Our Management Team
YVES KABONGO
FounderChairman and CEO
JOHN WRIGHT
Vice President of Global Operations
Canadian and Congolese entrepreneur with experience with Canadian and international mining companies. He is the co-founder of Novcorp. He currently sits on the board of Tantalex Lithium which is a publicly listed company and provides strategic direction for firms in the DRC. Yves was a co-founder of Belair African Metals Sarl, a commodity trading business in the DRC focusing on the 3T (Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten). Belair African Metals was sold to publicly listed company.
John is a co-founder of Novcorp. He has successfully built businesses around the world. He is a graduate of the University of Waterloo engineering program. He was recruited into the financial industry where he managed family office work in Canada, Asia and the MENA regions. This practice evolved into providing advice to emerging businesses and high net worth clients in over 30 countries for over 30 years. He is regularly asked to provide consulting to individual and corporate private clients.
John has over 40 years experience in both Canada and Internationally as a Chief Financial Officer and Director for both public and private energy and service companies. His experience includes capital raising, startup companies, risk management, governance and both management and public company reporting. He holds a Bachelor of Business from the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University) and is a Fellow of CPA Australia.
Lydia has 15 years of experience in the fields of banking, marketing, communication, and project management. Lydia is well traveled, multilingual (English, French, Spanish, Swahili), she has a degree in International Business and Management from European Business School from London, UK and an MBA from Frankfurt School of management, Germany. At Rawbank SA, Democratic Republic of Congo, she held positions as Head of Private Banking, Head of Corporate institutional banking and at last, Head of Communication and Marketing.She has provided key marketing and communication initiatives to local public companies.
She joined Novcorp in May 2023 as Head of Project management
Deo is an experienced financial manager, responsible for accounting and financial reporting in the country. He graduated from the Protestant University of Congo in finance and accounting. Prior to joining Novcorp, he worked at British American Tobacco where he was responsible for monthly reporting, financial statements and auditing.
Joël manages a team of over 20 people at the Novcorp processing units. He is responsible for all activities at the depot including material purchase, material processing and export. Joel is a Congolese native with 10 years experience in supply chain management. Joël started his career in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Stella is acting regional manager in Katanga. She manages logistics in Manono and Lubumbashi. Her previous positions included regional Director of a Pan-African insurance company; and mining corporate banking manager at Rawbank (the DRC's leading commercial bank). She holds a Master's degree in Business and Administration from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and a Bachelor's degree in International Law and International Relations from the Université du Québec, Montréal in Canada.
Elie is a management assistant at Novcorp and mainly focuses on managing schedules, making appointments and traveling for the line manager. A graduate in Hospitality and Catering Management from Damelin College in Johannesburg, she is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science and Commerce at the International University of Applied Sciences in Germany. With dynamic experience in the DRC, Elie held positions such as administrative secretary at Thique Cooperation, sales agent at Orange Money, and sales director at Ellico sarl (Dstv) for three years. In the past, she has managed a sales and marketing team of more than 20 people in various cities.
