Latest news with #Jakob
West Australian
3 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
BEN HARVEY: Why Rio Tinto's next boss should be Simon Trott
Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm is leaving the company he joined five years ago. The suddenness of the announcement (usually these things are 'socialised' weeks or months in advance) has tongues wagging about whether it was his call to go or the Rio board Jerry Maguired him. The job of running the world's second-biggest mining company in 2025 is very different to what it was when Jakob became the big kahuna. If you had chanced upon his to-do list on the first day at work you would have seen one line and one line only: FIX JUUKAN CLUSTERF..K Dealing with the fallout from the Juukan Gorge disaster — which saw Rio destroy ancient Aboriginal shelters in an ill-advised blasting program — took longer than expected because, well, there was a lot of fallout. There were more parliamentary inquiries and more independent investigations than you could poke a stick at. Rio wanted to bleach that event from history and so got rid of anyone who was within a long distance phone call of the crime. As Joe Pesci's character in Casino observed, it's always better without witnesses. Jakob was a good choice to lead the company in the wake of Juukan. An affable Dane with an almost hippy way about him, he was at the opposite end of the personality spectrum to the bloke he replaced — the foppish and effortlessly punchable Frenchman Jean-Sebastien Jacques. Rio recovered from Juukan and things were going swimmingly courtesy of a post-COVID iron ore price so buoyant that Elmo could have run a mining company and not mess things up. Jakob soon had the board reaching for the Mylanta courtesy of two very big calls. The first was signing off on Rio's $10 billion investment in the giant Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea. This is a country whose rulers arbitrarily cancelled 50 mining licences in one month yet Jakob reckoned presented no undue sovereign risk because he counts the Guinean Government and China as joint venture partners. Sceptical? So am I. Rio's now in a devil's threesome with whatever military junta ends up running Guinea in five years and Xi Jinping, who could decide to take over the whole thing just because he can. Jakob raised Rio's risk profile further by taking a $20 billion punt on lithium — a commodity eschewed by other tier-one miners and whose value has been in the toilet ever since the world realised electric cars are actually a bit of a pain in the arse. Rio directors obviously signed off on those big decisions, so it's unlikely Jakob is getting heat from the board because of those calls. The word among analysts who follow Rio is Jakob was being put under the pump by chairman Dominic Barton. The Canadian wanted the Dane to get a handle on operations — which is code for cutting costs — because BHP had quietly become the cheapest producer in the Pilbara. Dominic knows a lot about cutting costs because he spent a large chunk of his working life at McKinsey and Co. That's the management consultancy which in the late 1990s changed Disneyland from being the happiest place on earth to a death zone, courtesy of a recommendation that it 'rationalise' maintenance. And he knows a lot about making money, having led McKinsey when the firm helped the manufacturer of OxyContin devise new and innovative ways to get the United States hooked on hillbilly heroin. Analysts have Rio's chief commercial officer Bold Baatar as one the internal front runners for the top job. Other internal candidates include Sinead Kaufman, who oversees the broadly termed 'minerals' division and copper chief executive Katie Jackson. There are a lot of external candidates but if Rio looks outside the tent it'll be competing with BHP for talent because the Big Australian is rumoured to be hunting for a new chief executive to succeed Mike Henry. Rio's head of iron ore, Simon Trott, should get the gig. Here's why. Rio talks about how it's a transnational miner with interests around the world. Its global headquarters are in London's ever-so posh St James Square and its Australian headquarters are in Melbourne's ever-so conservative Collins Street. But boil this business down and you'll find it's a dirty and dusty old West Australian iron ore company. Four dollars in every five that Rio makes in profit comes out of the Pilbara. Take West Australian iron ore out of Rio and the company wouldn't make the ASX's top 20. I suspect if you crunched the numbers hard it probably wouldn't be in the top 100, rather languishing as a penny dreadful being punted by spivs in West Perth. It makes sense that a West Australian iron ore company (and that's what Rio is) should be run by a West Australian iron ore executive who lives in the same time zone as his business's most important customer, China. Let's see whether Rio has the guts to appoint yet another white, middle-aged male to the top job.
