Our Team
Our team is based in, or close to, key precious metals markets and has the language skills needed to communicate with local players, most notably across Asia.
Nikos Kavalis
Managing Director, Singapore
Nikos is a founding partner of Metals Focus. He has over 18 years’ experience as a metals analyst/strategist with GFMS and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Philip Newman
Philip is a founding partner of Metals Focus, with 29 years’ experience. Prior to this Philip was Research Director at GFMS, where he was a key contributor and project manager of the silver, gold and PGM surveys, research reports and consultancy projects.
Charles de Meester
Managing Director, London
Charles is a founding partner of Metals Focus. He has over 29 years’ precious metals industry experience and leads global sales for Metals Focus across the value chain.
Lisa Mitchell
Lisa has responsibility for finance and operations. Prior to this, she led finance operations for over 21 years in professional services firms, PwC and Andersen.
Neil Meader
Director of Gold and Silver, London
Neil has over 29 years’ experience as a commodity analyst, 12 years of which he spent at GFMS where he was responsible for supply/demand numbers and price forecasts.
Wilma Swarts
Wilma has 13 years’ experience in PGM sales and marketing from her time at Lonmin, where she was Head of Commercial Services. She is also Chairperson of Women in PGMs.
Sarah Tomlinson
Director of Mine Supply, London
Sarah has 21 years’ experience in analytical roles within the mining industry. Prior to joining Metals Focus, Sarah ran her own consultancy in Johannesburg providing critical analysis, revenue modelling and corporate research services.
Junlu Liang
Junlu has 10 years’ precious metals experience and is responsible for research in Europe, the official sector and PGM chemical and petroleum demand. Junlu previously worked for GFMS undertaking official sector and investment research.
Peter Ryan
Independant Consultant, London
Peter has 44 years’ precious metals industry experience, much of it spent working for Johnson Matthey. He spent 10 years at GFMS leading their platinum and palladium research and working on gold and silver related consultancy projects.
David Gornall
David has been in the metals markets since 1979. As Head of Trading at Natixis in London he served as LBMA Chairman from 2011-2014. Now an independent base and precious metals consultant he leads LBMA’s reporting project LBMA-I and is an LBMA Good Delivery Facilitator.
Michael Bedford
Consultant, London
Mike is responsible for our Gold Peer Review and ESG analysis. He worked at AngloGold Ashanti, managing group planning and providing strategic support to the CEO and board and led mining research for Barnard Jacobs Mellet.
Dale Munro
Dale has 9 years’ analysis and operations experience. He provided technical services support to Australian operations while working for Fortescue Metals Group and specialised in cost analysis of primary mine supply for S&P Global.
Jacob Smith
Senior PGM Analyst, London
Jake has 8 years’ precious metals industry experience, from Johnson Matthey. He started as a business analyst for the CTRM system and moved into trading, where he spent five years trading PGMs.
Neelan Patel
Neelan has 9 years’ precious metals experience and manages Metals Focus’ sales in Europe, the Middle East and Russia.
Chirag Sheth
Principal Consultant, India
Chirag has 14 years’ experience in precious metals trading and research and has worked for UBS and Latin Manharlal Commodities. He analyses the South Asia market, focusing on India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Grant Angwin
Former President of Johnson Matthey and Asahi Refining Grant has over 36 years’ experience in precious metals. He has also held various roles at industry associations, including Chairman of the London Bullion Market Association.
Yiyi Gao
Senior Analyst, China
Yiyi is jointly responsible for Metals Focus’ Chinese jewellery, silverware and investment markets research, and a regular contributor to our work on prices and the impact of macroeconomic factors on precious metals markets.
Harshal Barot
Harshal has more than a decade’s experience as a precious metals analyst. He is jointly responsible for Metals Focus’ research on India, elsewhere in South Asia, and parts of the Middle East. Harshal is also a regular contributor to their work on macroeconomics.
Elvis Chou
Consultant, Taiwan
Elvis has 19 years’ experience. He leads our research in South-East Asia, including, Malaysia, Singapore and China. He previously worked in product development for Solar Applied Materials and Materion.
Adarsh Diwe
Adarsh is part of Metals Focus’ India team and contributes to Indian market gold, silver, and PGM research. He is a certified Research Analyst by the National Institute of Securities Markets.
Çağdaş Kucukemiroglu
Consultant, Turkey
Çağdaş is responsible for research across the Middle East. Çağdaş has 19 years’ experience in commodities, 13 in precious metals. Previous roles include Investor Relations Manager at Goldas Jewelry and Deputy Director at Atasay Jewelry Group.
Simon Yau
Senior Consultant, Hong Kong
Simon is jointly responsible for our Chinese jewellery and silverware analysis. He worked for the World Gold Council (WGC), for almost 20 years, with a brief tenure at the Platinum Guild International. At the WGC, he helped create the 18K fashion gold jewellery category, ‘K-gold’.
Philip Klapwijk
Chief Consultant, Hong Kong & Spain
Philip has over 25 years’ experience as an analyst of, and commentator on, the precious metals markets. He was previously Executive Chairman of GFMS and Global Head of Metals Analytics at Thomson Reuters GFMS.
Jie Gao
Jie joined Metals Focus Mainland China office as a graduate analyst, contributing to the coverage of all aspects of the Chinese silver market. Prior to joining Metals Focus she worked at China Securities in Shanghai.
Celine Zarate
Consultant, Philippines
Before becoming an analyst, Celine gained 6 years’ experience as an exploration and mine geologist in open pit and underground mines of carlin-type gold, porphyry-related iron skarn and gold-molybdenum as well as epithermal gold-silver deposits.
Donnadee Francisco
Prior to joining Metals Focus, Donnadee was the Mine Planning Section Head at one of the mining sites operated by the Philippines’ largest nickel producer. With six years of experience in the mining industry, focusing particularly on mine economics, planning, and design, Donnadee joined Metals Focus as a Mine Supply Analyst.
Ross Embleton
Mine Supply Research Analyst, London
Ross has 4 years of experience in metals and mining research analysis, covering critical raw materials and precious metals. He holds a masters degree in mining geology and previously worked as a mine geologist in Western Australia.
Ghananshu Karekar
Ghananshu joined Metals Focus India office as a Research Associate, focusing on the Indian gold, silver market, and PGM research. He holds a master’s degree in financial management and a bachelor’s degree in banking and insurance.
Nilesh Pise
Research Associate, India
Nilesh joined as Research Associate after his master’s degree in finance. He contributes to Metals Focus’ India team, with precious metals research. He has cleared CFA level 1.
Ruby Tagoon
Ruby joined Metals Focus as a Junior Research Analyst, where she contributes to the analysis of the supply side of precious metals. Before joining Metals Focus, she built her expertise as a pit geologist and hydrogeologist, gaining valuable experience in both mining and consultancy sectors.
Mirian Moreno
Business Manager, London
Mirian is Metals Focus’ business manager. Before joining Metals Focus Mirian helped SMEs to accelerate growth and improve day-to-day operational performance.
Erin Coyle
Sales & Marketing Executive, London
Erin is responsible for supporting the sales team.
