Josh P. Phair, Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Josh P. Phair serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Company and Founding Member, Co-Owner and CEO of Scottsdale Mint that is now focused on the fabrication, contract manufacturing, distribution, and retail sales of precious metals in over 40 countries spanning five continents. In 2011, Mr. Phair negotiated Scottsdale Mint’s acquisition of the former precious metals investment bar manufacturing division of publicly traded Materion Corporation. As a result of this acquisition, Mr. Phair transitioned Scottsdale Mint from a growing precious metals retailer into a U.S. based precious metals manufacturer. Recognized globally for its innovative, artistic, quality and “jewelry-esque” gold and silver coins and bars and for its development of its proprietary security packaging, Certi-Lock®, Scottsdale Mint’s clients and partners include Fortune 500 companies, large private banks and central banks representing more than 20 foreign governments.
Since Scottsdale Mint’s formation, Mr. Phair has overseen the management, trading and hedging of billions of dollars of its precious metals inventory, currencies, and more recently, its digital assets. A very early investor in cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), Mr. Phair applied those learnings to Scottsdale Mint’s business and in 2018, spear-headed Scottsdale Mint’s digital asset acceptance initiative that resulted in the acceptance of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Solana as payment for precious metals. The Scottsdale Mint, through Mr. Phair’s leadership, is the proud owner of hundreds of NFTs including its crown jewel, the Bored Ape Yacht Club #3727.
Prior to forming Scottsdale Mint, Mr. Phair spent nearly a decade in corporate insurance focused on the management of operational and political risk for some of the world’s largest mining, refining, and waste companies in the United States, through Latin America and Africa.
Mr. Phair currently serves on the Advisory Board of Monarch Wallet, a company focused on the buildout of an integrated solution to decentralized crypto exchanges, wallets, file storage and communication with one universal KYC check. Mr. Phair is a graduate of The Florida State University with a degree in Business Risk Management and Insurance and is married with two children.
Dave McMaster, Founder & Chief Operating
Dave McMaster serves as the Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the Company. In addition to his role with the Company, Mr. McMaster is the Vice President and General Counsel of Scottsdale Mint, a global leader in precious metals manufacturing and distribution. Over the course of his time at Scottsdale Mint, Mr. McMaster led efforts to open new international wholesale markets in over twenty countries, identified, developed, and negotiated partnership minting agreements with central banks representing nearly a dozen countries, and grew domestic and international custom minting channels to include Fortune 500 companies. Mr. McMaster most recently served as President and General Counsel for Uncommon Giving Corporation, a fintech startup SAAS solution for corporate philanthropy.
An experienced negotiator and counselor for individual clients and corporate employers, Mr. McMaster previously served as litigation counsel at Wagstaff & Cartmell, LLP and as an executive for the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona. Mr. McMaster’s career began in Washington, DC, where he worked at the White House, the U.S. State Department, the Bush-Cheney 2004 Presidential Re-election Campaign and the 2005 Presidential Inaugural Committee. Mr. McMaster earned his J.D. at the University of Kansas School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in political science with an emphasis in international security at Arizona State University. Mr. McMaster is licensed to practice law in the State of Kansas, Missouri (Inactive) and Arizona (in house counsel only), holds his FINRA Series 3 license and is a registered member of the International Precious Metals Institute.
Brian Bannister, Founder & CIO
Mr. Bannister is currently the Chief Investment Officer for the Company. In his role at the Company, Brian distills complex investment strategies into easily understood investment opportunities for investment advisors, family offices, high-net worth individuals, and corporate treasury officers. Alongside his partners and fellow co-founders, Mr. Bannister has taken nearly two decades of personal success trading equities, options, futures, and precious metals and more recently his dissection of, and investment in, the cryptocurrency and NFT space and spearheaded the development of the Company’s actively managed precious metals and cryptocurrency assets trading strategies. In addition, Mr. Bannister serves as the Director of Pitching for Major League Baseball’s reigning National League West Division Champions, the San Francisco Giants. During his time with the Giants, Mr. Bannister helped set the Giants all-time franchise record for most wins in a season (107 wins in 2021). Immediately prior to his position with the Giants, Brian served as Vice President of Pitcher Development and Major League Coach, a Scout and Pitching Analyst, with the Boston Red Sox, helping the franchise make history by winning three straight American League East division titles (2016-2018) and a World Series Championship in 2018. Before his career coaching, Mr. Bannister pitched five years in the major leagues making his Major League Baseball debut in 2006 with the New York Mets and helping the Mets to a National League East Division championship. Traded to the Kansas City Royals in 2007, Brian earned American League Rookie of the Month honors twice and finished 3rd in voting for American League Rookie of the Year.
Brian credits much of his success in baseball as a player, coach and as front office personnel to his understanding, development, and utilization of pioneering baseball analytics such as machine learning, proprietary algorithmic modeling, and predictive analytics to identify future trends that gain statistical advantages over the competition. According to Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star outfielder and MVP Mookie Betts, Brian is the “smartest person I know.” Brian’s use of these analytics earned him the nickname “the Conduit” for helping so many pitchers achieve new levels of success and caused him to be featured prominently in the New York Times’ bestselling book “MVP Machine” by Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik. The pitchers Brian has worked with have gone on to sign for nearly $1 billion in combined contract value over the last 7 years.
