Rio chairman stands down

The chairman of Rio Tinto, Paul Skinner, is stepping down at the end of March.

He will be replaced by Jim Leng, currently deputy chairman of Tata Steel.

Mr Leng began his career in the 1960s with John Waddington, the Monopoly board game maker, moving on to Low & Bonar, the industrial textiles manufacture, where he rose to be chief executive in 1992.

In 1995 the 63-year-old joined the chemicals group Laporte and by 2001 had been appointed chairman of Doncasters, the engineering group.

In the final phase of Paul Skinner’s watch, Rio Tinto fought off a hostile takeover bid from BHP Billiton, which was launched in late 2007 and originally valued the company at $147 billion.

A year later, BHP withdrew interest because of concerns about the continued deterioration of global economic conditions.

Rio has since embarked on a cost reduction programme in response to falling commodity prices and a slump in demand.

The measures involve around 14,000 job losses and the sale of assets worth billions of dollars in a move aimed at reducing the group’s $39 billion debt.

Mr Leng says he is looking forward to working closely with Rio’s chief executive, Tom Albanese, and steering the company through the challenges of the current economic climate and beyond.