WILLIAM (BILL) MILLMAN - Director, Mines, Minerals, Metals & Markets Ltd

Bill Millman has  been involved in all aspects of the capacitor industry for over 40  years including R&D, engineering, manufacturing, materials, process,  new product development, and quality. More recently he has been focused  on the development of models for responsible sourcing of conflict free  tantalum minerals through innovative initiatives.

Mr. Millman  recently retired as the Director of Corporate Quality for AVX  Corporation, after 40 years with the company. He has been elected  President of the Tantalum International Study Centre (TIC), an  international community from the tantalum industry, for three terms  (1997-98, 2004-05, 2005-06) and has been an Executive member of the TIC  Committee for 29 years.

Since 2009 he has worked with an  international community of stakeholders including the United Nations,  Organization for the Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED) on  responsible sourcing, ICGLR (International Council of the Great Lakes  Region) Africa on conflict minerals,  EICC/GeSI (Electronic Industry  Citizen Coalition/ Global e-Sustainability Initiative) and civil society  in the creation of due diligence guidance, audit protocols, supply  chain reporting tools, conflict free smelter policy and in-region  sourcing initiatives for tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold.  He continues  to promote responsible sourcing through concrete exercising of tools  and mechanisms including the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for responsible  sourcing and has provided information and oral presentations to the  U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington DC, to help form  the rules and regulations around ‘conflict’ mineral definitions.

Bill  is also the co-developer of a world leading 'closed pipe' model for  conflict free responsible sourcing of tantalum materials to the  electronics industry. He was instrumental in the development and  piloting of the ‘Solutions for Hope’ initiative in partnership with  supply chain partners in China (smelting), Rwanda/DRC (mining), AVX  Tantalum (component maker) and end user participants including Intel,  HP, Nokia, Motorola Solutions, Blackberry, Google, Bosch and other  electronic leaders.