Rio appoints former BHP executive as new finance director

Christopher Lynch

Mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE:RIO) announced Thursday the appointment of former chief financial officer at BHP Billiton, Christopher Lynch, as its new finance director in an effort to revamp the company’s senior management team.

Lynch is replacing longstanding finance director Guy Elliott, Rio’s finance director since 2002, in what is the latest major boardroom change at Rio since Sam Walsh was named chief executive in January.

Rio announced last year that Elliott would retire at the end of 2013. The decision to replace him in April with Lynch, who has served as non-executive director on the company’s board since 2011, was welcome by experts.

The company also said Thursday that the size of the executive team reporting to Walsh would fall from 11 to nine. The miner said it would not fill a vacant head of strategy position, leaving that duty to Lynch, while a business support and operations roles would be “decommissioned”.

(Image courtesy of Rio Tinto)

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