THE pioneering mineral exploration and development company Cornish Lithium has announced the appointment of Gary Steven to its board as a non-executive director.

He joins the board as a representative of the National Wealth Fund (formerly the UK Infrastructure Bank).

Gary brings a wealth of expertise as a finance professional and serves as a Director of the National Wealth Fund’s (NWF) Portfolio Management team, overseeing a diverse investment portfolio. Prior to his role at NWF, Gary worked at BlackRock where he led the valuation of the company’s infrastructure investments across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), North America and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

The NWF, owned by HM Treasury, is a key institutional investor in Cornish Lithium, alongside TechMet and The Energy & Minerals Group.

Cornish Lithium also announces that Adam Howard will step down from the board, with immediate effect following his appointment as chief financial officer at Invinity Energy Systems.

Jeremy Wrathall, founder, interim chairman and CEO of Cornish Lithium, said: “I am delighted to welcome Gary and look forward to working with him. His financial skills will further strengthen our Board as we continue to develop our dynamic portfolio of projects to create value for all of our stakeholders. I also extend my thanks to Adam for his contributions as a non-executive director and wish him every success in his new role.”

Gary has 20 years of finance experience gained at a number of different institutions including banks and an infrastructure fund. Gary has a host of knowledge from a variety of roles including originating and structuring debt and equity transactions, ProjectCo directorship roles and managing debt and equity portfolios

He is a director in NWF’s portfolio management team where he is responsible for managing a diverse portfolio of debt and equity investments. Prior to NWF, Gary worked at BlackRock where he was responsible for overseeing the valuation of all the company’s infrastructure investments covering EMEA, North America and APAC.

Previous roles include at Dalmore Capital where he sat on the Board of a number of project companies representing the equity interest alongside managing a debt portfolio. This is alongside numerous infrastructure-related roles at Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. These included originating and executing new debt and equity investments in the UK and European PFI/PPP sectors, as well as managing portfolios of infrastructure assets through the construction phase and into operations. He also has experience of working out distressed and non-performing debt and equity portfolios.

Gary has an MA in economics from Heriot-Watt University and a diploma from the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments.

For more information about Cornish Lithium visit cornishlithium.com