News

April 22, 2008

Richard Johnson Settles In At Allied Gold, And Outlines Some Big Plans

By Alastair Ford

The new chief executive at Allied Gold is Richard Johnson. He came in for a bit of flak here in London when he was appointed back in January for choosing to re-locate Allied’s offices to Brisbane. And rightly so, you’d think. Perth is Australia’s great mining capital. You could make a case, possibly, although not perhaps seriously, for Melbourne or Sydney, on the basis of their metropolitan and international status. You might even, at a push, argue for Canberra, if you need to bend the ears of government officials on a regular basis in order to steer a tricky license through. But Brisbane?

It turns out that working out of Brisbane was a condition of taking the job for Richard Johnson, for two very good reasons. Firstly, he already lives there. Not perhaps the most fundamental of financial, or even technical, of arguments. But on the other hand never underestimate the value of happy executives at the top of your business. Secondly, and crucially from the business angle, Brisbane is the jumping off point from Australia to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. Why take...