Anglo-Swiss mining giant Glencore’s board has chosen Gary Nagle to succeed its current chief executive officer (CEO) Ivan Glasenberg as the latter intends to step down in the first half of 2021.
In a media statement on Dec 4, the miner noted that Glasenberg will retire from his position as CEO and a member of the board. Nagle will move to the Swiss headquarters and work with Glasenberg from early 2021 to ensure a smooth transition.
The company’s chairman, Tony Hayward, noted that Glasenberg has been instrumental in making Glencore and Xstrata among the largest mining firms in the world. Xstrata had vast reserves of coal, copper, and zinc in Africa. Glasenberg played an active role in the Glencore-Xstrata merger in 2013 as well, after the latter’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2011.
Like Glasenberg, Nagle has been involved in Glencore’s coal business through most of his career with the miner. He joined the team in Switzerland in 2000 as part of the coal team and was involved in the Xstrata IPO on the London Stock Exchange. He moved to Columbia in 2008 to serve as the CEO of Glencore’s coal subsidiary in the country. In 2013, he moved to South Africa to head the company’s Alloy Assets business until 2018, when he became the miner’s global head of coal, a position he currently holds in Australia.
Nagle was also on the board of Lonmin, a platinum metals group miner, from 2013-2015. He has represented Glencore in the mineral councils of Australia and Columbia as well.