The Sentient Group | About Us
Investment Team

Peter Cassidy
BSc (Hons 1st) Geology & Chemistry, PhD Coal Sciences, SA
Fin
Peter is the Chairman and founder of Sentient. Prior to founding Sentient, Peter
established AMP Life's Private Investments business.
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Colin Maclean
BA (Hons 1st) Geology
Colin is deputy chairman and a founder of Sentient and an experienced exploration
geologist. Prior to Sentient he established the quantitative approach to commodities
analysis used by AMP Life and managed their resource related direct investments
in the Private Investments business.
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Mike de Leeuw
CA (Aust, S. Africa), BCom (Hons), M. AFI
Mike is Sentient's Group Chief Financial Officer. He has extensive experience in
corporate finance, treasury, risk management, auditing, budgeting and taxation on
a global basis. He previously had 15 years experience as CFO of a number of listed
and unlisted mining companies. Prior to this he worked for Deloitte internationally
for six years.
Mike is responsible for the administration of the investment portfolio and Sentient's
asset management business.
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Paul-Henri Couture
BBus Admin, CFA
Paul-Henri joined Sentient in 2009. He has over 30 years of experience as a financial
management and investment professional. Recruited by the Caisse de dépôt et placement
du Québec in 1983, he was responsible for developing a C$3 billion private equity
natural resources portfolio and a C$3 billion financial institutions and distressed
debt private equity portfolio, first as Vice-President and later as Senior-Vice
President. Prior to leaving the Caisse he was a member of the Private Equity Investment
Committee.
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Ben McKeown
B Eng (Hons) Mining Engineering, MBA
Ben has worked in a variety of technical and commercial roles in both the mining
and oil and gas industries (principally with BP and Total) throughout his career.
Prior to joining Sentient in 2007, Ben was involved in investing in the mining and
energy sectors, primarily with Actis, an emerging markets focused private equity
group, where he was part of the minerals, oil and gas team, and was ultimately responsible
for oil and gas investing.
Ben holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining Engineering) from the Royal School of
Mines, Imperial College, London and an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona,
Spain. He is a Chartered Engineer, and is a member of the Energy Institute and Institute
of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
As a Partner of Sentient, Ben has a focus on Latin America and energy.
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Pieter Britz
BEng (Industrial), MBA, PrEng, MAusIMM
Pieter is a registered professional engineer with a wealth of experience in the
resources industry since the early 1990's. He began his career in mining in South
Africa where he worked as an engineer at the Sishen iron ore mine from 1992-1997.
He also had various executive roles in corporate strategy and business consulting
and managed various corporate level strategic initiatives. His experience also includes
coal, base metals, heavy minerals, and industrial minerals. In early 2004 he moved
to Australia and set up Royal Bank of Canada's investment banking division in Sydney.
He joined The Sentient Group in early 2007 as investment professional. Pieter has
a BEng degree in engineering, an MBA, and is also a Member of AusIMM.
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Susanne Sesselmann
MA Philosophy (French and Spanish)
Susanne joined Sentient in 2007 to focus on European resource opportunities and
to provide administrative support. She has twenty years experience in banking with
HVB Group, ten of which were in investment banking and project finance throughout
the world but principally in Europe.
Susanne works out of Munich, Germany.
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John Mears
BSc (Geology), P.Geo
John is a licensed geologist in the USA and is a member of AusIMM. He has over 15
years experience in exploration and mining and has served on the board of a number
junior explorers. He has successfully started and operated his own consulting firm
and drilling company.
John has been working with members of the Sentient team since the mid 1990s. As
the Chief Geologist for Sentient John has the role of ensuring that geological assessments
are undertaken at the highest standard by qualified personnel as well as initiating
new exploration concepts.