Sydney Morning Herald
22-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Rio Tinto on the hunt for new blood after CEO exit
Mining giant Rio Tinto has started a global search to replace chief executive Jakob Stausholm, who will step down from his position after spending almost five years at the top. The $164 billion dual-listed company, which has shareholders in London and Australia, said it was conducting a search to replace Stausholm but did not provide a reason for his departure, other than saying it was a 'natural moment' for the miner to appoint a successor. 'Under Jakob's leadership, Rio Tinto has restored trust with key stakeholders, aligned our portfolio with the commodities where demand growth is strongest, built a diverse and talented management team, and set a compelling growth trajectory,' Rio's chair Dominic Barton said, thanking the Danish national for his contribution. 'This is a natural moment to appoint Jakob's successor, as we look ahead to our next phase in which we will double down to deliver greater operational performance to realise the full potential of our assets,' Barton said. Rio is one of the world's biggest exporters of iron ore and suppliers of aluminum. The statement on Stausholm's departure came just an hour before Rio's rival Fortescue announced the retirement of the head of its energy division, Mark Hutchinson, and chief operating officer Shelley Robertson. Stausholm stepped up as boss of Rio in January 2021 after the disastrous destruction of two 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters in the Pilbara unleashed a wave of global condemnation, triggered a federal parliamentary inquiry in Australia, and plunged the company into crisis, prompting the exit of then CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques and two other senior executives. The miner is still improving its cultural heritage processes and relationships with traditional owners. Soon after his appointment, Stausholm was plunged into an overhaul of Rio's workplace culture after then sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick's investigation found a culture of bullying, sexual harassment, and discrimination. The company has focused on metals crucial to the energy transition, ramping up its copper output and, unlike its major peers, targeting lithium as a key growth area, buying projects in Argentina and Australia.
The Age
22-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Rio Tinto on the hunt for new blood after CEO exit
Mining giant Rio Tinto has started a global search to replace chief executive Jakob Stausholm, who will step down from his position after spending almost five years at the top. The $164 billion dual-listed company, which has shareholders in London and Australia, said it was conducting a search to replace Stausholm but did not provide a reason for his departure, other than saying it was a 'natural moment' for the miner to appoint a successor. 'Under Jakob's leadership, Rio Tinto has restored trust with key stakeholders, aligned our portfolio with the commodities where demand growth is strongest, built a diverse and talented management team, and set a compelling growth trajectory,' Rio's chair Dominic Barton said, thanking the Danish national for his contribution. 'This is a natural moment to appoint Jakob's successor, as we look ahead to our next phase in which we will double down to deliver greater operational performance to realise the full potential of our assets,' Barton said. Rio is one of the world's biggest exporters of iron ore and suppliers of aluminum. The statement on Stausholm's departure came just an hour before Rio's rival Fortescue announced the retirement of the head of its energy division, Mark Hutchinson, and chief operating officer Shelley Robertson. Stausholm stepped up as boss of Rio in January 2021 after the disastrous destruction of two 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters in the Pilbara unleashed a wave of global condemnation, triggered a federal parliamentary inquiry in Australia, and plunged the company into crisis, prompting the exit of then CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques and two other senior executives. The miner is still improving its cultural heritage processes and relationships with traditional owners. Soon after his appointment, Stausholm was plunged into an overhaul of Rio's workplace culture after then sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick's investigation found a culture of bullying, sexual harassment, and discrimination. The company has focused on metals crucial to the energy transition, ramping up its copper output and, unlike its major peers, targeting lithium as a key growth area, buying projects in Argentina and Australia.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jakob Ingebrigtsen admits ‘embarrassment' at being a victim of domestic violence
Jakob Ingebrigtsen admitted he is 'embarrassed' to be a victim of domestic violence as he delivered a powerful testimony on the final day of his father's criminal trial. Norwegian prosecutors this week called for Ingebrigtsen's father Gjert, 59, to be sentenced to two and a half years in prison for the alleged physical and verbal assault of Jakob and his younger sister Ingrid. Gjert coached the double Olympic champion to the top of the podium in the 1,500m at the Tokyo Olympics. He also claimed gold in the 5,000m at Paris 2024, beating Briton Josh Kerr at the line. Jakob described several incidents of violence at the beginning of the six-week trial - one of which alleged Gjert to have struck his son several times after receiving a negative report about his behaviour from school when he was eight. Gjert's legal team questioned these claims in closing, calling for their client's acquittal. However, Jakob took to the stand to reiterate that he was telling the truth. 'It is embarrassing to be a victim of domestic violence,' he said. 'I know what I have experienced with the defendant since I was a little boy, and I have had no motives for lying. 'It is embarrassing to be a victim for our family, and it does not fit into the image you have of yourself and your family. We will all carry baggage with us from this trial.' With trial proceedings having concluded, judge Arild Dommersnes said he expects to announce a verdict on June 16.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Athletics-Prosecutors seek prison sentence for Ingebrigtsen father, Norwegian media report
(Reuters) - Norwegian prosecutors are seeking a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Gjert Ingebrigtsen, who is accused of abusing his twice Olympic gold medallist son Jakob and daughter Ingrid, Norwegian media reported on Tuesday. The back-to-back 5,000 metres world champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen took the stand in March, where he described a childhood marked by fear and manipulation and told the court about several incidents of violence. Gjert Ingebrigtsen has pleaded not guilty and repeatedly denied the charges. He faces up to six years in prison if convicted. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Prosecutor Ellen Gimre said that "the clear starting point in such cases is unconditional imprisonment," according to broadcaster NRK. "In addition to the violence itself, it is also a breach of the trust between close relations. It's the constant fear of when the next episode of violence, the next threat, or the next violation will occur," said Gimre.
