Critical Minerals Advisory

Strategy.
Synergy.
Results.

Senior Advisory for the Critical Minerals Sector

Our Solutions Meet the Team →

80+

Countries of Experience

$20B+

Allied Govt Funding Active

Integrated Service Areas

Rare EarthsChina April 2025 export controls — Dy/Tb/Nd/Pr basket LithiumIRA Section 45X domestic supply mandates CobaltDRC oversupply + DoD DPA III strategic reserve SiC / SemisCHIPS Act + EV traction inverter demand surge Graphite360% US DoC duties on Chinese imports CopperStructural supply deficit — EV + AI + grid Rare EarthsChina April 2025 export controls — Dy/Tb/Nd/Pr basket LithiumIRA Section 45X domestic supply mandates CobaltDRC oversupply + DoD DPA III strategic reserve SiC / SemisCHIPS Act + EV traction inverter demand surge Graphite360% US DoC duties on Chinese imports CopperStructural supply deficit — EV + AI + grid

Why Now

The Critical Minerals
Inflection Point.

The critical minerals sector is at an inflection point that is genuinely historic. The policy environment has shifted, funding is flowing, and the demand runway is long. But execution gaps in strategic planning, investor relations, external affairs, and commercial readiness are holding companies back from fully realizing the opportunity in front of them. That's the gap we're committed to closing, and why we built Strategy Through Synergy.

We serve companies navigating this crucial moment with experience earned through serving as senior leadership on the inside of the critical minerals industry. Our firm covers the full spectrum of what critical minerals companies need most right now: strategy and corporate governance, investor narrative, risk management, external affairs, commercial effectiveness, CAPEX governance, leadership and talent.

We bring C-suite depth to help critical minerals companies overcome the strategic challenges of successfully scaling a critical minerals company, without the high cost of traditional consultants or the complexity of ramping new talent. We hit the ground running.

Get in Touch

Who We Are

Senior Operators.
Built for this sector.

Strategy Through Synergy is an executive advisory firm serving critical minerals companies at the most consequential stage of their development. We've built our careers inside this industry. We know the agencies, the funding programs, the OEM procurement dynamics, and the strategic challenges that come with scaling a critical minerals company. We bring C-suite depth to help critical minerals companies overcome the strategic challenges of successfully scaling a critical minerals company.

Angelique Gunderson

Founder/Partner · Fractional CSO

Strategy & Governance

Anita Natesh

Partner · Fractional CCO

Growth & Commercial Execution

Ellen Lenny-Pessagno

Partner · Fractional CGO

External Affairs

Meet the Full Team →

Precious Minerals

Geological Strata

Earth & Ore

Why Strategy Through Synergy

We come from inside the critical minerals industry.

Deep Critical Minerals Background

Led strategy, commercial, and government affairs at the world's leading critical minerals companies — including Albemarle, the world's largest lithium producer.

Integrated Across Seven Service Areas

The complete spectrum of what critical minerals companies need: strategy and governance, investor narrative, risk management, external affairs, commercial effectiveness, CAPEX governance, etc.

Fractional Model: C-Suite Without Overhead

Same rigour and relationships as full-time C-suite hires — without the cost, lead time, or complexity of permanent headcount, and without the high cost and limited expertise of traditional consultants.

External Affairs That Opens Doors

Ellen brings 26 years as US Senior Foreign Service diplomat + former Global VP External Affairs at a $10B critical minerals company.

Commercial Expertise on Real Contracts

Anita has led $2.5B revenue, negotiated multi-billion-dollar OEM contracts, and built commercial organizations from scratch.

Proven Strategic Transformation

Angelique has developed 5+ revenue and 6+ EBITDA strategy for a critical minerals company — and worked across Fortune 50 healthcare, energy, mining, and telecoms, in 80+ countries.

Get in Touch

Ready to
talk strategy?

A 20-minute conversation is all it takes to understand how we can help.

Angelique Gunderson

[email protected]
+1 847.340.0360

Anita Natesh

[email protected]
+1 423.967.3374

Ellen Lenny-Pessagno

[email protected]
+1 980.401.1334

Who We Are

About Us

Three senior executives. Three decades of critical minerals experience. One integrated advisory firm built for this moment.

Our Mission

Built for the
inflection point.

"We've built our careers inside this industry. We know the agencies, the funding programs, the OEM procurement dynamics, and the strategic challenges that come with scaling a critical minerals company."

Strategy Through Synergy is an executive advisory firm serving critical minerals companies at the most consequential stage of their development. As fractional advisors, we bring C-suite depth without the overhead of traditional consulting or the complexity of permanent hires. We hit the ground running.

