Management

President and CEO

Craig Bartels

Mr. Bartels is President and CEO of Grants Energy and President of General Atomics Uranium Resources. He has worked in ISR (uranium and copper) for 45 years with various companies and has been involved in all aspects of ISR during that time (wellfield design and operation, resource estimation, process facilities design and operation, company management). He was previously President of General Atomics affiliate, Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd in Australia, which owns and operates the Beverley uranium ISR operation, and is operator of the Four Mile ISR Project. Mr. Bartels also sits on the Board of Directors for Rare Element Resources which is developing the Bear Lodge Project to establish a domestic source of rare earth materials.

Project Director

Benjamin Russ, PhD

Dr. Benjamin Russ is the Project Director at Grants Energy, responsible for technology development and community outreach to support domestic supply of United States' critical minerals. Dr. Russ has over 25 years of experience in research and development of advanced process technologies.

Dr. Russ' previous work has focused on novel, clean-energy chemical process development, including commercially relevant demonstrations of rare earth elements (REE) processing and separation technologies, medical radioisotope production, and large-scale thermochemical hydrogen production. Dr. Russ' work has focused on achieving environmentally friendly, sustainable processes in support of re-establishing domestic capabilities across a wide range of critical industries.

After growing up in Leawood, Kansas, Dr. Russ attended UC Davis and then UC San Diego where he received his B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering respectively. A father of five children ages 17-25, Dr. Russ is committed to protecting the planet for future generations. Dr. Russ lives in San Diego where he gives back to his community as a board member through various volunteer positions for the local youth soccer league and high school music booster boards continuously for the past 20 years.

Director of Regulatory Affairs

Daria Sayan

Mr. Sayan is responsible for developing and maintaining regulatory compliance programs across all levels of government. Prior to joining Grants Energy, Mr. Sayan spent over a decade in the aerospace industry, leading regulatory compliance, proposal development, negotiation, agreement structuring, and program management efforts. He holds a bachelor's degree in business and legal studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Arizona.