How Mike Henry guided BHP’s big year of reinvention

The mining giant’s chief executive made more change in an action-packed 2021 than most manage in an entire term – and more’s on the way.

Peter Ker and James Thomson

Dec 10, 2021 – 5.00am

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The perception that Mike Henry’s ascension to the top of BHP would deliver a steady, metronomic and little changed company was blown out of the water by this year’s spectacular reinvention of the 136-year-old mining behemoth.

The reserved Canadian sold two of BHP’s long-standing coal assets, committed $US5.7 billion toward BHP’s first potash mine, announced the end of the company’s 20-year-old dual-listed structure and declared six decades in the oil and gas business would come to an end.

Peter Ker covers resource companies for The Australian Financial Review, based in Melbourne. Connect with Peter on Twitter. Email Peter at pker@afr.com

James Thomson is senior Chanticleer columnist based in Melbourne. He was the Companies editor and editor of BRW Magazine. Connect with James on Twitter. Email James at j.thomson@afr.com