Chris Griffith

ONE of the great unsolved corporate mysteries is why Chris Griffith quit as CEO of Gold Fields in December 2022 in the wake of the group’s failed attempt to take over Yamana Gold. There was no real reason for Griffith to resign. The fact that Gold Fields got outbid by rival Agnico Eagle was proof of the value of the asset the group was after. Gold Fields chair Yunus Suleman has categorically denied any kind of bust-up between Griffith and the Gold Fields board. Griffith himself is saying very little, although interviewed in December he commented: “It wasn’t like we got the plot all wrong.

Ultimately shareholders were saying look, we’re unhappy about that direction. Both the board and I said look, let’s find something different then.” Make of that what you will but it looks like the deal was stymied by the big institutional shareholders. Griffith has now moved onto a new gig as CEO of the base metals division of Vedanta Resources which is to be split off and listed as a separate company. He will also be president of Vedanta’s international business.

Griffith is understandably upbeat about his new position, but he may be letting himself in for a different kind of corporate pressure. Vedanta is a family-controlled business and the market scuttlebutt is that executive chairman Anil Agarwal is a difficult person to work for with a management style bordering on dictatorial. Griffith has two South African predecessors at Vedanta. Former AngloGold Ashanti CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan went there as group CEO in 2018 but lasted only two years. Deshnee Naidoo – former CFO of Anglo American Thermal Coal – worked there as CEO of Vedanta’s Africa base metals over the same period but also moved on.