An engineer from South Africa became the company's top manager

OJSC Polyus Gold of Mikhail Prokhorov and Suleiman Kerimov entrusted production to a foreigner. The former top manager of the Canadian SNC-Lavalin, James Nieuwenhuis, was appointed chief operating officer of the company, under whom this position was created. The task of the new top manager will be to double Polyus' gold production by 2014, and in the future - to develop the largest gold deposit in Eurasia, Sukhoi Log.

Yesterday, Polyus Gold announced the appointment of James Nieuwenhuis, a former top manager of the Canadian SNC-Lavalin, to the position of chief operating officer. The new manager will be responsible for managing and coordinating the production process of all Polyus business units, reporting directly to CEO Mikhail Prokhorov. Previously, there was no such position at Polyus, its representative clarified.

Anthony James Nieuwenhuis has over 30 years of experience leading projects in the mining, metals and soft drinks industries. Since 2008, he has held the post of managing director in the South African division of the Canadian engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin (one of the ten largest engineering companies in the world); before that, for a year he was vice president for special projects at the parent company in Canada.

Polyus plans for “aggressive growth,” member of the company’s board of directors Evgeny Ivanov told Kommersant. By 2014, the company expects to produce more than 3 million ounces of gold (in 2010 - 1.38 million ounces) due to the commissioning of the first stage of Russia's largest mining and processing plant at the Natalka deposit, as well as increasing production at the Verninskoye and Blagodatnoye deposits. “This is a serious task, the implementation of which requires a person with extensive experience in the mining and metallurgical field, which James Nieuwenhuis has,” noted Mr. Ivanov.

Foreign top managers do not work in all large Russian metallurgical companies (one each in Severstal, Mechel, Evraz and Rusal; they are responsible for strategy, finance and sales), but in recent years, as the managing partner notes TopContact Artur Shamilov, “holdings are increasingly looking at expats.” “Young Russian managers have no experience in implementing large-scale projects,” he explains. However, foreigners also have to pay more. James Nieuwenhuis' remuneration at Polyus, according to Mr. Shamilov, could be $1-1.2 million per year, including bonuses, which is at least twice as high as that of the Russian technical director of a similar company.

The international experience of the new top manager will be useful to Polyus, agrees Alexey Morozov from UBS. The quality of ore at Russian deposits decreases every year; the industry increasingly requires specialists in working with refractory ores, of which there are many abroad, the analyst explains. Bringing the management structure to world standards also fits into Polyus' plans to enter the London Stock Exchange and merge with one of its foreign competitors, adds Nikolai Sosnovsky from Uralsib. In addition, after the merger, the company plans to begin developing the Sukhoi Log gold deposit, the largest in Eurasia, and James Nieuwenhuis led the preparation of a feasibility study for the development of this deposit in the late 1990s, says a source close to the shareholders.

Roman Asankin, Seda Yeghikyan

Polyus hired a foreigner