Bryan Lees – SPEAKERS
Owner and President
COLLECTORS EDGE
Bryan Kent Lees, President of Collector’s Edge Minerals, Inc., was born in Decatur, Illinois on August 31, 1957, the son of Thelma and Albert Lees, an industrial engineer. He grew up in Detroit, Michigan and was already collecting minerals at the tender age of 2, from driveways in his neighborhood. As a 12-year-old collector he frequented the Cranbrook Institute and enjoyed the friendly support and advice of members of the Michigan Mineralogical Society. Bryan’s interest in mineralogy and geology led him to attended the Colorado School of Mines, and to get out in the field frequently where he could collect specimens. He had already begun dealing in minerals under the name of Collector’s Edge Minerals in 1984, before graduating in 1985 with a B.S. degree in Geological Engineering.
Bryan had met his future wife, Kathryn Lenstrom while still a student in Golden; she graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1988 with a degree in Engineering Mathematics, and then gained her credentials as a Certified Public Accountant. They were married in 1985, and have worked closely as business partners ever since, with Kathryn serving as controller of Collector’s Edge Minerals, Inc.
As CEO of Collector’s Edge Minerals, Inc. and its specimen-mining spin-off, the Colorado Calumet Company, Inc., Bryan has traveled every continent of the world except Australia and Antarctica in search of fine specimens and promising mining properties. Bryan’s first Tucson Show as a dealer was in 1984, and since that time Collector’s Edge Minerals has been a regular at major shows across the country and in Munich, Germany. He has mounted displays of beautiful specimens at many shows, and also at the Colorado School of Mines, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Pacific Mineral Museum, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the National Mining Hall of Fame Museum in Leadville, Colorado.
