CBH Group taps former BHP executive Jimmy Wilson for CEO role

The nation’s biggest grain company has tapped former BHP iron ore boss Jimmy Wilson to serve at its new Perth-based CEO.

Jimmy Wilson will start at the West Australian grain handling co-operative on August 14 before formally taking the reins on October 1. (Supplied)

CBH Group, the nation’s biggest grain company, has appointed former BHP Billiton iron ore boss Jimmy Wilson as its new Perth-based chief executive.

Mr Wilson will start at the West Australian grain handling co-operative on August 14 and will take over from current chief executive on October 1, after a transition period.

Mr Wilson left BHP, where he had achieved big productivity gains while expanding the WA iron ore business, in early 2016, after chief executive Andrew Mackenzie put in place a flatter management structure that saw coal boss Mike Henry appointed to run Australian mining.

The South African-born Mr Wilson was the most senior BHP representative on the board of BHP’s Samarco iron ore joint venture with Vale in Brazil, where a November 2015 tailings burst killed 19 people and caused widespread environmental damage.

He is one of 22 people (including eight former and current BHP staff) charged with “qualified homicide” (the Brazilian equivalent of manslaughter) over the disaster.

The case was suspended this week by a judge because of concerns over illegal evidence gathering raised by some defendants lawyers.

BHP said last November it would “fully support the defence of each of the individuals indicted.”

Mr Wilson said CBH presented an exciting challenge.

“I have worked across many different countries, commodities and markets over my career and the shift into grain, while outside the traditional mining and resources sector, has many operational and trading synergies with the industries I have enjoyed working in,” he said.

“Jobs of this calibre and complexity are rare, even more so in Perth.”

CBH chairman Wally Newman said the Board wanted a new chief that would drive the next phase of development for its growers’ supply chain in the “fiercely competitive environment of international grain trading” and foster the culture required to support this.

“With the co-operative’s current major focus on delivering our $750 million Network Strategy, Jimmy’s proven strengths in extracting efficiencies from integrated operations, driving excellence in capital management, and using innovation and technology to escalate changes in productivity, make him a natural fit for the organisation,” Mr Newman said.