About Us

Global Resource Investments, Ltd. is a full service brokerage firm that focuses on natural resource investments worldwide. Led by Chairman Rick Rule, the company has built a national reputation for its specialist expertise assisting high net worth individuals, corporations and institutions take advantage of global opportunities in the oil and gas, mining, alternative energy, agriculture, forestry, and water industries.

Global provides advisory and transactional services, including equity and debt trading capabilities on most international exchanges. A separate unit of the company raises equity capital for small corporations, primarily in the resource sector. We provide services to clients on both a domestic and international level.

From its very beginning in 1994, led by founder Rick Rule, the company has focused on the resource sector. Rick and the Global team have been highly recommended by distinguished financial writers such as Bob Bishop, the late Jim Blanchard, Bill Bonner, Doug Casey, Adrian Day, Paul van Eeden, Richard Maybury, Jack Pugsley and others.

It is the company’s firmly held belief that it can help its clients best through an unswerving focus on natural resources. While any traditional broker can help you buy and sell shares of IBM, most would be lost when asked to buy an emerging Australian uranium producer. Definitely not the case with the specialists at Global Resources.

Our focus is on companies with a market capitalization below $250 million that don’t attract research coverage from traditional brokerage firms. These junior resource stocks carry with them a reputation for being run by liars and thieves. Unfortunately, the actions of a few have tainted the image of the entire sector. Without question, junior exploration companies are a highly speculative group and are not suitable for most investors. However, we believe that there are attractive opportunities to participate in this vital sector of the economy. It is important for those investors who choose to speculate that they are able to assess the inherent risks against the upside profit potential of every opportunity presented to them. Because most investors do not have the training to assess the results of mineral exploration, it is crucial to use a firm that possesses that capability.

Key Personnel

The Brokers at Global Resource Investments were handpicked based on industry and investment knowledge, intelligence and integrity. Backgrounds include mineral exploration, hard rock geology, mine engineering, petroleum finance, petroleum geology, real estate investment and financial planning.

The professional atmosphere at Global is collegial. Brokers are an integral part of the investment research process and share ideas among themselves. As a result, clients at Global get the benefit of many perspectives and thousands of man-hours of applied investment research.

New or potential clients are invited to peruse the resumes and interview several of our brokers to find individuals they are comfortable with. Alternatively, you can phone or e-mail us and we will assist you in your selection.

Rick Rule - Founder of Global Resource Investments, Ltd. Rick began his career in the securities business in 1974, and has been principally involved in natural resource security investments ever since. He is a leading American retail broker specializing in mining, energy, water utilities, forest products and agriculture. His research and brokerage capabilities are frequently recommended by distinguished financial newsletter writers such as Bob Bishop, Jim Blanchard, Doug Casey, Adrian Day, Richard Maybury, Paul van Eeden, Mark Skousen, Jack Pugsley and others.

Jeff Howard - Chief Executive Officer for Global Resource Investments. Jeff was born and raised outside of Worcester, Massachusetts. After graduating from the University of Arizona in 1975 with a degree in accounting, he moved to California and went to work as an accountant for Santa Fe International Corp., then one of the largest oil and gas drilling contractors in the world. Due to strong industry dynamics in the late 70's, numerous employment opportunities developed within the organization. In a span of five years, Jeff gained valuable experience in accounting, cash management, strategic planning, financial analysis, and mergers and acquisitions. After the takeover of Santa Fe by the national oil company of Kuwait in 1981, Jeff was transferred to Texas as acquisitions manager for the company's exploration and production division. Over the following three years, he was engaged in the evaluation and acquisition of over $1 billion of producing properties for the company.

In 1985, Jeff left Santa Fe to produce and market a unique set of research reports covering over 200 publicly traded oil and gas companies. This was done at first through his own company and then in conjunction with Kirkpatrick Energy Associates, a consulting group based in Denver, Colorado specializing in the oil and gas industry. He met Rick Rule in 1991 while working for Kirkpatrick Energy. Rick had been a subscriber to his research reports and wished to retain him to perform some custom work on the oil and gas industry. They kept in touch with each other over the following year and in June 1992, Jeff joined Rick's team as a licensed broker and analyst. He is now Chief Executive Officer at Global Resource Investments. Jeff and his wife have two young boys.

