Chairman, NOVAGOLD

Thomas S. Kaplan is an American entrepreneur, wildlife conservationist and art collector. He is the Chairman of investment and asset management firm The Electrum Group and their flagship gold company, NOVAGOLD, Founder and Chairman of Panthera, the global leader in big cat conservation, Founder of The Leiden Collection, the world’s largest private collection of Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age art, Chairman of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH), a multilateral organization co-founded by the governments of France and the United Arab Emirates, and past President and Chairman of the 92nd Street Y, Manhattan’s premier cultural and community center.

Following his education in Switzerland, Dr. Kaplan attended Pembroke College, University of Oxford, where he earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s and DPhil degrees in modern history. His ability to superimpose historical and geopolitical understandings onto financial and commodity cycles led to one of the strongest track records in the natural resources sector over the past two decades. Most recently, Dr. Kaplan served as Chairman of Leor Exploration & Production LLC, a natural gas exploration and development company he founded in 2003 and sold in 2007 to EnCana Corporation, for $2.55 billion.