Excellence in leadership, clear accountability and an uncompromising attitude to safety are core to achieving our objectives. Our business unit chief executives and directors report to group chief executive Cynthia Carroll, and form part of the Anglo American Group’s executive committee.
Godfrey Gomwe was appointed executive director of Anglo American South Africa in December 2009, and an executive committee member in September 2010. He is currently chairman of Anglo American Zimele, chairman of Anglo American’s transformation committee and chairman of Tshikululu Social Investments.
Godfrey served on a number of Anglo American operating boards and executive committees, and was previously finance director and chief operating officer of Anglo American South Africa. He is past chairman and chief executive of Anglo American Zimbabwe Limited and in these roles he has led the execution of major strategic repositioning and transformation strategies.
Godfrey is a non-executive director of Anglo Platinum Limited, Kumba Iron Ore Limited and Thebe Investment Corporation (Pty) Limited. He has also previously held the post of chairman of Takura Ventures, a CDC Fund in Zimbabwe where he gained venture capital experience. Godfrey has developed a wide network and has a wealth of experience working on the African continent.
Chris Griffith has been with Anglo American for almost two decades and was appointed chief executive of Kumba Iron Ore in 2008. He completed a degree in mining engineering and trained with Gold Fields before joining Anglo Platinum, where he progressed from shift supervisor to become one of the youngest mine general managers in the company at that time.
Chris developed the Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine joint venture from start up to full production in four years, and has a recognised ability for relationship-building and consolidation. He managed Anglo Platinum’s joint venture portfolio and took it from one joint venture to six and 30-40% of the company’s ounce production.
He was Anglo Platinum’s head of operations for joint ventures before being appointed Kumba’s chief executive in 2008. The company achieved its best-ever safety performance in the first year of his tenure, while at the same time achieving attributable profits more than double from $US320 million to $720 million.
Norman Mbazima was appointed chief executive of Thermal Coal in late 2009, and joined Anglo American in 2001, after more than 20 years of exposure to the mining industry, particularly in his home country of Zambia where he began his career at Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines.
Here he spent four years on the privatisation of this company, focusing on the commercial and financial aspects of negotiations. Norman also spent 17 years at Deloitte & Touche, with the last year as an equity partner, and was chief financial officer at Konkola Copper Mines plc between 2001 and 2003.
Following Anglo American's disposal of this asset, he moved to the Johannesburg office as deputy finance director of Anglo American South Africa, before being appointed global chief financial officer for Anglo Coal. Norman became executive director of finance at Anglo Platinum in June 2006, and later stepped in as joint acting chief executive.
He played a key role in the major broad-based black economic empowerment transactions that created, among others, Anooraq Resources and Northam Platinum. He also played a pivotal part in the establishment and implementation of the Anglo Platinum employee shareholder plan and the alignment of the company’s procurement strategies. He was appointed CEO of Scaw Metals in May 2008, and is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Neville Nicolau was appointed chief executive of Anglo Platinum in 2008, and has had 30 years of experience in the Anglo American Group. He worked in all major operating areas of AngloGold Ashanti in South Africa, where he was appointed chief operating officer and executive director in 2005.
Neville was chosen for his extensive hands-on mining experience and track record on safety, production and costs, and is the first mining engineer to steer Anglo Platinum. Under his leadership, the company is progressing a values-based organisational culture change and professional business-planning programme and has introduced an appropriate safety management system.
He was named 2009’s BEE Dealmaker in the University of the Witwatersrand-Barloworld Empowerment Awards for the company’s Mvelaphanda Resources empowerment venture, and has won several sustainable development awards. These include the award for the Most Improved Business in the Mail and Guardian’s Greening the Future Awards and top honours in the Ernst and Young Excellence in Sustainability Reporting Awards in 2008.