Editorial: Young Mining Professionals’ new Toronto branch grows – by John Cumming (Northern Miner Editorial – July 12, 2016)

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Anyone who spends time in both of Canada’s biggest mining centres will quickly pick up on the differences in culture between the two mining communities. Vancouver is generally younger, more outdoorsy and entrepreneurial, while Toronto is broadly older, urban and more corporate. In Vancouver, mining types will brag about what they did after work and socialize regularly in the Howe Street district, while in Toronto they’ll brag about how many hours they’ve worked, and dutifully head straight home after leaving the office.

And so it’s no surprise that it was in Vancouver that the Young Mining Professionals (YMP) group was founded in 2007 by three 30-something accountants and mining executives named Greg D. Smith, Scott Jeffrey and Rohan Hazelton — all with various ties to the mining industry in Vancouver, particularly to accounting giant KPMG.

The trio continues as the branch’s sole directors to this day, with help from executive officers Daniel Dickson, Geoff Miachika, Devon Thiara, Jennifer Poirier and Andrew Nelson, as well as corporate sponsors KPMG, Endeavour Silver, Goldcorp and law firm Cassels Brock.

Their goal was to create a group where keen mining professionals aged 25 to 39 and out of school for a few years could get together to obtain the skills, support and knowledge to better advance their careers, develop industry contacts and identify career and mining-related investment opportunities.

Since then, YMP in Vancouver has had several events a year, ranging from dinner speeches by local mining luminaries to social lunches at the Vancouver Club and pro-am golf tournaments. Their most recent gathering was a Distinguished Speaker event with newly installed Goldcorp president and CEO David Garofalo.

For the rest of this editorial, click here: http://www.northernminer.com/people-in-mining/editorial-young-mining-professionals-new-toronto-branch-grows/1003775382/