Graham Kerr's star rising at BHP Billiton

By Peter Ker
Updated August 23 2014 - 1:18am, first published 12:15am

If betting agencies framed markets around the next chief executive of BHP Billiton, Graham Kerr's odds would have shortened significantly over the past week.

That might sound odd, given his appointment as chief executive of BHP's newly demerged company will effectively require him to leave the world's biggest miner.

But as we found out when Marius Kloppers handed over to Andrew Mackenzie last year, succession planning at BHP is a continuous process that is considered at all times of the cycle.

Mackenzie was one of the first big recruits of the Kloppers era, and his treatment of Kerr suggests the 43-year-old is being given every chance to prove his worth for a shot at the top job one day.

A product of a government school education in what was then multicultural and working class South Fremantle, Kerr studied business and finance at Edith Cowan University, while showing promise as an Australian rules footballer.

He joined BHP as a graduate and has worked on an array of its global assets; from iron ore in the Pilbara to the diamond mine the company once owned in arctic Canada.

Conveniently, he has spent time at the Cannington silver and lead mine in outback Queensland, the asset that will probably be his biggest earner in charge of the demerged company.

His big break at BHP came when Alex Vanselow resigned as chief financial officer at the end of 2011, allowing Kerr to catapult into one of BHP's most public roles before his 40th birthday.

"I would follow that guy anywhere," a colleague of Kerr's said this week. "He has such a disarming style."

Running the demerged group won't be easy; it is tipped to be more vulnerable to cyclical swings, and an instant operator in the mergers and acquisitions space.

But if he can get it right, Kerr will be uniquely positioned for a shot at the top job in world mining when BHP goes looking for its next chief executive.

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