Cynthia Carroll to step down as CEO of Anglo American

Anglo American plc  today (26th October 2012) announced that Cynthia Carroll has decided to step down as Chief Executive, with the Board’s agreement. Cynthia will remain in her post until a successor has been appointed and an appropriate transition has taken place. In addition to her executive role, Cynthia is the Chairman of Anglo American Platinum and of De Beers and she will also relinquish those roles when she steps down as Chief Executive of Anglo American.

Cynthia Carroll was appointed to the Anglo American Board in January 2007 and formally took over as Chief Executive in March of that year.  Under Cynthia’s leadership, after a record year in 2008, the Group successfully weathered the global financial crisis.  In 2011, Anglo American again achieved record profits, for the Group as a whole and in four of its seven Business Units, as well as delivering three major projects from its substantial project pipeline, enabling it to enter the current economic downturn in a strong position.

Explaining her decision to step down, Cynthia said: “It has been a great honour to lead Anglo American.  I am extremely proud of everything we have achieved during my period as Chief Executive and I will always retain enormous admiration and affection for this great company and its outstanding people.  It is a very difficult decision to leave, but next year I will be entering my seventh year as Chief Executive and I feel that the time will be right to hand over to a successor who can build further on the strong foundations we have created.”

Paying tribute to Cynthia, Anglo American’s Chairman, Sir John Parker, said: “Cynthia’s leadership has had a transformational impact on Anglo American.  She developed a clear strategy, based on a highly attractive range of core commodities, and created a strong and unified culture and a streamlined organisation with a focus on operational performance.  Her legacy will include, among many other things, a step change improvement in safety, sustainability and the quality of our dialogue with governments, communities and other stakeholders.  Her values represent the very best of Anglo American.

The process of recruiting Cynthia’s successor will now commence and will be led by Sir John Parker, who will also actively support the transition when the new Chief Executive has been appointed.