PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner Rio Tinto has appointed Kaisa Hietala as a non-executive director effective from March 1.
Hietala, a Finnish citizen, is an experienced executive with a strong track record of helping companies transform the challenges of environmental megatrends into business opportunities and growth. She began her career in upstream oil and gas exploration and, as executive VP of renewable products at Neste, a petroleum refining and marketing company, she played a central role in its commercial transformation into the world’s largest and most profitable producer of renewable products.
An experienced non-executive director, Hietala serves on the boards of Exxon Mobil and Smurfit Kappa Group, a global packaging company, and is chair of the board at Tracegrow, a private Finnish sustainable fertilisers company. She is a member of the supervisory board of Oulu University and was formerly a board member of Kemira Oy, a Finnish specialty chemicals company.
“I am delighted to welcome Hietala to the Rio Tinto Board. She brings a deep understanding of the resources industry, sustainability and renewables that will be invaluable as we work to ensure Rio Tinto thrives in a decarbonising world,” Rio Tinto chairman Dominic Barton said.
“As part of our continuing refresh of board capabilities, we are progressing well with a number of other searches to identify non-executive directors with expertise in both mining and sustainability, and expect to announce further appointments in due course.”