THE term “mining industry legend” gets bandied about a lot whenever some well-known industry executive dies but it’s one that Brian Gilbertson – who passed away in December – truly deserves.
I interacted with him a lot during my 40-odd year career as a mining journalist and, not only did he deliver the goods on some huge and ground-breaking deals, but I found him a professional to deal with as a journo.
That’s because – unlike some of his peers – you could get to him. He took my calls. He did not hide behind a screen of PR people or speak to a prepared script. If you asked him a good question you invariably got a good answer. If you asked him a stupid question you would probably get handed your head on a plate. The sensible approach was to do your research and not ask him stupid questions!
That leads me to the widespread assessment that he was egotistical and arrogant. Maybe he was but I, personally, never saw the arrogant side of Gilbertson. Ego is one of the key ingredients in a top executive. You have to believe in yourself. But Gilbertson kept it under control while dealing with the media again unlike some of his peers who shot their mouths off in public.
There was a popular quip in the 1990’s that, when his helicopter landed on top of the Gencor building in downtown Johannesburg, Gilbertson’s staff would look skywards and intone that “the ego has landed”. The Gencor building was the only one in the Johannesburg CBD with helicopter landing rights and I suspect Gilbertson probably delighted in rubbing that into the faces of his mining peers.
I was once on a call to Avmin CEO Rick Menell – whose HQ building was situated a couple of blocks away from Gencor – when I could hear over the phone the sound of an approaching helicopter. It drowned out the conversation for ten seconds or so as it passed straight over the Avmin building sending Menell into an expletive-laden tirade about Gibertson and his @#$%!!! helicopter.
I have to admit I thought that was seriously funny as was another incident with Gilbertson at the press conference announcing the details of the restructuring of Gengold with the Gold Fields gold mines.
He was on the podium with Johann Rupert when Rupert – explaining the rationale for the deal – came out with the famous statement that “you cannot mix chicken dung with ice cream because it spoils the flavour of the ice cream”. Gilbertson just sat there shaking his head silently but with a huge grin all over his face.
I am not going to go into the details of his phenomenal corporate career – others have done that – except for one observation on the deal that was the pinnacle of his career but also provided his biggest “kick in the teeth” – the creation of BHP Billiton.
Having negotiated that ground-breaking merger with CEO Paul Anderson – an American executive brought in to turn the then troubled “Big Australian” group around – Gilbertson seriously misread the Australian dominated BHP Billiton board and was forced out within six months.
When Gilbertson was appointed I got into a debate with top Australian financial writer Tim Treadgold over his future.
Treadgold predicted Gilbertson was not going to last. I could not believe that assessment telling him BHP Billiton was lucky to have him running the show. Treadgold maintained that Gilbertson was going to run into a brick wall with the BHP Billiton board – in particular chairman Don Argus – on cultural and ego grounds.
Treadgold was proven right although Australian sources also told the Sydney Morning Herald that another problem lay in Gilbertson’s hugely ambitious acquisition plans for BHP Billiton which – apparently – scared the board.
It was, sadly, downhill from there as Gilbertson set up Pallinghurst Resources and listed it on the JSE in 2008 where it started trading at levels around 900c. It’s currently trading – some 18 years later in its revised identity as Gemfields – at around 127c.
The problem was investors did not take to Pallinghurst which was a pyramid holding structure and suffered from a big discount in its share price to its net asset value which would not go away no matter what Gilbertson tried. Being quizzed on that repeatedly at press conferences was about the only time I saw Gilbertson get visibly irritated with what were good and relevant questions.
But who’s perfect? It was great dealing with him as a journo in his heyday and that’s what I am going to remember.
