BHP chairman Ken MacKenzie seeks full term
BHP chairman Ken MacKenzie plans to lead Australia’s biggest company until at least 2025, taking him to the brink of the nine-year limit he has championed within the miner’s boardroom.
Mr MacKenzie was re-elected to the BHP board for an eighth year at Wednesday’s shareholder meeting in Adelaide, which featured complaints from Brazilian representatives about the pace of reparations for the fatal Samarco dam disaster.
BHP chairman Ken MacKenzie in Adelaide on Wednesday. David Mariuz
Mr MacKenzie will exit the BHP board within 22 months if he observes BHP’s informal policy of limiting director terms to nine years, but he declined an opportunity on Wednesday to confirm whether he would leave the chairman’s seat before the next chief executive transition.
Asked whether he intended to stay long enough to appoint Ken Henry’s successor, Mr MacKenzie did not directly address the succession issue, but signalled instead that he would continue into 2025, at least.
“My intention is to stand for re-election at BHP next year,” he said, in reference to board elections scheduled for November 2024.
Mr MacKenzie has been BHP chairman since September 2017 and appointed Mr Henry as CEO on January 1, 2020.
BHP has traditionally sought to avoid replacing the chairman and chief executive at the same time, stoking expectations that Mr MacKenzie would logically step down before Mr Henry.
The preference for BHP directors to serve a maximum of nine years arose from a policy within the United Kingdom Corporate Governance Code, which was applied to BHP when it was dual-listed on both the Australian and London stock exchanges.
While the nine-year limit has not been strictly observed, Mr MacKenzie was known to be a passionate advocate for it around the
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