In 2011, Mr. Bannister founded Safe Refuge for Children + Families, a Northern California 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has helped keep thousands of kids in distress off the streets and families together through extreme personal circumstances. Mr. Bannister currently sits on its board of directors. Mr. Bannister holds his FINRA Series 3 license, is a graduate of the University of Southern California and is married with two children.
Ron Baldwin, Chairman of the Board
Ron Baldwin is Chairman of the Board of the Company and has more than 48 years of experience building, acquiring and growing companies. He previously served as Chairman Emeritus of CrossFirst Bank, a commercial bank that he founded in October 2007, and that grew to $4.0 billion in assets under his leadership. As Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of CrossFirst Bankshares, Inc., Mr. Baldwin raised more than $350 million in capital to support banks in Kansas City, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Dallas. From October 2018 to March 2022, Mr. Baldwin served as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Uncommon Giving, a social impact platform that helps businesses improve employee engagement. As Chief Executive Officer of Uncommon Giving, Mr. Baldwin drove the company’s development of a number of products in the philanthropic sector. Mr. Baldwin currently remains on the board of directors of Uncommon Giving. Before founding CrossFirst Bank, Mr. Baldwin served as President and Chief Operating Officer at Kansas-based Intrust Bank from February 1996 to October 2005, during which time the bank’s assets grew from $1.2 billion to $3.2 billion. From 1977 to 1995, Mr. Baldwin successively served in a number of roles, including President and COO, at Fourth Financial Corporation/BANK IV, which grew from $200 million to $8 billion in assets before being acquired by Bank of America. Mr. Baldwin’s banking career began in 1972 when he started work filing checks for Fourth National Bank while earning his business degree at Wichita State University. Over the course of his long career, Mr. Baldwin has led the acquisition of more than 60 banks.
Mr. Baldwin is a current board member of Kanakuk Ministries, a Christian athletic camp based in Branson, Missouri with more than 20,000 campers each year, and the Kanakuk Institute, a biblical and theological education program intended to train young men and women for a lifetime of ministry. He is a past chairman of the Wichita State Foundation, which had assets totaling $150 million. Mr. Baldwin has served on numerous other community and banking-related boards and works to instill a culture of serving others in the companies he leads. Mr. Baldwin attended Wichita State University and held a Certified Public Accountant designation.
Miguel Perez-Santalla, President
Mr. Perez-Santalla serves as the President of the Company. Mr. Perez-Santalla comes to the Company by way of a highly accomplished and internationally recognized precious metals’ commodities career that has spanned the last four decades. His experience in trading, hedging, vaulting and the international transportation of precious metals for his past institutional, commercial, and retail customers makes him uniquely qualified to launch and lead The Wyoming Reserve.
Prior to his work with the Company, Mr. Perez-Santalla served as Head of Risk Management, Sales and Marketing for Heraeus Precious Metals, LLC, a leading provider of precious metals services and products and a portfolio company of Heraeus, Inc., a FORTUNE Global 500 group that generated revenues of 31.5 billion euros during 2020, and currently has approximately 15,000 employees located in 40 different countries. While at Heraeus, Mr. Perez-Santalla managed precious metals inventory acquisition, and logistics; served as a member of the management team for risk, compliance and credit decisions concerning new business and customer relations; marketed precious metals’ products and refining services to key constituent groups; and served as the key sponsor of market research reports for the company’s major industrial manufacturers.
In addition to his years with Heraeus, Mr. Perez-Santalla worked as Vice President and Business Development for the Americas for BullionVault; Vice President of Purchasing and Business Development for the largest online precious metals product retailer in the United States, Apmex, Inc.; and Founder and President of Trinity International, LLC, a company focused on the import and export of precious metals. Throughout his career, Mr. Perez-Santalla has been interviewed by, quoted, and published in numerous print media and has appeared on Bloomberg and CNBC. Mr. Perez-Santalla previously served as President of the preeminent trade association for the precious metals industry, the International Precious Metals Institute, and previously held his FINRA Series 3 license (expired). He is married, a member of the Knights of Columbus and is fluent in English, Spanish and has a working proficiency in Portuguese.
Mark Hartig, Chief Financial Officer
Mark Hartig serves as Chief Financial Officer to the Company. Mr. Hartig comes to the company by way of a career in Corporate Finance, Accounting, General Management, and precious metals and commodities management. Mr. Hartig previously served as Corporate Controller at 366 Metals Management, Inc. a subsidiary of 366 Processing, Inc. which provides reclaiming services in North America of precious metals from auto catalysts. Prior to his position at 366 Metals Management, Inc., Mr. Hartig served as the Controller for Mairec Precious Metals US, Inc. a subsidiary of Mairec Edelmetallgesellschaft in Germany and as Controller for BRAWO USA, Inc. a subsidiary of Brawo Brassworking-Italy (and Canada), which manufactured and sold brass and aluminum forging and machine parts to Moen, Delta, Kohler, General Motors, Honda, Tesla and Volkswagen. Prior to these roles Mr. Hartig was the General Manager and CFO for Hahl Inc. a subsidiary of Lenzing AG (Austria) which provided industrial application monofilaments and brush fibers.
