.A. Scholz Award from the Association for Mineral Exploration for excellence in mine development in British Columbia. Kevin, his wife Jennifer, and their two sons live in Anchorage.

Michael McEleney serves as the Senior Advisor with responsibility for international cooperation and national security in the Department of Energy (DOE) Arctic Energy Office (AEO). He joined the Arctic Energy Office from the DOE Office of International Affairs, where he served as the Senior Policy Advisor with responsibility for Arctic issues. He coordinated the first senior DOE visits to Iceland and Greenland and assisted in the planning and creation of AEO. Prior to his service in the Department of Energy, McEleney served as a Policy and Strategy Analyst for the Under Secretary of the Navy with responsibility for Arctic and Nuclear issues. He also served as the Director of Congressional Affairs for the Department of the Navy Program Executive Office for Aircraft Carriers and as a professional staff member in the U.S. House of Representatives. McEleney holds an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University.