News: BHP Australian shares climb as slow economic growth allays rate-hike fears, page-4

Excellent AUST piece on BHP execs today:
Three-way race
Henry took charge of BHP nearly four years ago and since then has been in a rush to reshape the mining major. He has doubled down on so-called future facing commodities through the $10bn acquisition of Oz Minerals, to deliver BHP much needed growth in copper and nickel.
At the same time, he made the tough call of exiting BHP’s capital intensive oil and gas portfolio, spinning off BHP Petroleum into Woodside Energy through a complicated merger.
Along with his outgoing CFO, Henry engineered the collapse of the dual-listing structure that had increasingly become a drag, while pursing further sales of legacy coal operations. With the big calls made, including the Oz buyout and multibillion-dollar potash investment, Henry has picked this moment to re=energise his executives. Indeed he signed-off on the top level overhaul while in Shanghai to attend an event to celebrate the delivery of three billion tonnes of BHP’s iron ore into China.
The biggest winner of Thursday’s reshuffle sees the rapid elevation of Singapore-based and well-regarded Vandita Pant as chief financial officer, taking over from Lamont in March. Currently Pant is chief commercial officer, looking after BHP’s sales and marketing as well as maritime operations.
BHP doesn’t have a history of appointing their CEO from the chief financial officer position, opting for operations executives. Chip Goodyear was the exception two decades ago.
Edgar Basto’s position has been left untouched. As chief operating officer, Basto is BHP’s most powerful executive behind Henry, with oversight of the entire company. He has previously run Western Australian iron ore and is now overseeing the development of BHP’s copper expansion.
Importantly, Geraldine Slattery’s role also remains unchanged. The daughter of Irish dairy farmers who became a petroleum executive now oversees BHP’s influential Australian operations, including its critical WA iron ore businesses. Prior to being elevated to CEO, Henry held the Australian operations’ role.
Between Basto, Slattery and Pant opens the three-way race in the succession stakes. Significantly that includes two women in the mix to run Australia’s biggest company.
Others too are coming into the frame with Henry testing executives in new roles. Rag Udd takes over from Pant as chief commercial officer. This rounds out Udd’s experience, who has until now been a big driver of getting BHP’s ambitious Canadian potash bet off the ground from an operational sense as President Americas. Potash has been promised be a big contributor to the BHP portfolio for decades to come.
This responsibility now goes to Brandon Craig, who joins the top ranks as President Americas. Craig currently oversees WA Iron Ore, reporting through to Slattery. Craig’s role as head of America’s will be to continue to deliver the giant Jansen Stage 1 potash project in Canada. Construction is still underway and just last month BHP signed-off on a $US5bn ($7.6bn) plan that gives a green light to an expansion through to the next decade. Success here could put Craig into longer-term contention for the top job.
Meanwhile Johan van Jaarsveld who has been overseeing BHP’s M&A as chief development officer is on the fast track and is set to be moved into the chief technical officer role that takes in M&A. Van Jaarsveld’s former development role will remain at the executive leadership level, with a candidate to be announced in the future. This is a sure sign that BHP is not done yet with acquisitions under Henry. Van Jaarsveld replaces Laura Tyler who leaves the company after 20 years.
A big behind the scenes move in Henry’s management has been the rolling out of the BHP Operating System, a project he started as head of Australia. He has previously argued that all successful global companies are build around a consistent operating model regardless of who is in the chair. Henry’s operating system is designed to cut through management change and deliver high performance for the long term.
BHP’s board has a methodical approach to succession planning with executives usually tested in a commercial and operational roles across the company. Through this the miner also develops near term and longer term candidates.
BHP board members are involved in the interview process for executive-level appointments one level below the CEO, and occasionally for roles two levels below CEO. The last external candidate was Paul Anderson who joined BHP from Duke Energy.