Board of Directors

Mr. Bryan Daniels co-founded Prairie Capital in 1997, and shares overall management responsibility for the company. His responsibilities include deal generation and overseeing due diligence, deal structuring and negotiation, along with fundraising and investor relations. He also has portfolio management responsibility for Prairie Capital, and is currently a director for eight Prairie Capital portfolio companies including PBE.

Prior to establishing Prairie Capital, Mr. Daniels was a Senior Vice President of commercial banking at American National Bank & Trust Company, an $8 billion subsidiary of Bank One (now part of JP Morgan Chase). Overseeing more than $70 million in preferred stock investments in this division, he also served on the Investment Committee of ANB Mezzanine.

He graduated magna cum laude from Wabash College with a BA in Mathematics and Chemistry, received a MBA from the University of Chicago with concentrations in finance and accounting, and thereafter completed his MS in Computer Science at the University of Chicago.

In addition to his responsibilities at Prairie, Mr. Daniels is a Visiting Committee Member of the Physical Sciences Department at the University of Chicago, which fosters dialogue and creates links with the broader community, and sits on the board of Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ), a community-supported, public service broadcasting institution. He and his wife also support the Music Institute of Chicago, where she is a Board of Trustee.

Mr. Stuart Champion de Crespigny became the Chief Executive Officer of PBE in April 2011 after completing the acquisition of PBE, now principally owned by Prairie Capital and Vierville Capital. Mr. Champion de Crespigny is the Managing Partner of Vierville Capital LLC which he founded in 2009 with the purpose of acquiring growing businesses with strong management in attractive industries.

Prior to founding Vierville Capital, Mr. Champion de Crespigny worked in investment banking for the Macquarie Group in Sydney, Australia and London, United Kingdom. His background is in acquiring stable cash flow companies for Macquarie and their specialist funds and in raising equity and debt for Macquarie specialist funds and external clients. Key transactions involved the acquisition and sale of companies for Macquarie, recapitalizations, leveraged buyout transactions, business separation, private placements, initial public offerings and follow-on offerings.

Mr. Champion de Crespigny holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He also holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree with Honors and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree, majoring in accounting, from the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Mr. Nate Good currently serves as a Managing Director of Prairie Capital, and is responsible for sourcing and evaluating potential investment opportunities, leading due diligence, structuring and negotiating transactions, and managing portfolio company investments.

He currently serves on the board of directors for FCA Packaging Products, Fortis Business Media, Messenger, Navman Wireless, StatLab Medical Products and PBE.

Prior to joining Prairie Capital in 2002, Mr. Good was a Senior Analyst at BMO Nesbitt Burns Equity Partners, Bank of Montreal’s middle-market private equity fund. He began his career as an Analyst in Credit Suisse First Boston’s Investment Banking Division, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions advisory and debt and equity financings in its Global Industrial and Services Group.

Mr. Good graduated with honors from the University of Illinois with a BA in Accountancy and received his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Mr. Robert Champion de Crespigny is an Australian businessman currently residing in the United Kingdom. He was the founder, Chairman and Chief Executive of Normandy Mining Limited from 1985 until itsmerger in 2002 with Newmont Mining Corporation.  At the time of the merger it was Australia's largest gold entity and in the top five gold companies in the world. He has served as Chancellor of The University of Adelaide, Chairman of the Economic Development Board of South Australia, Advisor to the Executive Committee of the South Australian Cabinet, Chairman of the South Australian Museum and Non-Executive Chairman of a number of publicly listed Australian companies. He has acted as Australia's representative on the Commonwealth's Expert Group on Democracy and Development, Chairman of the Australian Gold Council, and also as a Member of the Business Council of Australia, the Minerals Council of Australia and the National Gallery of Australia.

Over the years he has received several awards recognizing his contribution to Australian business and the community, in particular the Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest honor. The University of Adelaide has also awarded him a Doctorate for his services to the University.

Mr. Champion de Crespigny is currently the Chairman ofCrosby-Textor Research Strategies Results and  Advisor to Barclays Natural Resource Investments.

Mr. Peter Freeman has spent his working life involved almost entirely with the natural resources sector, and undertaken an enormous range of transactions for companies and governments. These include advice on equity raising, funding for major projects, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, asset disposals, government relations and regulatory issues, privatizations, bullion and trade financing, as well as general corporate advice.

After receiving degrees at Oxford and London Universities, Mr. Freeman spent eight years with Continental Illinois National Bank in Chicago and London, working mainly with the mining and metals processing industries.

In 1981, he joined N.M. Rothschild & Sons Ltd, eventually becoming a director within the corporate finance department, responsible for the natural resources sector. In 1988 he joined Warrior as one of the founding partners and following its sale to Standard Bank of South Africa in 1997, he agreed to stay on for three years. In 2000 he left to co-found London based Cutfield Freeman & Co. Ltd and continues to run the company as the Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Robert Scott has over 40 years experience as a coal company executive. In 1998 he led a management buyout of PBS Coals, Inc. and subsequently embarked PBS on a substantial growth plan doubling reserves and production. PBS became a significant, low cost, supplier of high-grade low vol met coal with a worldwide market and reputation and was acquired by OAO Severstal in late 2008. Mr. Scott served as President and Chief Executive Officer of PBS Coals until July 2009.

Prior to joining PBS, Mr. Scott served as CFO of NSM Ltd., involved in mining worldwide and before that served for 13 years as a Main Board Director for Derek Crouch PLC, a public U.K. company involved in mining operations in both the United Kingdom and the United States, where he held the positions of Vice President as well as Executive Director for U.S. mining.

Mr. Scott is a member of the Scottish Institute of Chartered Accountants and of the Institute of Chartered Management Accountants