Trading Places
BEYERS Nel is to become the chief operating officer of Harmony Gold Mining Company’s South African operations, and Phillip Tobias the chief operating officer of special projects and development — which includes safety, mining projects and company strategy.
Nel and Tobias have been regional general managers at Harmony since July 2014.
Nel holds a degree in mining engineering, an MBA, and is a registered engineer. He has 15 years’ experience in gold mining — 13 years at Harmony — gained on a variety of opencast, deep and ultra-deep gold mines in both supervisory and management positions.
Nel is also the vice-president of the Association of Mine Managers South Africa.
Tobias has a BSc in mining, has completed the Wits Business School’s international executive development programme and the advanced management programme at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, is a registered engineer and holds a mine manager’s certificate of competence.
He has more than 20 years’ experience in mining, developed at several gold and platinum mines. In 2008, he became the first black president of the mine managers association. BUSINESS franchise management group Taste Holdings has appointed Grant Pattison independent nonexecutive chairman.
Pattison, who joined the board in March 2014, also serves on the boards of several private companies as independent nonexecutive chairman and director.
He was with retailer Massmart Holdings for 16 years, the last seven as CEO, during which time he led the sale of a majority stake in the company to US-based Walmart.
Pattison has also chaired the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa. MATERIALS handling company CMCO South Africa has appointed Lebo Sephoti business development executive.
Before joining CMCO, Sephoti worked as a plant technician, sales engineer, projects manager, an executive manager for projects sales and a senior manager in business development.
She has a national diploma in engineering: metallurgy, a BTech degree in business administration and an MBA.
Sephoti’s job will be to drive new growth strategies for CMCO in South Africa as well as the rest of Africa.