Alcan Packaging owner Rio Tinto appoints tobacco veteran as chair

Du Plessis will take up the role of chairman of the mining giant on 20 April, replacing the long-standing Paul Skinner.

Du Plessis is also chairman of British American Tobacco and a non-executive director of Marks & Spencer, and has previously held top roles at Swiss luxury goods firm Richemont and now-defunct food manufacturer RHM.

A spokesman for the company told Packaging News that the appointment would not affect Rio Tinto’s plans to sell off the Alcan Packaging business that it acquired in 2007.

However, in a statement this morning du Plessis made clear his intention to pursue the group’s plan to negotiate a $19.5bn cash injection from Chinese firm Chinalco.

“Our immediate focus must be on giving Rio Tinto the best possible platform to create shareholder value and to weather the tough and uncertain global economic conditions.

“Pursuing the completion of the transaction with Chinalco will give Rio Tinto this platform, from which we will be even better placed to prosper when we see economic recovery.”

Du Plessis’s appointment follows a stop-start search for a new chairman. Jim Leng, at the time deputy chairman of Tata Steel, was named as Skinner’s replacement in January but he quit less than a month later. He told reporters that his sudden departure was due to a “difference of opinion” over the Chinalco deal.