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Management shakeup puts new board chairman John Thornton’s stamp on miner following recent departure of company founder Peter Munk.Management shakeup puts new board chairman John Thornton’s stamp on miner following recent departure of company founder Peter Munk
After two years spent overhauling ailing Barrick Gold Corp., president and CEO Jamie Sokalsky will step down in September as part of sweeping changes to the miner’s management structure.
The announcement Wednesday that two co-presidents will soon share the helm comes just 10 weeks after the departure of Barrick founder Peter Munk, and is clearly new board chairman John Thornton’s first big stamp on the leadership of the world’s biggest gold miner, analysts say.
“He was brought in to bring change, and he’s bringing change,” said John Ing, president of Maison Placements Canada.
Eliminating the role of CEO may also leave the door open for the resumption of merger talks with Newmont Mining Corp., Barrick’s biggest rival, said TD Securities mining analyst Greg Barnes in a note to clients.
Discussions between the two bullion behemoths broke down in April, just before 60-year-old Thornton, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. president, succeeded Munk as chairman.
Sokalsky’s departure isn’t a shock, noted Ing, since he would have been bumped from the CEO position anyway if that merger deal had closed, with Newmont chief executive Gary Goldberg slated to take the role in the combined company.
After working his way up the ranks at Barrick over the last two decades, Sokalsky steered the company through the most tumultuous years in its history, since June 2012 shrinking it from 27 mines to 19 globally as the company shed almost $1 billion of money-losing assets while gold prices plummeted.
He also had to mothball development of the highly touted Pascua Lama gold-copper project in the Andes Mountains last year amid cost overruns and legal and environmental roadblocks. The 56 year old is credited with turning the troubled company around and improving its weak share price.
“Jamie made a major contribution to Barrick, but from here on in it will be John Thornton’s style of leadership,” said Ing.
“I’m fortunate to have worked with so many great people over my career at Barrick and I’m particularly proud of what we have been able to accomplish over the past two years,” Sokalsky said in a release.
“It’s now time for the next phase of the company’s development. I believe our new management structure will allow Barrick to address successfully the key challenges facing the mining industry today,” he added.
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