Quest Rare Minerals (TSX:QRM) reported that president and CEO Peter Cashin has relinquished his responsibilities as president and CEO of Quest in order to focus on new mineral exploration opportunities.

As quoted in the press release:

Quest is now engaged in the permitting phase, which is a critical milestone towards the decision to proceed with the construction of the mining and refining complexes for its rare earths project. The executive leadership for this phase has been assigned to Pierre Lortie, Chairman of the Board of Quest. Dr. Dirk Naumann, Quest’s Executive Vice-President, Development, will assume responsibility for the management of the project.
Pierre Lortie, Chairman of the Board, emphasized that Peter Cashin has led the Corporation since February 2008 and is credited with having made the Strange Lake B-Zone heavy rare earth deposit discovery in northeastern Québec, considered to be the largest such deposit of its kind in the world.

The firm also reported that Quest shareholders will be asked to elect six directors at the company’s shareholder meeting on April 20:

At the annual meeting to be held on April 20, 2015, Quest’s shareholders will be asked to elect six directors comprised of incumbent directors Pierre Lortie, Ronny Kay, Michael Pesner and Neil Wiener, recently-appointed director Prashant Pathak and new nominee Yves Beauchamp.
As previously announced, on March 9, 2015, the Board of Directors appointed Mr. Prashant Pathak as a director of the Corporation. Mr. Pathak has been the President of Ekagrata Inc., a private investment firm, since 2002. Prior thereto, he held several management and operational positions in the energy services industry at Halliburton and Schlumberger and was a Partner at McKinsey & Company. He also served as Managing Partner of ReichmannHauer Capital Partners from 2006 to 2012. In 2008, Mr. Pathak was appointed by the Canadian government to the board of BDC, a Crown corporation. He is a former member of the board of the North York General Hospital and was a charter member of TiE, the world’s largest non-profit network dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship. Mr. Pathak holds an MBA with distinction from INSEAD (in France), and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering and a diploma in Fuzzy Logic from the Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur, India).
Yves Beauchamp is the Vice-Rector responsible for the development of the new Outremont campus of Université de Montréal and Full Professor of Industrial Engineering, École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS). Prior to that, Dr. Beauchamp held a variety of positions at the École de technologie supérieure in Montreal and at the Université de Québec à Trois-Rivières. Over the course of his career, Dr. Beauchamp has received numerous awards and acknowledgements, including the Knight of the National Order of Québec, the Médaille de l’Assemblée Nationale of the Government of Québec, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and a recognition from the Order of Engineers of Québec for outstanding achievement in research and teaching. He is a member of several professional associations and has been appointed to serve on numerous boards of directors. Dr. Beauchamp has also contributed to the development of his field through the publication of peer-reviewed articles, research reports published by the Québec Occupational Health and Safety Research Institute and other academic writings. Dr. Beauchamp holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering and a Masters in Industrial Safety and Hygiene from Université de Québec à Trois-Rivières, as well as a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of West Virginia.

Click here to read the Quest Rare Minerals (TSX:QRM) press release