The Team

Angelique Gunderson

Founder/Partner · Strategy Through Synergy LLC · Fractional Chief Strategy Officer · Executive Advisory

Strategy & Corporate Governance

5×/6×

Revenue & EBITDA

>130%

Growth at FSO

$550M

Cost Program

80+

Countries

Executive strategist with a 20-year track record helping Fortune 50 corporations and high-growth startups unlock enterprise value — delivering measurable revenue and EBITDA growth, operational efficiency, and improved market position across energy, critical minerals, healthcare, food & beverage, and telecoms in 80+ countries.

Core Competencies

Strategic Planning
Corporate Governance
Scenario Planning & Futuring
Enterprise Transformation
Risk Management
M&A / Inorganic Growth
Board & Investor Relations
PMO & Strategic Initiative Execution

Career Highlights

President & Founder / Fractional CSO

Strategy Through Synergy LLC

Fractional Chief Strategy Officer for critical minerals clients; board advisory and mid-market consulting.

VP Strategic Planning & Bus. Dev.

Albemarle ($10B)

Created growth strategy generating 5× revenue and 6× EBITDA; led strategic planning and business development for global mining company.

Head of Strategy & Governance / Chief of Staff

Johnson & Johnson ($94B)

Led enterprise strategy function for F50 healthcare company; $550M cost reduction program.

Director, Strategy & Corp. Development

Telus ($16B)

Led development of 5-year strategic plan; drove inorganic growth strategy and M&A pipeline.

Associate Principal

McKinsey & Company

Strategy and operational transformation across Fortune 50 clients in energy, healthcare, and consumer goods in 10+ countries.

MBA (Ivey Business School) · BA Economics (University of Western Ontario)

[email protected]
+1 847.340.0360

Anita Natesh

Founder · Fractional Chief Commercial Officer · Executive Advisory

Growth, Market & Commercial Execution

$2.5B+

Revenue Led

$1B+

New Market Growth

2×

EBITDA Growth

20+ yrs

Commercial Leadership

Transformational commercial leader with 20+ years of experience driving growth, enterprise value, and market expansion across critical minerals, energy, and specialty chemicals. Proven track record leading $2.5B+ revenue portfolios, delivering $1B in new market growth, and EBITDA through strategic pricing, disciplined execution, and customer led commercial strategy.

Core Competencies

Commercial Growth Strategy
Critical Minerals & Lithium Markets
OEM & Offtake Negotiations
Revenue & Market Expansion
Pricing & Hedging Strategy
Commercial Org Design
P&L Management
Talent & Team Development
Innovation to Commercialization

Career Highlights

Founder & Fractional CCO

ANatesh & Associates

Fractional commercial leadership, board advisory, and strategic counsel to critical minerals and energy transition companies.

FastMarkets Advisory Board Member

FastMarkets Lithium & Critical Minerals Board

Led $2.5B+ global revenue portfolio; delivered $1B+ new market growth in lithium; doubled EBITDA through strategic pricing.

Regional VP & Global Commercial VP

Albemarle ($10B)

Owned commercial P&L; global key account leadership; implemented sales excellence framework across matrixed organizations.

Director, Global Key Accounts & Sales Strategy

Eastman ($10B Specialty Chemicals)

Led corporate strategy, financial analysis, innovation pipeline management, and supply chain optimisation.

Strategic Planning & Business Unit Leader

$230B Global Consumer Products Co.

Built a foundation in operational excellence, quality systems and business unit leadership within global manufacturing environments.

Full-Time MBA: Finance & Marketing (Rice University) · B.S. Chemical Engineering, Minor Environmental Engineering (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

[email protected]
+1 423.967.3374

Ellen Lenny-Pessagno

Partner · External Affairs & Geopolitical Strategy

External Affairs

$310M

Govt Grants Secured

26 yrs

Foreign Service

20+

Countries

100

Inspirational Women

Former U.S. Senior Foreign Service diplomat and senior critical minerals executive with 20+ years navigating government, geopolitics, and industry. Expert in securing government funding ($310M), driving policy change, and building social licence across many countries. Named one of 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining (2020).

Core Competencies

Government Affairs & Funding
Geopolitical Strategy
Critical Minerals Policy
Social Licence to Operate
Trade & Regulatory Policy
Sustainability & ESG
Community Engagement
Public-Private Partnerships

Career Highlights

Partner, Ext Affairs & Geopolitical Strat.

Strategy Through Synergy

Critical minerals advisory — external affairs strategy, geopolitical intelligence, and funding program navigation.

Senior Advisor

Veracity Worldwide

Strategic counsel on critical minerals, energy, and government engagement globally.

VP Global External Affairs & Sustainability

Albemarle ($10B)

Secured $310M in US government grants; secured permit to triple lithium extraction; led social license globally.

Country Manager, Chile

Albemarle

Led full operations through COVID; averted govt arbitration with Chilean government; won Executive of Year, Antofagasta (2021).

