Former Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) Chief Executive, Tom Albanese, has been appointed chairman of Vendanta Resources.
A UK-listed company, Vendanta is primarily focused on projects in India although it has numerous operations throughout the world, including a copper mine in Tasmania. Mr Albanese has been appointed to the leadership position of the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Vedanta Resources Holdings Limited.
According to the company he will look to drive growth through strategy and policy but primarily focus on Vedanta's Zambian projects, which include several copper facilities.
Mr Albanese served as Rio Tinto CEO for six years until he stepped down earlier this year after significant writedowns amounting to $14 billion. The writedowns followed from a number of poor purchases including its aluminium and Mozambique coal businesses – the biggest writedowns ever in the industry. Starting in 1993, Mr Albanese quickly rose the ranks to CEO and oversaw the $37.1 billion purchase of Canada's Alcan and $3.7 billion purchase of Mozambique's Mining Limited in 2011.
Analysts at Citigroup welcomed the appointment by saying "as Mr Albanese being a geologist, not only brings in his technical expertise but also the experience of leading a company like Rio Tinto, which is well regarded for its best practices in running the assets. This is likely to improve VED's image as a more sustainable, development-oriented organisation".
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Motley Fool contributor Owen Raszkiewicz does not have a financial interest in any of the mentioned companies.
