People moves: Yukon Metals names TMX adviser as new head of IR

Yukon Metals has appointed Monica Hamm as its new vice president of investor relations. A former IR professional in the mining sector, Hamm most recently served as regional adviser at TMX Group.

Retuning to IR, she brings a ‘diverse skill set to the table’, boasting more than 20 years’ experience in investor relations and capital markets, where she has gained extensive’ experience in corporate strategy, crisis management, stakeholder engagement and corporate communication, according to a Yukon Metals company statement that also announces Helena Kuikka as the firm’s new vice president for exploration.

Writing on LinkedIn, Hamm thanks ‘everyone at TMX Group who contributed to my success over the past five years. It was an honor to work at a company that serves as a leader in capital markets.  

‘Although it is sad to close the door on this chapter of my career, I’m looking forward to getting back into IR and working with the exceptional team at Yukon Metals, including Rory Quinn, president and CEO, to advance the properties in our project portfolio.’

Yukon Metals notes that, despite Hamm’s time out from IR, she remained ‘dedicated to giving back to the IR and mining communities as a volunteer’. The geology graduate, who is also a Certified Sustainability Practitioner, is currently a non-executive director on the board of Women in Mining, British Colombia and has previously held the role of chair for the BC chapter of CIRI, of which she has been a long-time member. 

‘We’re excited to welcome Helena and Monica to Yukon Metals, as we work to ramp up a busy exploration season in the Yukon and report on key advancements in the field and various corporate initiatives,’ says Quinn in a company statement. The Yukon Metals portfolio consists primarily of copper-gold and silver-lead-zinc assets, with a substantial gold and silver component, according to the company.

Elsewhere, Silicon Motion, a manufacturer of controllers used in data storage devices, has named Tom Sepenzis as its new senior director of investor relations and strategy, with a goal to help shape the firm’s investor outreach and communications program.

Prior to joining the world’s biggest supplier of SSD controllers to servers, PCs and other devices, Sepenzis served as vice president of corporate development & IR at Akoustis Technologies. Before that, he spent more than 20 years as a senior technology analyst covering the mobile communications and semiconductor sectors at Northland Capital Markets, Oppenheimer, Piper Sandler and other firms.

Announcing Sepenzis’ appointment, the Taiwan-headquartered Silicon Motion describes him as ‘possess[ing] significant experience with capital-raising efforts, M&A and strategic analysis.’ He holds an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Finally, while back in April we wrote that Tesla’s long-standing head of IR, Martin Viecha, would be stepping down from the carmaker after seven years of steering stakeholder communications, he has now officially left the company.

Posting to Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Thursday, Viecha shared an image support for two resolutions that notoriously passed at the electric vehicle manufacturer’s AGM last week: that of Musk’s $56 bn compensation package and its proposed move from Delaware to Texas. Writing on Thursday, Viecha joked: ‘As some might suspect, these charts inversely correlated with my stress levels over the last six weeks’ – accompanied by a laughing emoji.

Adding that he would be watching the AGM on live-stream rather than being in Austin in person, Viecha said that Friday, June 14 would be his last day. ‘Thanks for all your support over the years. Over and out,’ he said, with Musk replying: ‘Thanks for everything, Martin!’

Viecha hasn’t shared what his next role might be but, from his post on X, it looks as though he might take some time out. After watching the live-stream of the Tesla AGM, he told followers on social media that he would be ‘traveling for quite some time’.

Travis Axelrod, who joined Tesla in 2019, is reportedly taking over from Viecha.