Randgold boss shoots elephants
THE longest-serving FTSE 100 boss has been photographed with trophy kills, shot on hunting holidays in Africa – despite sitting on the board of a big cat conservation charity.
Mining conglomerate Randgold CEO Mark Bristow appears in promotional newsletters on the website of Hunters & Guides Africa, a professional SA hunting tour operator.
The newsletters, ranging from 2005 to 2014, show him holding a rifle and posing with dead elephants, buffalo, zebra, hippo, lion and a leopard.
Bristow was in 2017 appointed to the conservation council of Panthera, a global charity dedicated to the conservation of wild cats.
The council, an advisory board to the charity, also includes Hollywood actress Glenn Close as co-chair, as well as the likes of actor Jeremy Irons, author Wilbur Smith and other business leaders, diplomats and wildlife experts.
Bristow, 59, born in South Africa but living in London, has been CEO of Randgold since 1995. The company, worth £5bn (R93m), agreed last week to be bought by Canada’s Barrick Gold in an all-share deal that will make Bristow boss of the world’s largest gold miner.
Randgold defended Bristow’s hunting, saying: “Led by Mark Bristow, Randgold Resources has invested in a wide range of biodiversity programmes in its host countries.”
Wildlife charity Born Free was scathing.
Born Free president Will Travers said: “Bristow shoots African elephants – there are about 415,000 left.
“[He] shoots African hippo – there are about 130,000 left. –