Instructor is a geologist and mining specialist with over 10 years of technical, scientific research and business development experience in leading international mining and oil/gas service and consulting companies. Having started out as a diamond exploration geologist (Russia), she subsequently worked in seismic exploration in Schlumberger (Egypt) in its quality control department, and in academia where she was awarded a PhD degree in geoscience (Denmark), and in a prominent mining consultancy (UK) providing international business development, project appraisals, quality control and technical due diligence to clients. She defended the PhD and published the scientific articles on the crustal structure of the West Siberian basin and the Siberian craton. She is knowledgeable about quality control, exploration, technical risks and pitfalls of complex mining projects.