Board and Management
Our Board and Management combine decades of experience in West African gold exploration, institutional finance, and digital asset strategy. With strong operational, regulatory, and economic expertise—including advisors like Dr. Arthur Laffer—the team is well-positioned to deliver value through its dual focus on gold and Bitcoin within a UK Main Market-listed framework.
Directors
Directors
Nick Thurlow
Executive Chairman
Mr. Nick Thurlow is a senior financial professional, most recently working for MBS in Dubai as Group CFO. MBS is the investment arm of Shiekh Nayef Bin Eid Al Thani of the Qatari Royal Family. Prior to this, Nick was a Managing Partner at FCA-regulated Bramdean Asset Management and worked alongside Nicola Horlick. Nick has held many senior banking roles, including Treasurer for Standard Chartered, Credit Suisse and HSBC.
- Email:n.thurlow@hamakgold.com
Karl Smithson
Executive Director
Karl Smithson is an experienced geologist with over 30 years work experience in the resources sector in Africa. Throughout Karl’s career, he has established strong government and local stakeholder relationships in numerous African countries and has successfully secured a number of joint venture agreements with both major and junior resource companies.Karl has been founder, director and CEO of companies listed on the London and Australian stock exchanges and has a wide experience in corporate governance and compliance of public listed companies.Karl holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology (Honours) from Kingston University, London, and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Cape Town and is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
- Email:k.smithson@hamakgold.com
Martin Lampshire
Non-Executive Director
Mr Lampshire has over 30 years’ experience in Corporate Broking, assisting in a variety of equity raises including IPOs, secondary fundraisings, vendor and private placings across a variety of sectors. He has worked in various overseas financial centres including Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai.Mr Lampshire is currently an Executive Director of GRIT Investment Trust Plc.
Nicola Horlick
Non-Executive Director
Nicola Horlick is one of the most respected figures in the UK investment industry, widely recognised as the “City superwoman” for her pioneering leadership and innovation in fund management. With a career spanning more than 35 years, she has led major asset management firms, founded several businesses, and held senior board positions across finance, healthcare, the arts, and charity sectors. Nicola began her investment career at S.G. Warburg before rising to become Managing Director of Morgan Grenfell Investment Management, where she oversaw the quadrupling of assets under management during her tenure.In 2004, Nicola co-founded Bramdean Asset Management to focus on alternative assets and later launched Money&Co., a fintech platform connecting investors with SME borrowers, where she continues to serve as CEO. Her business interests have spanned private equity, film and media financing, and litigation funding. She has also held board roles at numerous companies, including Rockpool Investments, Glentham Capital, and more recently, Hamak Gold, where she was appointed as a Non-Executive Director in 2025. Her governance expertise is extensive, with experience chairing audit and risk committees and steering strategy in highly regulated sectors.Nicola holds a degree in Jurisprudence from Balliol College, Oxford, and is an Honorary Fellow of the college. She has received an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Chester and is deeply committed to charitable work, having served on the boards of Anthony Nolan, UNICEF UK, The Childhood Trust, and the UCL Cancer Institute. A passionate advocate for innovation, transparency, and diversity in finance, Nicola’s career has exemplified leadership across both traditional and emerging asset classes.
- Email:nhorlick@moneyandco.com
Key Management
Key Management
James Cable
Company Secretary
James Cable
Company Secretary
James has over 45 years of financial experience across several industries, including 11 years with Mobil Oil and more than 18 years in the mining sector. After working for a mining capital house where he provided financial advice and evaluated investments in copper, gold, diamonds and silver, in 2006 James was appointed Finance Director of Arian Silver Corporation, which was admitted to trading on AIM that year, before becoming a Non-Executive Director in 2009. He was also Finance Director of AIM listed Kopane Diamond Developments Plc, from 2005 until it was taken over by Firestone Diamonds Plc in 2010, and of Mantle Diamonds Limited, from 2011 until it was acquired by ASX listed Kimberley Diamonds Limited in 2013. Since 2022 he has been CFO of Technology Minerals Plc, an LSE listed battery minerals exploration and recycling company.
Advisors
Advisors
Dr Arthur Laffer
Dr. Arthur Laffer is a distinguished American economist widely recognized for developing the “Laffer Curve,” a foundational concept in supply-side economics that illustrates the relationship between tax rates and government revenue. He served as a key economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan and played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. fiscal policy during the 1980s.
Recognised by Time Magazine as one of the Greatest Minds of the 20th Century, Dr. Laffer has, throughout his distinguished career, advised multiple U.S. presidents, international policymakers, and Fortune 500 corporations on matters including tax policy, fiscal strategy, monetary reform, and economic growth.
An advocate for market-based solutions, Dr. Laffer has increasingly focused on the transformative potential of digital assets and decentralised monetary systems. He has publicly endorsed Bitcoin as a viable store of value and a potential hedge against inflation, highlighting the role of decentralised finance in the future of global economic policy.
His appointment reinforces the Company’s commitment to integrating sound economic principles with forward-thinking innovation in technology and financial infrastructure.
Recognised by Time Magazine as one of the Greatest Minds of the 20th Century, Dr. Laffer has, throughout his distinguished career, advised multiple U.S. presidents, international policymakers, and Fortune 500 corporations on matters including tax policy, fiscal strategy, monetary reform, and economic growth.
An advocate for market-based solutions, Dr. Laffer has increasingly focused on the transformative potential of digital assets and decentralised monetary systems. He has publicly endorsed Bitcoin as a viable store of value and a potential hedge against inflation, highlighting the role of decentralised finance in the future of global economic policy.
His appointment reinforces the Company’s commitment to integrating sound economic principles with forward-thinking innovation in technology and financial infrastructure.
Brittany Kaiser
Brittany Kaiser is a leading global authority on digital asset rights, data protection and blockchain technologies. She was a co-founder of one of the world’s largest bitcoin companies, Gryphon Digital Mining (now American Bitcoin, Nasdaq: ABTC) and was recently appointed as CEO of another digital asset treasury company AlphaTON Capital (Nasdaq: ATON). She is best known in the UK as a whistleblower in the Cambridge Analytica case and she is the co-founder of the Own Your Data Foundation. Ms. Kaiser has served as a strategic advisor to leading multi-national technology companies, governments, and international organisations on data ethics, Web3 infrastructure, and digital sovereignty.