Ian Cockerill, CEO, Gold Fields
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» Cockerill, Munro quit Gold Fields
» Gold Fields March qtr gold outlook still sombre
» Gold Fields mothballs shafts, shelves growth plan
» S.Africa safety woes hammer Gold Fields output
» Gold Fields' reserves down 2%
» Gold Fields project in 23% cost hike

» JSE:GOLD FIELDS LIMITED:
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The thrill of a fresh challenge lures Cockerill
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Mon, 31 Mar 2008

[miningmx.com] -- Ian Cockerill left Gold Fields for another leadership position in a company outside the gold sector because he’d received an offer he couldn’t refuse and he was planning on leaving next year anyway.

Cockerill declined to say where he’d be going, but it is outside the gold sector and does not entail him leaving South Africa. An announcement on his new appointment could be made within the next week or so, he told Miningmx in a telephonic interview.

Cockerill is turning 55 next year and would have been Gold Fields’ CEO for seven years, and it was then that he planned to make a change to his career, he said.
for once it sounded intriguing
“It was always my intention to step aside next year and do something different,” he said. "I have accepted the position of CEO of a company within the mining sector non-related to Gold Fields."

He had received numerous job offers in recent years, but had always dismissed them quickly.

“This opportunity was presented to me and for once it sounded intriguing,” Cockerill said. “In an ideal world, I would have liked this to have come next year… but these kinds of opportunities never come along again.”

"I looked at it long and hard and thought about it for a long time. I spoke to my chairman and he realised this was a challenge I really wanted to take. “I came to the conclusion that while this was not an ideal time to depart, there was a good opportunity to leave and it also opens up other opportunities within the group for others,” he said.

He left of his own accord for an opportunity which would be as challenging as his position in Gold Fields, he said. “There was nothing untoward about it.”

Not that life was dull during his tenure at the head of the world's fourth-largest gold producer. Possibly the most stressful time came when Harmony Gold launched an unsolicited bid in 2005 for its bigger rival. Cockerill and his team successfully fended off the bid, in the process sharpening up the management team and its focus.

Gold Fields embarked on a strategy, which shareholders and market watchers follow with avid interest, to acquire 1.5 million additional international ounces by 2009. This suffered bit of a set back when Gold Fields sold its Essakane in Burkina Faso and Choco 10 projects in Venezuela in March this year.

"I think the company has been through its toughest period. Looking forward, I see more upside potential," Cockerill said.

He is replaced from 1 May by financial director Nick Holland, another stalwart within the company who has been there since its inception in 1998.

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“With Nick’s appointment the market is getting a known quantity,” Cockerill said, adding the 4.5% drop in the share price, which outpaced the 1.75% decline in the JSE’s gold share index, presented investors with a buying opportunity.

Holland said the strategies drawn up during Cockerill’s tenure, and in which he, Holland, had a major role, would remain in place.

“There is no reason to consider new strategies in the short term,” Holland said, adding the quest to diversify the company’s asset base and maintain real margins in the group remained intact.

“We want to make more money at these gold prices,” he said.

Stability has returned to Gold Fields’ South African mines, which did deteriorate because of the countrywide power crisis.

The March quarter would feel the effects of this power shortfall, but production could return nearer historical levels thereafter if power supply is maintained at the current 95% of normal consumption, Holland said.

Gold Fields is bringing the Cerro Corona gold and copper mine in Peru into production, which will lower group cash costs.