Ian David Cockerill (born 4 August 1954 in

Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romford ...

, England) is a geologist and mining engineer. Cockerill started his mining career in South Africa in 1975 after completing his Bachelor of Science in Geology at

Chelsea College of Science and Technology Chelsea College of Science and Technology was established as a College of Advanced Technology (United Kingdom), College of Advanced Technology on a single site on the corner of Manresa Road and King's Road, Chelsea, London, Chelsea, London SW ...

. He later completed his Master of Science in Mining-Mineral Production Management at the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...

, a Management Development Programme at the

University of South Africa The University of South Africa (UNISA), known colloquially as Unisa, is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, U ...

, and an Advanced Management Programme at

Templeton College, Oxford Templeton College was one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, England. It was an all-graduate college, concentrating on the recruitment of students in business and management studies. In 2008, the college merged with Green ...

Business career

In 1975, Cockerill began work in

Welkom Welkom () is the second-largest city in the Free State province of South Africa, located about northeast of Bloemfontein which is the provincial capital. Welkom is also known as Circle City, City Within A Garden, Mvela and Matjhabeng. The cit ...

South Africa at the

Union Corporation Union Corporation Limited was a South African mining house. It was founded as the A Goerz & Co Ltd in the late 1890's as a gold mining company. After World War One, it was renamed the Union Corporation. In 1980 it was merged into the General Mining ...

. His career with the

Anglo American plc Anglo American plc is a British listed multinational mining company with headquarters in London, England. It is the world's largest producer of platinum, with around 40% of world output, as well as being a major producer of diamonds, copper, n ...

Group began in 1979 when he joined

De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...

as technical assistant at

Kleinzee Kleinzee is a small village on the west coast of the Northern Cape province in South Africa at the mouth of the Buffels River. It is just south of Grootmis, 72 km south-east of Port Nolloth and 105 km west of Springbok. Previously a clos ...

diamond operations in

Port Nolloth Port Nolloth is a town and small domestic seaport in the Namaqualand region on the northwestern coast of South Africa, northwest of Springbok, Northern Cape, Springbok. It is the seat of the Richtersveld Local Municipality. The port was previousl ...

. After a period in the United Kingdom at Minorco’s Technical Director's Office, Cockerill returned to South Africa on transfer to the gold division of Anglo American Corporation, later AngloGold Ltd, as Manager of Elandsrand and Western Deep Levels West Mine (1992 to 1996). Between 1996 and 1999, Cockerill was Executive Director (Business Development) and Executive Officer (African International Operations) of AngloGold Limited. In 1999, Cockerill became Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of

Gold Fields Limited Gold Fields Limited (formerly The Gold Fields of South Africa) is one of the world's largest gold mining firms. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the New York Sto ...

, and in 2002 he was appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer of Gold Fields Ltd. In June 2008, Cockerill rejoined

as Chief Executive Officer (Anglo Coal), responsible for all global operations until retiring from that position in 2009. Cockerill was Executive Chairman (2009 to 2015) and Chairman (2015 to 2017) of Petmin Limited, South Africa's leading producer of metallurgical anthracite.

Controversies and awards

In October 2004, while Cockerill was CEO, rival mining company Harmony Gold Mining Company launched an aggressive hostile takeover bid for Goldfields Ltd. Cockerill led a spirited defence against the takeover bid, indicating that the proposed transaction would result in labour retrenchments and a substantial lessening of competition in the South African and global gold mining industry. Harmony Gold’s hostile bid was defeated in May 2005. The hostile takeover bid, and Cockerill's role in defending Goldfields from the takeover, became the subject of the controversial non-fiction text "Battlefields of Gold:How Gold Fields Fought for Survival and Won" by Rex Gibson (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2012) In October 2009, Cockerill was forced out of his position as CEO of Anglo Coal in a management cull carried out by Anglo CEO

Cynthia Carroll Cynthia Blum Carroll (born November 13, 1956) is an American businesswoman. She was the chief executive officer of Anglo American PLC, a South African mining company, which, among other things, is the world's largest platinum producer. On Octo ...

. Carroll had handpicked him for the job in April 2008, when he moved from his previous position as CEO of Gold Fields. Speculation in the global financial and mining press was that Cockerill was axed because he was a threat to Carroll’s position. In November 2007, Cockerill was named South Africa's 2007 Leading Manager.

Conservation

As founding Chairman of the non-profit organisation Leadership for Conservation in Africa (2006 to 2016), Cockerill was engaged in promoting conservation and sustainable development across the African continent in partnership with the South African National Parks Board, global business leaders and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

South African Mining Hall of Fame

On 3 October 2017 Cockerill was inducted into the South African Mining Hall of Fame at the 2017 Mining Indaba in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, South Africa.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockerill, Ian 1954 births Living people Alumni of King's College London Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of Templeton College, Oxford South African conservationists South African mining businesspeople