Duncan Wanblad

Duncan Wanblad is the CEO of Anglo American plc, one of the world's largest diversified mining companies with a heritage stretching back over 100 years to the South African gold and diamond rush era. Anglo American produces copper, iron ore, platinum group metals, diamonds (through De Beers), and metallurgical coal across multiple countries including Chile, Brazil, South Africa, Peru, Botswana, and Australia. Wanblad's leadership was dramatically tested in 2024 when BHP, the world's largest miner, launched a $49 billion hostile takeover bid. Wanblad and the Anglo American board rejected the bid and instead announced a radical self-help restructuring plan: demerging and separating Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), De Beers, and the steelmaking coal business to create a focused copper and iron ore mining company. This transformation represents the most significant reshaping of a major mining company in decades. His critical decisions involve executing the demerger and divestment timeline, growing copper production (Anglo American's Quellaveco mine in Peru and its substantial Chilean copper operations position it as a major beneficiary of the energy transition copper supercycle), iron ore expansion, and managing the complex stakeholder dynamics in South Africa, where Anglo American is a historically significant employer.