Consultant
Iron Range Engineering School
Dale Ekmark has over 23 years of domestic and international experience in the mining and other heavy industry. He has spent over two-thirds of his career working in large open pit operations, in both operational and corporate leadership capacities. He is a highly successful leader with a combination of strong technical expertise, focus on employee-centric mine safety/risk management and operational optimization. A common theme throughout his career has been the strong and lasting culture transition to a highly engaged workforce resulting in top-tier safety and operational results.
Mr. Ekmark served as CEO and Chairman of OKD in the Czech Republic where he oversaw the operation of four coal mines with over 12,000 employees and transformation to an employee-centric safety culture. He was recognized for the achievement at OKD and was requested by Severstal to share his successes with their Vorkuta deep underground coal operations in Russia. Prior to OKD, Mr. Ekmark served as the Founder and Principal of EMMORA, a risk-based management consulting firm providing services to heavy industry with an emphasis on mining; and as COO of AMG Mining of the Advanced Metallurgical Group, a global critical materials company producing highly engineered specialty metals and mineral products. Additionally, Mr. Ekmark has held numerous management roles with NORAMCO Engineering Corp., Placer Dome Inc., Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., and The De Beers Group of Companies. At De Beers, Mr. Ekmark served as General Manager of the Jwaneng diamond mine in Africa (a ~360,000 tonne per day operation). Most recently, he served as VP and General Manager for Detour Gold. He is currently an independent consultant and serving as a facilitator at the Iron Range Engineering School, Mankato State University.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from University of Minnesota, a Master’s degree in Engineering Management from the University of Alaska, and completed post graduate studies in Systems Science/Business Administration from Portland State University.