A former chief financial officer at AP Moller-Maersk has been named as the new chief executive of Rio Tinto, the world's second-largest mining company.
Jakob Stausholm, who has been CFO at the Australian mining giant since September 2018, steps up to the top job from 1 January.
He takes over from Jean-Sebastien Jacques who will step down from his role as chief executive in the New Year and leave the group at the end of March.
Stausholm quit the Danish liner behemoth in March 2018 after more than six years with the Copenhagen-based company.
From 2008 to 2011, he was group CFO of global facility services provider ISS and was a non-executive director of Statoil from 2009 to 2016, and of Woodside Petroleum from 2006 to 2008.
Previously, he spent 19 years with Royal Dutch Shell in numerous finance positions globally and as the group's chief internal auditor.
The Financial Times said Stausholm's appointment was likely to “surprise many investors and analysts who expected the company to pick an external candidate”.
The newspaper claims the company had been under pressure from the Australian government to pick an Australian for the role.
Significant shareholder returns
Since joining Rio Tinto as CFO, Stausholm is said to have played a “leading role in the group’s strong performance, maintaining capital allocation discipline and delivering significant shareholder returns, while strengthening the balance sheet”.
Rio Tinto chairman Simon Thompson said he had a blend of "strategic and commercial expertise, strong values and a collaborative leadership style" that were "the ideal qualities for our next chief executive”.
Thompson also said Stausholm has a “proven track record” as a senior executive with deep industrial and resources experience spanning strategy development and technology, as well as financial and risk management.
“Rio Tinto’s purpose is to produce the materials essential to human progress and I remain deeply committed to this after the difficult times we have faced during 2020,” Stausholm said.
“I am also acutely aware of the need to restore trust with indigenous groups and our other stakeholders, which I view as a key priority for the company.”
Jacques had been CEO at Rio Tinto since 2016, but announced he was stepping down earlier this year following the destruction of a sacred Aboriginal site.
Two 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge were destroyed to make way for a mine expansion in Western Australia.
“Jacques clearly brought a tremendous amount of energy, focus and drive to the organisation and aside from Juukan he did an outstanding job on shareholder returns over the last four to five years demonstrate,” Thompson told the Financial Times.
“But I think Juukan has been a wake-up call … and I think there is a need for us to develop a more inclusive and collaborative organisation.”
