Former WA treasurer Ben Wyatt has been promoted in a reshuffle of Rio Tinto’s board that has seen the number of directors fall from 14 to ten.
Mr Wyatt, who has a been a non-executive director of Rio since 2021, has been elevated to “senior independent director”.
“This role complements the UK-based senior independent director, performed by Sharon Thorne, but with a particular focus on board engagement in Australia,” Rio stated.
“The size of the board peaked at 14 directors during a transitional period in which we retained the expertise and experience of longer-serving Directors as newer directors familiarised themselves with the group.
“That transitional phase has now concluded.”
Simon Henry, Martina Merz, Sam Laidlaw and Kaisa Hietala were the four recent director resignations.
It is not clear how much extra Mr Wyatt will be paid in the new role. He raked in total remuneration of $280,000 in 2024 as a non-executive director on Rio’s board.
Mr Wyatt retired from politics in March 2021 after a 15 year career that culminated in becoming the first person of Aboriginal descent to serve as treasurer at a state or federal level.
He quickly became a sought-after director post-politics.
Mr Wyatt joined the Telethon Kids Institute’s board in April 2021, then the West Coast Eagles’ board in May 2021 and Woodside Energy’s a month later.
He also holds board roles with Crown Perth, APM, UWA Business School and Perth Festival, and is on the advisory committee of Australian Capital Equity.
The board changes at Rio comes after a cull at the executive level shortly after Simon Trott became the mining giant’s head honcho.
Rio’s Australia chief executive Kellie Parker and Brisbane-based minerals division chief executive Sinead Kaufman were made redundant and the two roles permanently extinguished on August 27 — just two days after Mr Trott officially started as boss.
https://thewest.com.au/business/mining/rio-tinto-elevates-former-wa-treasurer-ben-wyatt-to-senior-independent-director–c-20458307
