Kinross COO Roberts out on VP restructure

Kinross Gold Corp. April 16 announced it is streamlining its senior leadership team by eliminating two senior vice presidents, including Lauren Roberts, who was general manager at Fort Knox before assuming the role of senior vice president and chief operating officer for the global gold mining company.

"During his long and successful career at Kinross, Lauren was a relentless champion of safety and delivered many accomplishments, including achieving our annual production and cost guidance over the past two years," said Kinross Gold President and CEO J. Paul Rollinson. "He provided strong operational leadership and was instrumental in the success of our sites across all regions, from permitting, operations and closure."

With Roberts leaving, Kinross Gold Chief Technical Officer Paul Tomory, who led the successful completion of phase one expansion at Kinross' Tasiast gold mine in western Africa, has been elevated to an executive vice president and will assume additional responsibility for regional operations.

"I am confident Paul will continue to maintain the excellent safety and operational track records that we hold as core company strengths and deliver on our project development goals," said Rollinson.

The senior vice-presidents of Kinross' three operating regions – Americas, Russia and West Africa – will also have increased accountability for the operational success of their respective regions, in particular, safety, cash flow, production and costs.

Gina Jardine, senior vice-president, human resources, is also leaving the company by mutual agreement.

"As head of HR, Gina strategically advanced our approach to talent, executive development and succession," Rollinson said. "She provided strong leadership to our HR functions across Kinross and headed the development of our culture and employee engagement through the launch of our People Commitments."

Kinross' human resources department has been re-structured to align more closely with operations and corporate responsibilities.

"With the goal of increasing efficiency and cost management, we have streamlined our senior leadership team to ensure we are well positioned to continue delivering on our commitments and building value for the future," explained Rollinson.

To support the streamlined senior leadership team, Kinross has created a leadership advisory team that will consist of experienced Kinross leaders with diverse perspectives and functional expertise to provide direct input and insight on organizational issues, corporate strategy and key business decisions.

"The leadership advisory team is indicative of the deep and talented bench strength at Kinross," the Kinross CEO added. "By formalizing this team, we are leveraging our talent and expertise to increase operational effectiveness, transparency, and communication between all aspects of the business so we are better equipped to make and implement decisions quickly and successfully without adding another reporting structure layer."

The strategic functions represented in the leadership advisory team includes safety and sustainability, technical services, operations, exploration, finance, legal, human resources, government relations, investor relations and corporate development.

–SHANE LASLEY