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Executive churn brings fresh perspectives
David McKay
Posted: Tue, 01 Jan 2008
[miningmx.com] -- MOBILITY among managers and skilled artisans in the world’s mining sector has been identified as a major production constraint, along with a scarcity of machinery and parts. But 2007 was also notable for movements among the executive class.
Between March and August, three of the ‘big four’ mining houses listed in London introduced a new CEO to their ranks. As widely expected, the new appointments at Anglo American, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in Cynthia Carroll, Tom Albanese and Marius Kloppers respectively, presaged new activity in the sector as each sought to impose his or her strategic will.
At Anglo American, Carroll took no time in streamlining the group’s unwieldly management structure while Simon Thompson, an Anglo executive thought to have been a rival to Carroll during the interview process, resigned from the group.
Then, following 12 deaths in
the first half of the year at the Rustenburg section of listed subsidiary, Anglo Platinum, Carroll effectively had Ralph Havenstein removed as the company’s CEO. It’s not sure if Havenstein quit or was in effect fired, but he left on short notice, shocking even close colleagues with the swiftness of his departure.
The dispute between the two is thought to have been around Carroll’s controversial
decision to shut down entire shafts at Anglo Platinum so that staff could be retrained. Given the paucity of strong operational managers in mining, it’s thought Havenstein could be difficult to replace. This has proved so with Anglo saying in November it could take another six months to find a replacement.
Taking his cue from former mentor, Brian Gilbertson, who tried a similar transaction, Kloppers launched a bid to buy Rio Tinto, a move that would threaten to topple Albanese within a year of becoming Rio Tinto’s CEO. But the stakes are pretty high for Kloppers as well; failing to capture such ambitious target as Rio Tinto would be a difficult early defeat for the enterprising South African to absorb.
Speaking of Gilbertson, the former BHP Billiton CEO returned to prominence in 2007 as the executive chairman of Pallinghurst Resources, a privately held company with ambitions to develop a mining group specialising in mining steel feed metals such as iron ore and
manganese. Gilbertson also captured the rights to the Fabergé brand from Unilever. Pallinghurst will work with the Fabergé family to apply the brand to jewellery containing coloured gemstones and even diamonds.
Back in South Africa, there were seismic changes in the management of the country’s gold industry. Bobby Godsell, who presided over the creation of AngloGold Ashanti in 1999, resigned. He was replaced by Mark Cutifani, an Australian miner who was formerly with CVRD-Inco. Godsell’s departure was only a day before another iconic gold boss, Bernard Swanepoel, left his position at CEO of Harmony. Swanepoel was replaced by Graham Briggs, who represented the group in Australia.
Godsell’s departure signalled the end of an era for a management team that included Kelvin Williams, Jonathan Best and Dave Hodgson. These were the men who transformed the old Anglo American gold and uranium division, into its current form.
At Harmony, however, there was no easy
transformation or handing over of reins after Swanepoel’s shock resignation. So sudden was the impact that Harmony shed R9bn ($1.28bn) in about 60 minutes, a signal of Swanepoel's importance to the company.
He had created an impressive empire of his own, but it turned solely on his corporate vision and skills. Trouble in the group, principally a dearth of support skills, eventually errupted in the form of an embarrassing miscalculation of costs. According to Harmony, new accounting software had been badly implemented resulting in a R250m loss in the June quarter forcing Swanepoel out as well as his financial director, Nomfundo Qangule.
Elsewhere, Con Fauconnier retired as CEO of Exxaro Resources to be succeeded by Sipho Nkosi. The jury is out on whether that succession will be a success.
Meanwhile, at Sallies, CEO Izak Marais was winkled out by new chairman, Tom Dale whose partner Johann Blersch replaced the turnaround team FRM which included Peter Flack
and Lindsay Robertson. Again, there’s no sign yet whether Sallies is a better company for Marais’ absence and Dale’s presence.
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