Dan Wilton: From Private Equity To CEO

“A lot of the CEOs don’t want the accountability of one shareholder. Historically, I think a lot of CEOs in the mining sector, from very junior exploration companies to large-cap, always wanted nameless, faceless shareholders. They want someone that they can go have 1 or 2 marketing meetings with per year and give them 30-minute updates and feel good about it.”

Dan Wilton, CEO at First Mining Gold

Dan Wilton is the CEO of First Mining Gold, a $150 million market cap gold developer.

Before taking on the role OF CEO Dan gained more than 25 years of experience in M&A, corporate finance, and investing in the mining sector.

Dan worked between NYC and Toronto during the 1990s in investment banking doing M&A and capital raises for large mining companies. He then went on to work for National Bank Financial as Managing Director of the global mining and metals group before becoming a partner at private equity group Pacific Road Capital Management.

The Subjects We’ll Cover

In this conversation we discuss:

  • What led Dan to his current position as a CEO
  • Private equity, what exactly is it?
  • What is private equity’s role in the current mining environment?
  • How the game plan of large strategic miners has changed since 2012
  • Similarities between mining and tech investing, and whether there’s a role for venture focused funds in the mining space
  • What is the role of a private equity firm in the management of an asset?
  • The skill sets Dan picked up along the way that qualifies him to run a public company.
  • How living in Russia during 1997 shaped Dan’s views on MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) and hard assets.

It is not every day that you get to chat with someone like Dan, who has had the opportunity to sit on both sides of the table, as an operator and a financier.

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I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

Cheers,
Jamie Keech

PS: You can also check us out on iTunes here.

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