VanEck International Investors Gold A (INIVX)

Mr. Foster joined VanEck in 1996 as a precious metals mining analyst, and has been Portfolio Manager for VanEck’s Gold Strategy since 1998. He also serves as Strategist for VanEck’s Global Hard Assets Strategy. He covers gold mining equities ranging from small-cap exploration to senior producers. Mr. Foster also forecasts and monitors gold-related market conditions and models the asset bases of mining companies. Mr. Foster is one of the most experienced investment managers in the field of gold and gold stocks portfolio management, with approximately 35 years of experience in the industry as a geologist and investment manager. Mr. Foster has over 14 years of dedicated experience in geology and mining. From 1992 to 1996, he was a Senior Geologist at Pinson Mining Company, where he managed an on-site geology department and conceived and implemented a comprehensive exploration program on a 35 square-mile land position. His primary responsibility was to find new gold reserves that could extend the life of the mine. In addition, Mr. Foster established an AutoCAD-based geologic information system that incorporated geological, geo-chemical, geophysical, topographic, and drilling data compiled over a 20-year period. From 1988 to 1992, as a Mine Exploration Geologist, Mr. Foster planned and supervised up to 30,000 feet of exploration drilling per year. Prior to 1988, Mr. Foster was an Exploration Geologist with Lacana Gold Inc. in Reno, Nevada. Mr. Foster started his career in 1981 as a summer intern as a geologist for Atlas Mining, an underground uranium mine in Green River, Utah. Mr. Foster received an MS in Geology from the Mackey School of Mines and an MBA from the University of Nevada-Reno. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Geology from Tennessee Technological University. Mr. Foster has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, The Wall Street Reporter, Reuters TV, CNBC, Fox News and Bloomberg TV. He has published articles in mining journals, including Mining Engineering, Society of Economic Geology, and Geological Society of Nevada.