Commercial Diplomat — Senior Foreign Service

U.S. Embassies: Chile, Argentina, Spain, Mexico

Drove policy change and regulatory reform; supported US firms close billion-dollar deals across Latin America.

BS Business Administration (Wake Forest University) · MA International Commerce & Policy (George Mason University) · Senior Executive Programme, ESE (U. de los Andes, Chile)

[email protected]
+1 980.401.1334

Work With Our Team

Ready to
talk strategy?

Get in Touch

Angelique Gunderson

[email protected] · +1 847.340.0360

Anita Natesh

[email protected] · +1 423.967.3374

Ellen Lenny-Pessagno

[email protected] · +1 980.401.1334

Our Services

Our Solutions

Seven integrated service areas built for the specific challenges of critical minerals companies navigating from development to production.

What We Offer

Integrated advisory
at every stage.

Critical minerals companies face simultaneous pressures: FID deadlines, offtake coverage, government funding sequencing, leadership transitions, CAPEX governance, and investor narrative — all at once. We've designed our seven service areas around exactly these challenges, drawing directly from our own experience inside the industry. Select a service area below to explore how we can help.

Strategy & Corporate Governance

Long-Range Strategic Planning · PMO Governance · Strategic Initiative Execution · Board Interface · M&A · Scenario Planning

Building a solid strategic roadmap for revenue and EBITDA growth, steering cross-functional collaboration to drive critical strategic initiatives, and providing performance management that quickly turns strategy into real results.

Long-Range Strategic Planning

A rigorous 3/5/10-year plan with clear choices, trade-offs, and a growth thesis that holds up to Board, investor, and government scrutiny across market scenarios.

Strategy into Execution

Cross-functional governance converting strategic plans into measurable revenue and EBITDA results — with stage-gate discipline and performance management.

Corporate Governance Infrastructure

Board-level accountability frameworks, stakeholder management models, and the governance signals that lenders, investors, and government funders require.

Inorganic Growth & M&A

Acquisition strategy from target identification through integration — including value realisation frameworks and stakeholder management.

Talk to us about your priorities.

Every engagement starts with a focused conversation.

Get in Touch

Investor Narrative

Valuation Gap Diagnosis · Capital Markets Language · Investor Day Materials · Stakeholder Communications

Closing the gap between your organization's intrinsic value and its market valuation — building an investor story that resonates with investors and capital markets.

Diagnose the Valuation Gap

Analyzing asset quality, offtake coverage, government funding, and growth trajectory against current market pricing — identifying the specific actions that will close the gap.

Craft the External Narrative

Working with CEO, CFO and IR, translating technical story into capital markets language that institutional investors, analysts, and government funders respond to.

Investor Communications Plan

Investor day materials, analyst briefing frameworks, quarterly update cadence, Board communication, and employee alignment with the external narrative.

Coherent Unified Value Thesis

Aligning commercial strategy, government funding story, and strategic plan into a single investment thesis — so every piece of your narrative reinforces the same conviction.

Talk to us about your priorities.

Every engagement starts with a focused conversation.

Get in Touch

Risk Management

PESTEL Framework · Scenario Planning · Geopolitical Analysis · Comprehensive Risk Assessment · Board Reporting

Implementing a robust risk management framework that helps your organization effectively identify, monitor, and mitigate political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal/regulatory risk.

Comprehensive Risk Framework

A living risk identification, monitoring, and mitigation framework covering PESTEL dimensions — tailored to the risk profile of your assets, jurisdictions, and customer relationships.

Geopolitical Risk Assessment

Analyzing how export controls, allied reshoring mandates, bilateral agreements, and host country political dynamics create risks and opportunities for your supply chain.

Regulatory & Permitting Risk

Mapping the regulatory approval pathway across your jurisdictions — identifying dependencies and building mitigation strategies that keep timelines on track.

Board & Investor Risk Communication

Translating the risk framework into Board-level presentations and investor language — demonstrating the governance rigour that lenders and government funders require.

Talk to us about your priorities.

Every engagement starts with a focused conversation.

Get in Touch

External Affairs

Funding · Political Relationships · Compliance · Geopolitical Strategy

Mapping the government funding landscape and political relationships necessary to maximize secured capital and deploy at unprecedented scale — identifying the right programs, in the right order, with the right documentation.

Full Funding Landscape Mapping

Evaluating all possible funding options including: US (DPA Title III, DoE LPO, Exim SCRI), EU (CRM Act, EIB), UK (DBT, UKEF), Germany (KfW), Japan (JOGMEC), Australia (EFA), Canada (CMSF, EDC) — sequenced for maximum secured capital.

Political Relationships

Allied government relationships that get your project in front of key decision-makers — with the documentation that makes a difference between a competitive application and a funded one.

Compliance & Conditions Precedent

Navigating documentation and compliance for each program — ensuring you don't lose funding already awarded and are positioned for the next tranche.

