What qualities does Rio Tinto look for in its leaders? The qualities are embodied in the core leadership competencies that we developed in 2000 and have continued to refine in response to changing needs. These include strategic effectiveness, commercial focus, operational delivery, business focused collaboration, leading teams, external engagement, managing change, and living the values.

Rio Tinto tends to promote from within; what about “fresh blood”? We are committed to developing and promoting talent within the Group. But we also actively seek and recruit people from outside Rio Tinto and from outside our industry so that we get the benefit of different experience and perspectives. It also allows us to bring in new skills which aren't the traditional ones but are critical if we are to compete in the global marketplace.

Career progression involves relocation. How do you minimize the disruption? Our first responsibility is to ensure that we select people for international assignments who have the right skills and the capability to adapt to different business and cultural contexts. We provide cultural orientation and language skills for them and their families and comprehensive assistance with relocation. Induction and on-the-job coaching are also used to provide support to people in new environments. We also track people and have regular conversations with them to ensure moves are well planned and involve minimal disruption for them and their families.

Rio Tinto’s senior management is predominantly male. What steps are being taken to increase diversity? We monitor and review our performance on diversity and actively work to develop a workforce that represents of the geographies and markets in which we operate. A current focus is on increasing the number of women in the Group, particularly in senior leadership roles, and we have processes in place to support this. We are also working to increase the number of indigenous employees in our operations around the world.

What’s in store for Human Resources? A large amount of time is spent in support of the Improving Performance Together initiative aimed at lifting our operating performance through collaboration and building organizational capability at all levels in the Group. We are at the forefront of the work on organizational philosophy which underpins this major initiative and I am leading a global programme called Transforming HR in Rio Tinto which will allow us to better share expertise through the Group including common HR systems and solutions.