As the wind fell out of the sails of economic recovery in 2012, and serious storms rocked the boat of major miners, a few mining CEOs fell overboard.
Cynthia Carroll (Anglo American), Aaron Regent (Barrick Gold), Robert Friedland (Ivanhoe), Tom Albanese (Rio Tinto), Marcelo Awad (Antofagasta Minerals), Diego Hernandez (Codelco) and Mick Davis (Xstrata PLC) were only some of the executives who left their companies, either because they chose to or because of shareholders pressure.
But their names will be mentioned a lot more in the coming months, reports The Wall Street Journal, as it says at least two of them, Regent and Davis, have already established investor funds and are looking for financers.
They seem to have it all: expertise, contacts, and quite a few years before start thinking about retirement. But the timing may not be right, as most mining companies are in the process of stripping billions of dollars in costs, which include cutting executive pay.
Read more here.
Comments
John VanPlantinga
Who would invest in antiquated very high cost production methods that forced them or their successors to write off billions? How happy are the laid off workers or their previous investors? Why are the companies they led now shrinking? There is but one answer, and it’s not the falling market. Rather, they failed to control, minimize unit cost. They got an “F”. You can’t control market, so why worry about it, but you can control cost, so place your management expertise there!.
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If you can’t control and ever improve upon cost, you are not a CEO. Why? Anybody can look like a hero when markets are booming. But most of the time they are not booming. Controlled costs give you cash flow and a cash hoard can be used to expand when others are failing.
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