Jan du Plessis Appointed Rio Tinto Chairman
March 17, 09
Jan du Plessis, chairman of British American Tobacco plc, will be appointed chairman of the Rio Tinto boards. He will be replacing Paul who will retire from the boards and as a non-executive director. The changes will take place on April 20.
du Plessis has joined the boards as a non executive director on September 1, 2008. “Our immediate focus must be on giving Rio Tinto the best possible platform to create shareholder value and to weather the tough and uncertain global economic conditions. Pursuing the completion of the transaction with Chinalco will give Rio Tinto this platform, from which we will be even better placed to prosper when we see economic recovery.”
Rio Tinto announced Skinner’s resignation in January, naming Deputy Chairman of Tata Steel Jim Leng as successor. However, a few weeks later Leng resigned from the Rio Tinto Boards, alluding to a “financial issue.”
It was understood that those issues were related to the Chinalco deal.
Jan du Plessis is a non-executive director and chairman of the Audit Committee of Lloyds Banking Group plc, although he has indicated that he intends to stand down from that role in due course. He has also been a non-executive director of Marks & Spencer Group PLC since November 2008.