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Andrew Pullar
BEng (Mining), MAusIMM
Andrew Pullar joined The Sentient Group in Sydney as an Investment Manager in 2009
having previously worked as a Portfolio Manager for Baker Steel Capital Managers
in London and Sydney. There he gained extensive experience investing in the natural
resource sector through his direct responsibility for the gold and precious metal
funds. Prior to this, Andrew was a senior metals and mining analyst at AME Mineral
Economics in Sydney. He previously worked in London and Sydney as a mining engineering
consultant and has fulfilled various mining engineering and production roles at
De Beers and Gold Fields in South Africa.
Andrew holds a degree in Mining Engineering from University of the Witwatersrand,
a South African Mine Managers Certificate and the UKSIP Investment Manager Certificate
(IMC). He is also a member of AusIMM.
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Matthew Keegan
B.App.Sci (Geology), MAICD, MAusIMM
Matthew gained extensive experience as a mine geologist working for companies such
as Barrick and Rio Tinto across a range of commodities including iron ore, nickel,
and gold. Prior to joining Sentient, Matthew worked as a mining analyst with a major
research house, culminating in the publication of several mining industry cost studies.
Matthew's responsibilities include maintaining Sentient's due diligence information
systems as well as project research and analysis.
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Yan Zhao
BSc Econ, MFin
Yan joined Sentient in 2008 from Actis Capital in London, where he supported and
worked on a wide range of investments with a special focus on natural resources.
Prior to working at Actis, Yan was with Shell where he gained experience in the
Finance and New Business Development department, which involved project planning
and management positions in oil exploration and production projects in China. Before
Shell, Yan was an auditor in KPMG, involved in due diligence work on several Chinese
companies listed in Hong Kong.
Yan holds a Master in Finance from London Business School and a BSc in Economics
from University of International Business and Economics in China. Yan has the certificate
of CGA-Canada, ACCA and CFA level III candidate.
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Munish Kumar
BCom (Hons), MCSD
Munish holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree (Honours) from Delhi University, India.
He is responsible for Sentient's economic and commodity research.
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Yanina Barilá
BAcc, MFin
Yanina joined Sentient in early 2009 and focuses on opportunities in Latin America.
Prior to relocating to Sentient's Sydney office, Yanina undertook financial modelling
and equity research at Irevna (a subsidiary of Standard and Poor's) in Buenos Aires.
She began her career at Ernst and Young, where she gained accounting and auditing
experience while working for a variety of clients.
Yanina completed her studies in Argentina and holds a Masters degree in Finance
from Universidad del CEMA and a Bachelor degree in Accounting from Universidad de
Belgrano.
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Michel Marier
BBA(Int'l Mgt), M.Sc (Finance)., CFA, FRM
Michel joined Sentient from Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) Private
Equity division in 2009 where he had worked since 2001. While at CDPQ he undertook
co- investment in distressed debt and natural resources sectors, portfolio risk
assessment, treasury management and currency hedging as well as researching the
natural resources sector.
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Sarah-Wenjia Zhu
B. Ec(Accounting)., MBA, CPA, CFA
Sarah joined Sentient in 2009. She gained her accounting qualification in China
and accounting along with audit and systems risk consulting experience with Deloitte
Touche Tohmatsu before migrating to Canada where she gained her MBA. Sarah joined
Desjardins Securities as an Equity Research Associate – Metals & Mining and
in 2008 was an Investment Analyst at MinQuest Capital Inc in Montreal.
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Gilbert Clark
BSc (Geology)
Gilbert consulted to Sentient prior to joining the Sentient team in 2010 working
out of Nice, France. He is a geologist with operational and managerial experience
in mining and in the non conventional oil & gas industry. He started his career
in the Eastern Gold Fields of Western Australia, where he worked for several Junior
and Mid-Tier gold companies as a production geologist. Since moving to France Gilbert
has managed the commercial and technical development of non conventional oil & gas
projects in Europe for a number of companies.
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Richard West
BSc (Geology)
Rick is a geologist and joined Sentient in 2011 having consulted to Sentient for
a number of years. Prior to joining Sentient he worked for M2 Technical Services
providing geological exploration services to a range of mining companies. He has
co-authored several research papers and has been involved in the preparation of
a number of NI-43-101 resource and reserve statements.
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