Andrew Jackson - Mineral Analyst . Andy holds a Master’s degree in economic geology and has been engaged in the exploration and mining industry for 30 years. 

He worked with Billiton/Gencor for 12 years, including Exploration Manager for Southeast Asia, Turkey and North America between 1991-1996.  He joined Placer Dome in 1996 and held the positions of Exploration Manager for Canada, North and Central America, and Global Near-Mine Exploration. 

Andy has carried out exploration programs in Africa, Asia, North and South America, Australia and Europe, establishing expertise in a wide range of commodities including precious metals, base metals, diamonds and coal.  He played a part in the discovery of several epithermal gold deposits in Turkey, a greenstone gold deposit in Botswana, a Carlin-style deposit in the United States and a copper-gold porphyry deposit in Indonesia.  Most of these have been developed or are currently in the process of development. 

Andy joined Global Resource Investments in 2006 and draws on his experience to identify early stage exploration projects that have the potential to become world-class deposits.

Michael Kosowan - Invesment Executive. Michael Kosowan has been with Global Resource Investments Limited (GRIL) since 2000.  Originally from Canada, he holds a Master's Degree in Mining Engineering and is a licensed professional engineer.   He is also a registered representative, having completed the Series 7, Series 63 in the USA and the Canadian Securities Commission course.  Michael also graduated with a diploma in Regulatory Law. 

Before coming to GRIL, Michael was a Project Engineer at Barrick Gold (formerly Placer Dome) and the Exploration Manager for Atapa Minerals.  He also worked with Inmet Mining and Xstrata (formerly Falconbridge).  His Master's thesis was commissioned by Vale (formerly INCO Ltd), a major nickel mining company and his work is used to this day as a tool in mine development.  Michael's extensive experience in the mines and for exploration companies provided firm grounding for assessing mine productivity and mineral discovery. 

At GRIL, Michael focuses his attention on resource companies and evaluates how these companies are developing their projects, all the while paying keen attention to management, their economic plans and the geo-political environment in which they operate. This type of insight is critical to helping clients understand the nature of their prospective investments.

Michael has traveled extensively to evaluate mine sites in South America, Asia, Africa and North America.  He makes several trips a year to different mineral project sites to stay current on new developments within the industry.  You will also find Michael as a speaker at several natural resource conferences each year.  

Mary Goddard - Investment Executive. Mary has been with Global Resource Investments since 1993. She worked directly for Rick Rule during her first two years with the firm, and then spent six years assisting Jeff Howard in servicing his client's accounts. In 2002, Mary became a senior broker.

Prior to joining Global, Mary was employed for six years as Vice President of C.I. Holding Corp. Her major responsibilities included due diligence reviews and consulting services for direct participation programs and initial public offerings. In addition, she was responsible for the administration of managed accounts for the company's affiliated investment management division.

She has a B.S. degree in Finance, a minor in Economics from San Diego State University and is Series 7 licensed.

Steve Todoruk - Geologist, Investment Executive. Steve moved to California from Vancouver, British Columbia in 2003 to join Global. He graduated in 1985 from the University of British Columbia, located in Vancouver, with a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Geology and currently is a Professional Geoscientist in good standing in British Columbia.  Following his graduation, Steve worked for several major and junior mining exploration companies as a field geologist in Canada and the southwestern United States.  During that time, he also worked in an underground mine in Canada for two years operating equipment to learn that aspect of the mining industry.

Most recently, between 1993 to early 2003 Steve was the president of two Canadian-based junior mining exploration companies and a principal in a mineral exploration consulting and engineering firm.  During his years with these companies, Steve's responsibilities included looking for and evaluating exploration properties around the world and raising the capital needed to explore these properties from institutional and individual investors.  In conjunction with these activities, Steve maintained a shareholder public awareness program, which included attending many of North America’s investment conferences.

