Mick Davis

Mick Davis, the former chief executive of Xstrata, has lost no time getting back into the corporate swim following the takeover of the mining group by its biggest investor Glencore in May 2013.

In his early career, he was a senior manager with accountants Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co from 1980-1986. Davis was an executive director of South African state-owned Eskom, one of the world’s largest electricity utilities, before joining Gencor Ltd in 1994. He served as executive chairman of Ingwe Coal Corporation Ltd from 1995, until appointed as CEO and executive director of Billiton plc in July 1997.

His charitable efforts include a position on the board of UJIA, and he is a member of the Jewish Leadership Council. He is also on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel and a member of the World Executive of Keren Hayesod – Israel United Appeal.

In the future, Davis intends to create a mid-sized diversified mining and metals group to be known as X2 Resources that will use Noble as its marketing arm in much the same way as Swiss-based Glencore was deployed in the past.

Davis has raised $1 billion for his new mining venture in a bet by investors that the industry heavyweight can master the commodities cycle and replicate his record in making Xstrata one of the world’s largest resources groups.