Mick Davis: A history of steely determination
it’s not often that Mick Davis, knighted by the UK’s queen in 2015, has been called an asshole; at least, not to his face. Enter Bernard Swanepoel, the former CEO of Harmony Gold, who first bumped into Davis during the 1980s, early in their respective careers. “When I first met you at Genmin [General Mining],
I thought you were an asshole,” said Swanepoel, who was about to pose online audience questions during the Joburg Indaba conference he convenes, and at which Davis was a star turn. “Then I got to know you, and I realised you were a clever asshole.”
If Davis was taken aback, it didn’t show, maintaining to a tee his reputation as a cool customer.
A former colleague recalls a work-related dinner with Davis that was carried off in an awkward, near-complete silence; conversation difficult, and certainly not encouraged by Davis. Anecdotes of this ilk have led to a reputation that Davis is icily cold, a view assisted by his (highly successful) managerial style, which was to decentralise management functions and delegate responsibility to the mining operations.
In a frank interview with Fiona Perrott-Humphrey,