Long-Term Geopolitical Strategy

Anticipating how export controls, allied reshoring mandates, and bilateral agreements will affect your operations — and positioning your company to benefit.

Talk to us about your priorities.

Every engagement starts with a focused conversation.

Get in Touch

Commercial Effectiveness

Offtake Agreement Structuring · Customer Qualification · Pricing & Hedging · Commercial Organization Design

Designing and executing your full commercialization strategy — building your commercial machine with the right structure and talent, structuring offtake contracts with the right customers and contractual protections, and designing pricing and hedging strategies that hold up in any market lifecycle.

Full Commercialization Strategy

Segmenting the right customer universe — OEMs, magnet makers, battery cell producers, defence primes — and managing 12–36 month qualification cycles to build the offtake coverage your project lenders require.

Offtake Structure & Contracts

Take-or-pay, floor/ceiling pricing, and supply security premiums that protect your downside while capturing the allied-supply premium — with the right contractual protections.

Pricing & Hedging Philosophy

Price scenario analysis in a supply-constrained environment, converting strategy into fully executed commercial agreements that hold up across market cycles.

Commercial Organization Build

Org design, team structure, key hires (VP Commercial, Account Directors), incentive model, and the systems your team needs to operate at scale.

Talk to us about your priorities.

Every engagement starts with a focused conversation.

Get in Touch

CAPEX Governance

Stage-Gate Process Governance · PMO Design and Execution · Risk Management · Stakeholder Engagement

Putting the process and protocol in place to keep major projects on track — with performance monitoring and risk mitigation built in from the start.

Stage-Gate Governance Process

Ensuring your CAPEX is efficiently deployed with discipline and increasingly rigorous investment criteria at each stage gate — so the Board, lenders, and government funders have confidence throughout the project lifecycle.

Stakeholder Engagement Framework

Mapping lenders, government funders, offtake partners, regulators, communities, and contractors — defining the engagement cadence that keeps all key parties aligned.

Risk Identification & Mitigation

Comprehensive risk monitoring covering geopolitical, commercial, operational, financial, and regulatory risks — in real time, with live monitoring and mitigation.

PMO & Reporting Infrastructure

Program management with reporting cadence, KPI dashboards, cross-functional accountability structures, and executive dashboards to keep management informed.

Talk to us about your priorities.

Every engagement starts with a focused conversation.

Get in Touch

Leadership & Talent

Organizational Structure Design and Transition · Talent Strategy · Succession Planning · 90/180-Day Framework

Helping your team design the organizational structure and talent strategy for the growth and complexity ahead — with the right people in the right roles to properly execute.

Organizational Structure for Growth

Designing the organizational structure your next stage demands — with clear accountability lines, decision rights, and spans of control enabling execution at scale.

Talent Strategy & Key Hire Advisory

Identifying critical roles (VP Commercial, Head of External Affairs, CFO, COO) and advising on profile, compensation, and the hiring process that secures the right talent.

Strategic Transition Management

Structured knowledge transfer and governance frameworks for incoming leadership — 90/180-day prioritization so the new leader can get up to speed quickly.

Government Relationship Handover

Formal handover protocols ensuring DoD program officers, allied government funders, and strategic customers provide continuity and confidence through leadership transitions.

Talk to us about your priorities.

Every engagement starts with a focused conversation.

Get in Touch

Ready to
talk?

A 20-minute conversation is all it takes to understand how we can help.

Let's connect.

Angelique Gunderson

Founder/Partner · Fractional CSO

[email protected]
+1 847.340.0360

Anita Natesh

Partner · Fractional CCO

[email protected]
+1 423.967.3374

Ellen Lenny-Pessagno

Partner · External Affairs

[email protected]
+1 980.401.1334

Why Reach Out

No obligation. Our first conversation is about understanding your priorities, not selling a scope of work.

Immediate value. We hit the ground running with experience earned inside the critical minerals industry.

Right-sized. Fractional model means C-suite depth without full-time cost or traditional consulting overhead.

Seven integrated areas. Strategy, commercial, external affairs, investor narrative, CAPEX governance, risk, and leadership — coordinated across one team.

Website: strategythroughsynergy.net

Strategy.Synergy.Results.

The Critical MineralsInflection Point.

Senior Operators.Built for this sector.

We come from inside the critical minerals industry.

Ready totalk strategy?

About Us

Built for theinflection point.

Ready totalk strategy?

Our Solutions

Integrated advisoryat every stage.

Ready totalk?

Let's connect.

Strategy.
Synergy.
Results.

The Critical Minerals
Inflection Point.

Senior Operators.
Built for this sector.

Ready to
talk strategy?

Built for the
inflection point.

Ready to
talk strategy?

Integrated advisory
at every stage.

Ready to
talk?