Sanjeev Gandhi

Sanjeev Gandhi became Managing Director and CEO of Orica Limited in 2021, bringing a global chemicals industry perspective from his previous role as a member of the Board of Executive Directors at BASF, the world's largest chemical company. At BASF, he was responsible for agricultural solutions and had deep experience managing complex global supply chains and commodity-linked businesses. Orica is the world's largest provider of commercial explosives and blasting systems, with operations in over 100 countries serving the mining, quarrying, oil and gas, and construction industries. The company's core products — bulk explosives (primarily ammonium nitrate-based), detonators, and initiating systems — are essential inputs for extracting minerals and breaking rock. Orica's scale, safety record, and integrated supply chain (including its own ammonium nitrate manufacturing) give it significant competitive advantages. Under Gandhi's leadership, Orica has accelerated its "future-facing" strategy, investing heavily in digital mining technologies. Products like OreMaps (3D orebody visualization), BlastIQ (blast optimization software), and FRAGTrack (fragment size measurement) transform Orica from a commodity explosives supplier into a technology-enabled mining solutions provider, commanding higher margins. Gandhi's decisions on digital product development, pricing strategy for bulk explosives (which are tied to ammonium nitrate and energy costs), geographic portfolio optimization, and sustainability initiatives (particularly reducing the carbon footprint of blasting) are the key variables for Orica's stock.