Having a resource broker with an education in the earth sciences, years of fieldwork, and experience running his own junior exploration companies is nearly unprecedented in the U.S. brokerage community. Global believes Steve's clients will greatly benefit from this background. Use him to help structure your portfolio and assist you in making timely buy and sell decisions.  This specialized knowledge should be invaluable to his clients, we invite you to become one.

Luke Smith, MBA - Investment Executive. Combined with an entrepreneurial spirit, Luke’s academic and professional background in finance and the natural resources industry makes him an ideal choice for your investment executive. During his years with Global, Luke has developed and maintained investment portfolios, traded equities and derivatives, performed net asset value calculations for natural resources companies, as well as completed extensive oil and gas research. He holds a BA in International Business and an MBA in Finance from AIU, San Diego. Working for the family business, Luke has been involved in the oil and gas industry more or less his whole life. 

Luke takes great pride in always providing you with the most recent and accurate information available for individual companies, as well as for the industry and market as a whole. He follows a wide range of natural resource projects – from precious metals and oil to hydropower and geothermal energy – rather than just the one currently in the spotlight. By taking advantage of the cyclicality of the industry, he is able to get his clients into value resource plays before the masses. He’s especially fond of economic renewable energy projects.

The focus of Luke’s work is to keep you up to date with significant events that affect the value and suggested composition of your portfolio, as well as to compare prices and liquidity for the stocks that Global recommends so that he can get you the best possible prices. He is experienced in trading extremely illiquid stocks on international exchanges. Furthermore, he frequently communicates with leaders of the companies that you own or may be interested in owning in the future, is careful to always explain the major foreseen risks and rewards associated with each investment, and actively searches for new outstanding investment ideas for you. He always keeps an eye out for small market cap startups run by veteran management teams. Luke follows the investment strategies of Rick Rule closely.

Ben Miller - Investment Executive. Ben joined Global Resource Investments after a brief career as a California-licensed attorney. Just prior to Global, Ben worked as a precious metals broker with Monex Precious Metals in Newport Beach, California, one of the largest bullion dealers in the United States, and with UBS Financial Services.

Armed with an extensive background in economic analysis and forecasting and with an astute, contrarian perspective on the global economy and financial markets, Ben believes that identifying the underlying macroeconomic outlook is an indispensable component of successful investing in the long term. For this critically important reason, Ben initially focuses on recognizing the prevailing macro climate in the global economy and subsequently works to uncover undervalued and undiscovered investment opportunities that stand to benefit from such economic conditions.

Ben is an advocate of Global’s value-investing principles and believes there are always excellent investment opportunities for those who are disciplined and patient enough to identify them, regardless of the economic climate.

Ben earned his BA in economics from the University of California at San Diego and his JD from the University of San Diego School of Law.

Eric Angeli - made his foray into the industry with a degree in finance and international business from New York University’s Stern School of Business.  Prior to graduation he worked at Morgan Stanley where he conducted extensive equity research on a wide range of sectors, after which he went to work as an assistant to a private wealth manager at Bear Stearns.  These proved to be apt precursors to the real beginning of his career as a trader with Global Resources Investments.  It was here that he began learning the many subtleties of the international exchanges where most natural resource stocks are listed.  While working the trading desk, Eric took a particular interest in researching the small cap Canadian oil and gas sector.  This hobby blossomed into a passion and Eric’s net asset value calculations were used by Rick Rule in determining which companies would be the most suitable candidates for financings.

His focus is on companies that are trading at a discount to their enterprise value in sectors that are cyclically unattractive.  This contrarian view has proven time and time again to be the most lucrative strategy for investing in the natural resource sector, making his concentration on the undervalued Canadian exploration and production sector a natural choice.  This strategy is underpinned by the belief that a successful contrarian investor must be an educated investor; and that’s why Eric is committed to bringing his clients through the learning curve of not just specific stocks, but also the macroeconomic trends of the industry.