En+ board member quits after pressure over firm’s Russia links
The former Deloitte partner Carl Hughes has resigned from the board of En+, the mining company part-owned by the sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, weeks after defending his decision to remain in the post following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Hughes, who has served as an independent director of the London-listed company since 2019 and chairs the audit and risk committee, said last month it was his “fiduciary duty” to stay on. The members of En+ board split $7m (£5.3m) in remuneration in 2020, according to the company’s annual report published last year.
His stance had placed him in opposition to British industry bodies including the Institute of Directors, which said it was “untenable” for British directors to remain on the board of Russian companies.
Hughes is a former global head of energy and resources at Deloitte, and a member of the General Synod of the Church of England and deputy chairman of the finance committee of the Archbishops’ Council. He joined En+ in January 2019 on the day the US Treasury removed the company from its sanctions blacklist.
En+ said at the time its removal was subject to a number of conditions negotiated with the US government, including changing the board so that it was composed of a majority of independent directors. The company, which produces aluminium and power and has 25,000 employees outside Russia, including 4,000 in Ukraine, has not been subject to sanctions following the Russian invasion.
Last month, Greg Barker, the conservative peer and energy minister in David Cameron’s government, resigned as executive chairman of the board of En+, as did Joan MacNaughton, who served as an independent director of the company.
En+, which owns Rusal, the biggest aluminium producer
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