I can appreciate that you are just a little miffed at the moment but I would like to comment on Ryan and his salary from where I sit. Straight off I will state that I have met Ryan several times but we are not best friends or anything of that nature. My opinion of him from day 1 is that he is one of the most intelligent, hardworking and honourable guys I've had the pleasure of meeting. If he was managing some of my other investments, I'd be sitting pretty righty about now.
Yes the man is well rewarded via his salary, but consider the following that has occurred over the last 6 years (and I've been around for that long)
1. For the first few years he was doing the job of 3 or 4 people in an effort to save us money when funds were very scarce.
2. He has put his life on hold for years now in an effort to get this across the line, including his wedding and honeymoon.
3. He has developed a relationship with the land owners that no other person has managed to do in all this time and certainly not SMM.
4. He has taken on a Behemoth of a company and by the looks of it has come out the other side with SMM now gone and avq having to re apply for Kolosori. San Jorge is ours. That's 50% of the asset right there. I would call that a win but others want the whole pie before they would consider it a win. If a start up company had discovered San Jorge, guess what, their share price would rocket north.
5. Before the recent approval of his salary, there were companies circling to poach him and that is a fact. For those that think he is replaceable, think again. The landowners will not deal with anyone else. No landowners, no land. Very simple. What would you pay to have your hands on a multi billion dollar asset. So please everyone spare me your vitriol when it comes to his salary. No Ryan, no avq.....nothing hard about working that one out.
6. He has moved his whole life to the SI, yes he is being rewarded for it but I wouldn't move my life over there for what he's been paid and that is the truth.
7. At one point the man was working 18 hour days to get this thing happening.
8.He is human and therefore he makes mistakes, who hasn't made mistakes , I know I've made plenty in the course of my work life.
9. He is as honest as they come, is a genuinely decent human ( ask anyone that has met him) and I've not met a harder working person.
10. Despite what some might think, he is genuinely trying to obtain shareholder value and wealth, that means if he becomes rich we all become rich. Does anyone have an objection to that.
11. Avq and management did nothing wrong with the failed appeal. The SI govt stuffed up and yes it can be argued that someone should have picked that up but it wasn't and here we are. SMM are gone, we own San Jorge and Kolosori land re application has commenced, I would call that a good outcome when you consider the alternative.
12. He has managed to continually obtain finance and get people on board even with all that was hanging over our heads and keep us afloat and in the fight , that takes a very special person.
There is a lot more I could write but I guess you get the gist of what I'm saying. I am only commenting on Ryan and why I feel we need to pay him whatever it takes to keep him happy and working for avq. If I had money and I wanted to invest in the SIs , he would be the very first person I would try and get on board and if that meant paying him double what he is earning now, then so be it. Now how many of you would not leave their current job for considerably more money , very few I'm sure.
That's my rant for the day and I'll leave it at that. I won't be responding to anybody, this is my opinion and I can't be arsed arguing with anyone about this. You all have your opinions and I have mine, and you just read mine.
Have a good day everyone .
AVQ Price at posting:
19.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
