Specialty metal and chemical products firm 5N Plus Inc of Montreal, QuÉbec, Canada has appointed Bertrand Lessard as chief operating officer, effective 28 April.
5N Plus provides specialty purified metals such as bismuth, gallium, germanium, indium, antimony, cadmium, selenium and tellurium, and also produces related II-VI semiconducting compounds such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), cadmium sulphide (CdS) and indium antimonide (InSb) as precursors for the growth of crystals for solar, LED and eco-friendly materials applications.
Lessard has nearly 30 years of experience in technical, operational and leadership positions. Prior to joining 5N Plus, he was general manager of SEC Bloom Lake Iron Mine of Cliffs Natural Resources. Lessard has worked for over 25 years at Xstrata (formerly Noranda and Falconbridge now Glencore Xstrata). His career began in 1985 at the Canadian Copper Refinery in Montreal where he held several technical and management positions, eventually taking the lead of Operations in 1998. He also served as director (Recycling), headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, and in 2008 as director (Copper) of the Kidd Creek metallurgical site in Timmins, Ontario, until 2010 when he joined Cliffs Natural Resources.
Lessard holds a degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the École Polytechnique de MontrÉal. He graduated from the Western Executive Program at the Richard Ivey School of Business of London, Ontario.
"His prior experience in the minor metals field and in senior management positions of sizeable metallurgical facilities promise to be great assets to leverage our worldwide network of operations, execute on our growth plan and become a more efficient organization," comments president & CEO Jacques L'Écuyer.
