James Chekos

About James Chekos

James Chekos (age 47) serves as Secretary of ASA Gold and Precious Metals Limited, effective October 1, 2025. He is a Senior Principal Consultant at Foreside Fund Officer Services (d/b/a ACA Group), with 20+ years in compliance and risk roles; prior experience includes Senior Compliance Specialist at Amundi (since July 2008) and Risk Analyst at Fidelity Investments (Aug 2002–July 2008). He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst . ASA’s 2025 proxy describes director compensation but does not present officer compensation or performance-linked pay disclosures for the Secretary role .

Past Roles

External Roles

Fixed Compensation

• ASA’s proxy provides detailed director fee schedules but no base salary, target bonus, or cash compensation table for executive officers such as the Secretary .
• The fund’s agreements indicate ASA bears “fees and expenses of the Fund’s directors and officers” and “the costs of personnel (who may be employees of the Adviser, an administrator or their respective affiliated persons) serving as officers,” implying officer functions are outsourced (e.g., through ACA/Foreside) and reimbursed by the fund; specific amounts for Mr. Chekos are not disclosed .

Performance Compensation

• No disclosures of RSUs, PSUs, options, vesting schedules, or performance metric weighting for the Secretary role in ASA’s 2025 proxy .
• No compensation metrics (revenue growth, EBITDA, TSR, ESG) tied to Mr. Chekos’ pay are presented in the 2025 proxy .

Equity Ownership & Alignment

• Mr. Chekos is not listed in the security ownership table as of the September 24, 2025 record date (the table includes only certain directors and officers as of that date), so no beneficial ownership is disclosed for him in the 2025 proxy .
• As context, ASA reported 18,872,332 common shares outstanding as of September 24, 2025; major holders included Saba Capital (24.64%), Lazard AM (12.59%), Morgan Stanley (6.34%), and Sessa Capital (5.56%) .
• No disclosure of shares pledged, stock ownership guidelines for officers, or option holdings for Mr. Chekos in the 2025 proxy .

Employment Terms

• Title and start: Secretary, effective October 1, 2025 .
• Contact role: The proxy instructs shareholders that revocations and certain communications may be delivered to the Secretary (James Chekos) at ASA’s Portland, Maine address .
• Contract term, severance, change-of-control, clawback, non-compete/non-solicit, or tax gross-up terms are not disclosed for Mr. Chekos in the 2025 proxy .

Investment Implications

• Alignment: Absence of disclosed equity awards and ownership for the Secretary suggests limited direct equity alignment or insider selling pressure from this officer; officer functions appear outsourced to a service provider per fund agreements .
• Retention/continuity: Appointment as Secretary and designation as a 2025 AGM proxyholder indicate operational trust and continuity in corporate governance processes, but no retention bonuses or contractual protections are disclosed .
• Trading signals: With no disclosed share ownership or equity incentives, Mr. Chekos’ role provides minimal direct insider trading signal; governance-related filings and process stewardship (e.g., proxy administration) are the primary observable touchpoints .

Key gaps: ASA’s 2025 proxy does not provide officer-specific cash or equity compensation details, vesting schedules, severance or change-of-control economics for the Secretary role; no Form 4 ownership changes are referenced in the proxy .

References:

• Officer appointment, age, role table and bio
• Director compensation detail (context on disclosures)
• Security ownership (management and large holders)
• Governance/proxy process: Secretary as contact; proxyholder designation
• Fund agreement cost responsibility including officer personnel costs