From farmer to miner, Rio’s new CEO is a breath of fresh air
When Simon Trott’s parents installed air conditioning in their shearing sheds, their son learnt how to get the best out of staff. Now he has 60,000 of them.
Rio Tinto’s new chief executive Simon Trott has gone from a wheat farm to the top of a multinational miner. Bethany Rae
It takes a while for the seabreeze to travel the 200 kilometres that separate Wickepin from the Western Australian coast, but the shearers at the Trott family farm didn’t need to wait for the Fremantle Doctor to arrive. Convinced they would be more productive and loyal if kept cool, the Trotts stumped up to pipe air conditioning through the shearing shed.
For their son Simon, who was this week appointed Rio Tinto’s next chief executive, it was a formative experience in how to manage people.
Peter KerResources reporterPeter Ker covers resource companies for The Australian Financial Review, based in Melbourne. Connect with Peter on Twitter. Email Peter at pker@afr.com
