CEO
Luke Leslie is the co-Founder and CEO of Key Carbon, bringing experience focused on investing, streaming and commodities.
Luke is a founding partner and manager of Private Equity Club L.P., a €338 million fund investing into private equity and co-invests, and is a member of the L.P Advisory Committee for BEXFUND IV.
Luke was formerly Chief Financial Officer and Head of M&A at Shanta Gold Limited, an East African gold producer. Luke has been a Non-Executive Director of Nova Royalty Corp since April 2021 and was a Non-Executive Director at Shanta Gold Limited from 2012 to 2017.
Prior to this he was a member of UBS Investment Bank’s Corporate Finance team and was a management consultant with Accenture where he co-authored a patent incorporating carbon into the Forest Factory Valuation Model.
Luke has lived and worked in China, Hong Kong, Outer Mongolia, Myanmar, and Tanzania. Luke is an alumnus of Edinburgh University and Harvard Business School.
Chief Financial Officer
Matt Gormley is Key Carbon’s Chief Financial Officer and brings 12 years’ experience in financial and senior operational roles in the natural resources space.
Matt began his career within Grant Thornton’s London Audit practice before joining Shanta Gold as Group Financial Controller, where he was instrumental in a sustained period of operational, financial, and corporate successes.
Matt graduated from the University of Warwick with a BSc (hons) in Physics and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Chief Operating Officer
Clare Tovey is Key Carbon’s Chief Operating Officer, with a wide range of responsibilities including strategy, managing our portfolio of investments, marketing and communications.
Before joining Key Carbon, Clare worked at Bain & Company for 13 years. As the Global Senior Manager of Bain’s Sustainability & Responsibility practice, she played a key leadership role in launching and growing this business for 6 years. She advised corporates across a range of sectors on their sustainability approaches including their strategy for achieving Net Zero. Clare has also worked at PepsiCo, Poses Family Foundation and Bank of America, and has lived and worked in Tanzania and Nepal.
Clare has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MSci in Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Change from the University of Cambridge.
Environmental and Sustainability Specialist
Ignus offers experience in sustainability and environmental conservation. He has deep technical knowledge of carbon offset registries, categories, and methodologies, and understands the latest developments and emerging trends in the voluntary carbon market. He has a multifaceted role that includes informing Key Carbon’s project origination strategy, identifying and evaluating high-quality projects, publishing technical reports and advising clients on how navigate the complexities of carbon markets so that they can achieve their environmental and sustainability goals.
He also has experience with large infrastructure and natural capital projects, biodiversity conservation, land-use planning, and nature-based climate solutions. Previously, Ignus was part of McKinsey’s Nature Analytics service line, where he assessed how voluntary carbon offset programs can support conservation efforts; conducted scenario modelling to evaluate the ecological and socioeconomic benefits of different nature-based solutions; and identified high-impact and cost-effective opportunities to reach the UN’s 30X30 biodiversity goal.
Ignus holds an engineering degree from Stellenbosch University and specialized in energy efficiency and sustainability with the University of Cape Town. He has been a registered professional engineer since 2016 and worked for the Western Cape Government, where he performed transport simulation and land-use scenario modelling to reduce traffic and carbon emissions.
Director
Brett Heath has over a decade of royalty and streaming experience, building two leading public companies in precious metals and base metals sectors creating over $1 billion in value for shareholders.
Brett is currently the President and CEO of NYSE-listed Metalla Royalty (NYSE: MTA). He founded Metalla Royalty in 2016 and completed an industry-leading 27 transactions acquiring a portfolio of 70 precious metal royalty and streaming assets over the following 5 years. Mr. Heath is also the Non-Executive Chairman of TSXV listed Nova Royalty (TSXV: NOVR). He co-founded Nova Royalty in 2018 acquiring 20 royalty copper and nickel royalty assets on some of the largest mines in the world being advanced by majors. Mr. Heath has an extensive background in corporate finance, structured finance, and investment management.
Director
Eric Zurrin has worked in global commodities for over two decades. He is a former advisor to major forest products companies including Norske Skog and Stora Enso. He also has 10 years’ experience in investment banking, having worked with multinational banks including BMO Capital Markets and UBS Investment Bank.
Since 2017, Eric has held the role of CEO of AIM listed Shanta Gold with assets in East Africa. Eric has worked and lived in North America, the UK, Asia and Africa and held senior positions in advisory, private equity and operational roles. Eric is a Canadian national and is a graduate of Harvard Business School.
Director
Denis Silva has 20+ years global experience in corporate securities law with a focus on royalties and streaming. He is a corporate and securities partner at DLA Piper’s Vancouver office with expertise in corporate and commercial law, corporate finance, as well as mergers and acquisitions. He has particular experience advising clients in mining, technology, and financial sectors on a full range of business law matters, including mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings, corporate reorganisations, exchange listings, securities regulatory requirements, options and joint ventures and corporate governance.
Prior to joining DLA Piper, Denis was a partner at an international law firm and was senior legal counsel with the British Columbia Securities Commission. While at the BCSC, he furthered his legislative and policy expertise on corporate finance and registration matters.
Denis holds a BA from University of British Columbia, MPA from Queen’s University and LLB from University of Windsor.
Erik Solheim is a global leader on environment and development as well as an experienced peace negotiator. He served as Norwegian minister of Environment and International Development from 2005-2012. During that period, he initiated the global program for conservation of rainforests and brought through game changing National legislations-among them the Biodiversity Act and legislation to protect Oslo city forests. He brought Norwegian development assistance to 1%, the highest in the world.
Erik was the Executive Chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee from 2012-2016 and Executive Director of UN Environment from 2016 to 2018. Currently he is senior adviser at World Resources Institute and President of the Belt and Road Green Development Institute in Beijing. He is also Chief Mentor of Global Alliance for Sustainable Planet and Chairman of the Board of Afroz Shah Foundation in Mumbai. He is adviser to April, the world’s largest paper and pulp company in Indonesia, to Aker Horizons, Norway’s leading green industry corporation and to Norwegian electric battery company Morrow. He serves as chairman of the development roundtable in Green Hydrogen Organization and as a board member of International Hydropower Association.