John Lester

Mr Lester started his career as a stockbroker with Joseph Sebag and Co in London in mining companies including six months with Consolidated Goldfields. He joined Jardine Fleming and Company then Hong Kong's investment bank as chief dealer and became a Director of that Company. He was Head of Corporate Finance at Pembroke Securities in Sydney and later moved to Indonesia where he founded a paging company and several satellite and internet companies as well as arranging the underwriting of Jakarta's first publicly listed mining company. He joined the Board of Golden West Resources Limited and became Managing Director where he was responsible for the company raising more than $60 million from Asian investors. He was Chairman of Yilgarn Infrastructure Ltd which was a major tenderer for building the Port of Oakajee having a fully funded bid with partners including China Rail, China Ports, Sinosteel Ansteel Bank of China and China Exim Bank. He was a founding Director and Chairman of publicly listed Coal Limited.