Mr. Gates has had a long and distinguished career as an institutional sales executive on Wall Street with a focus in recent decades in the mining industry. He is a graduate of Princeton University after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps., he started his carer at the former Bache & Co. He has since worked for a number of firms, including Allen & Co., Laidlaw Adams & Peck , Mitchum , London & Bishopgate and Sanders Morris.