In addition, Mr. Hartig has previously worked in public accounting. Further, he has experience overseeing the accounting and finances for multimillion-dollar companies based in the USA, Canada, Austria, Italy and Germany. His expertise encompasses the establishment of US operations for several international companies including all aspects of financial reporting, accounting, budgeting, cash management and vendor contracts. Additionally, he has managed hedging of precious metals and commodities and the negotiation of capital lines of credit in excess of $65 Million.
Mr. Hartig also serves on the board of Egg-in-a-whole Holdings, LLC. a family office. He is a graduate of the University at Buffalo, with a degree in Business Administration and a triple concentration in Accounting, Finance and Management. In addition, Mr. Hartig is married and has one child.
Independent Board Member
Kevin Kelly, Franchise Owner, Lt Colonel, US Air Force (Retired)
Kevin Kelly currently serves on the Board of the Company. In addition to his role with the Company, Mr. Kelly is a partner in a biotechnology company, ExoGrade, which is currently undergoing clinical trials in the European Medicines Agency medical system. In April 2017, Mr. Kelly and his partners secured the Regional Development rights for The Joint Chiropractic to place retail locations throughout the State of Washington, and further plan to have 22+ combined locations open over the next 8 years. Kevin and his partners currently oversee or operate 15 The Joint Chiropractic locations in the State of Washington market. Previously, Kevin was acting Chief Executive Officer (Pro Tem) of Source Gaming Inc., a technology company operating in the legalized U.S. gaming space. Additionally, Kevin is an owner and previously was acting Chief Executive Officer of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, a legally sanctioned and government regulated Bare Knuckle Fighting promotion company from January 2019 to February 2021. After selling 22 Planet Fitness locations in Q4 2018, Mr. Kelly is now a principal owner of 13 operational Planet Fitness locations in Mexico and Tacoma, Washington. Kevin and his team were selected by Planet Fitness to open the first Planet Fitness franchise location in Monterrey, Mexico in the first quarter of 2018.
He has successfully developed over 25 properties in Philadelphia. He served as Chairman of the Penn Treaty Special Services District (the “PTSSD”), a 501(c)(3) he helped create in conjunction with his neighborhood leaders and the Sugar House Casino. The PTSSD distributes funds negotiated via a Community Benefits Agreement to charities and nonprofit organizations within the district. In the spring of 2010, Kevin was elected a Pennsylvania State Committeeman of PTSSD.
Mr. Kelly is a former Naval Aviator and F-16C+ Fighter Pilot. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accountancy and Naval Science from Villanova University, he entered United States Navy flight training program at Pensacola NAS and received his wings of gold as a Naval Aviator in 1992. He has flown on numerous deployments onboard multiple aircraft carriers and is a combat veteran with over 400 aircraft carrier landings. During his time as a Naval Officer and A-6E Attack Pilot, Kevin was responsible for the leadership, training and development of over 250 enlisted sailors. He also served as squadron legal officer after graduating from the Navy Legal Justice School with Honors. He was selected for an inter-service transfer to the United States Air Force where he earned his current designation as an F-16 Instructor pilot. He was immediately placed in charge of 10 squadron pilots and fellow officers as a flight commander and served with distinction, receiving numerous awards and combat decorations. Kevin has served multiple tours of duty in the Middle East, most recently returning from Iraq in April 2009. In April 2017, he was selected as the 2017 Veteran Multi-Unit Franchisee of the Year by Multi-Unit Franchise Magazine. Mr. Kelly is a speaker and facilitator with The Corps Group, a group of men and women fighter pilots that teach Fortune 500 and select companies the tools and techniques used by combat aviators when the stakes are high and failure is not an option. He has worked with the executive suites of Verizon, Cisco Systems, H&R Block, Underwriter Laboratories, AT&T and other such companies to develop comprehensive strategic plans for growth.
With a passion for serving those who serve others, Mr. Kelly has spearheaded many projects that benefit the families of our fallen military, police, firemen, and first responders. Mr. Kelly was the executive producer of the documentary film “The Barrel of a Gun” that sought to explain the events surrounding the murder of Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in Philadelphia in 1981. Mr. Kelly is involved with The Travis Manion Foundation and organizes the Tempe 911 Heroes Run, an event that financially supports the families of the fallen, for the past 4 years.
In addition, Mr. Kelly is a graduate of the Prometheus Academy of Strategic Management and consultant, working with the executive teams of many international corporations, developing long term strategies for success. Mr. Kelly resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. He retired from the military in October 2013 with a full active-duty retirement after 25 years of service.
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