Rio Tinto appoints Dominic Barton, Canadian ambassador to China, as new chairman

Australian candidates have missed out for a second time as Rio Tinto taps former McKinsey executive as its new chair.

Dominic Barton will step down as Canada‘s ambassador to China at the end of the year. Picture: Supplied

Rio Tinto has appointed Canadian Dominic Barton as its new chairman as the mining giant looks to move on from the Juukan Gorge scandal.

The company announced the appointment in a statement to the ASX on Monday morning after a nine-month search.

Mr Barton quit as Canada’s ambassador to China on December 6. His resignation takes effect at the end of 2021, clearing the former McKinsey boss to join Rio’s board.

He led McKinsey for more than nine years until 2018, and was the chair of the advisory giant’s Asia division and a member of China Development Bank’s advisory group.

“It is a great honour to succeed Simon as Chair of Rio Tinto,” Mr Barton said.

“Returning to the private sector, I am excited to join a company with world-class people and assets as it navigates a shifting competitive landscape and seeks to emerge as a leader in the climate transition. I look forward to working with Jakob and the Board to implement a strategy that puts decarbonisation at the heart of the business and positions Rio Tinto to be a leader in addressing complex global problems, while building and sustaining trust with host

communities.”

Mr Barton also briefly served as chairman of Canadian miner Teck Resources, and as a non-executive director of Singapore’s Singtel, which owns Australian telco Optus.

His appointment is seen as likely to help strengthen Rio’s relationships with Chinese authorities, given his longstanding business links in China and his role in helping solve a major diplomatic impasse between Beijing and Ottawa over the detention of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in response to an extradition request from US authorities.

Outgoing chairman Simon Thompson announced in March that he would not stand for re-election at Rio’s 2022 annual shareholder meeting, after widespread criticism of the board’s lacklustre response to the destruction of 46,000-year-old heritage sites in the Pilbara.

Australian director Michael L’Estrange, who led the board’s review of the Juukan Gorge debacle, retired from the board at the last meeting.

The scandal also cost Rio chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques his job, along with iron ore boss Chris Salisbury and corporate affairs chief Simone Niben.

Mr Barton’s appointment will please Canadians and international capital markets, but it ignores demands from Australian politicians that the company increase the Australian presence on its board and among its executive ranks.

Outgoing Rio Tinto chairman Simon Thompson. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Sharon Smith

Following the resignation of Mr Jacques, federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg reportedly told Mr Thompson he wanted an Australian appointed as the next Rio chief executive – but the company instead tapped its Danish finance boss, Jakob Stausholm.

In August, a few weeks before he joined the Rio board, former WA Treasurer Ben Wyatt expressed a preference that the next Rio chairman be an Australian.

While Rio Tinto makes the overwhelming majority of its money from its Pilbara iron ore operation, the company also has a substantial presence in Canada, holding substantial aluminium assets, as well as the Diavik diamond mine and a significant iron ore operation.

The company has not had a Canadian national represented on its board since the resignation of David Constable in November 2020. Mr Constable quit as a Rio director after being appointed as the chief executive of Fluor Corporation, a year after fellow Canadian Moya Greene also left its boardroom.

Mr Barton’s appointment means Australia is represented by three Australians in the Rio boardroom – Mr Wyatt, Mr McKeon and former CSIRO boss and BHP executive Megan Clarke.

The board’s search for a replacement for Mr Thompson was led by the company’s two senior independent directors, London-based Sam Laidlaw and former Macquarie Bank executive Simon McKeon.

It is understood a number of Australians were considered in the international hunt, with outgoing Anglo American boss Mark Cutifani ruling himself out of contention in November.

Former Fortescue Metals Group boss Nev Power is also said to have been under serious consideration.

It is not clear when Mr Power was dropped from consideration, but the former Fortescue boss – who also led the federal government’s Covid-19 recovery commission – was charged in October with breaching WA’s hard-line border restriction rules after allegedly flying a private helicopter into the state without the required travel passes.

Originally published as Rio Tinto appoints Dominic Barton, Canadian ambassador to China, as new chairman