This was a meeting with a difference. Ricardo Flores, the President of Previ (the pension fund of the employees of the Bank of Brazil), last Wednesday took over as the Board President at Vale, showing himself to be at home in the new job. Mr Flores led the meeting from beginning to end and asked the Administrative Board to include three presentations about the operation of the company on the agenda of the next meeting.
The first is a presentation about the governance of the mining company; the second, a presentation of the shared control area which involves everything that is a purchase or a form of accounting control of the company, under the responsibility of Executive Director Carla Grasso; and the third about the monitoring of investment projects. These are issues which have been touchy for the company in recent years, as Vale has shown in the 5 November issue, about what happens behind the scenes at the mining company.
The appointment of Mr Flores to the position formerly occupied by Sergio Rosa represented a change in the relationship between the shareholders and the executive board of the company. For the first time in many years, the whole Board, under the supervision of executive president Roger Agnelli, came to the Administration Board meeting.
After a formal speech ideal for such occasions, in which Mr Flores said it was an honour to take over the command of the Board of the mining company, of which Previ is the largest shareholder, Sergio Rosa made a live statement thanking the Directors and Board Members who worked with him during his tenure of almost four full terms, of two years each. Mr Rosa took over the post in 2003 and has brought his exit forward by five months. For this reason, Mr Flores takes over the Board position in an interim arrangement up to April 2011. Whether he continues as Board President after that will depend on a Vale shareholders’ meeting.
After listening to Mr Flores and Mr Rosa, Mr Agnelli presented the company results and there was the approval of two major mining projects, one at Simandhou, in Guinea, and the other at Serra Sul, in Carajás.
After the meeting, Ricardo Flores was honoured with a lunch at the head office of the Company, with the participation of shareholders, executive directors and also middle management, many of whom had direct contact with the shareholders’ representative for the first time. The relaxed atmosphere was considered a good start in the coexistence between the new Board President and the top management of the mining giant.
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