South Africa: Management Shake-Up – Glencore Appoints Mining Veteran Kalidas Madhavpeddi As Chairman

Commodities colossus Glencore just got a new chairman – mining veteran Kalidas Madhavpeddi will replace Tony Hayward as at the end of July. The new management team is tasked with greening Glencore against the backdrop of sticky challenges such as a US justice department probe into possible money laundering.

Kalidas Madhavpeddi’s appointment completes a shake-up at Glencore’s top after South African Gary Nagle last week replaced SA billionaire Ivan Glasenberg as CEO of the Swiss-based company, a commodities colossus that spans mining, marketing and trading which last year had revenues north of $140-billion.

US-based Madhavpeddi was CEO of China Molybdenum International for a decade and has wide experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Glencore has key mining assets. His Chinese background will also be an asset.

As Glencore attempts to reduce its carbon profile and navigate into a greener future, it is perhaps fitting that Madhavpeddi is replacing Hayward, who was formerly the CEO of British oil major BP. Hayward stepped down from that role in 2010 amid a public backlash over the Macondo well explosion and the subsequent oily fouling of the environment in the Gulf of Mexico.