Wall Street Journal cites Cynthia Carroll '78

"As a merger wave tore through the mining sector this year, one company opted out of the party -- Anglo American PLC. Instead, its CEO, Cynthia Carroll, looked inward, focusing her efforts on an internal overhaul of the giant but fusty mining group."

So begins Wall Street Journal reporter Guy Chazan's description of Cynthia Carroll, Skidmore Class of '78, in putting her at number 20 yesterday in its list of "Women to Watch".

"The first female and non-South African to head Anglo, Ms. Carroll, a 51-year-old American geologist, had a mandate to shake things up at a company long dominated by conservative white Afrikaners," Chazan continues. "When she arrived in March 2007 she found a loose, sprawling conglomerate that had spread from its core mining operations into areas like paper and packaging and aggregates. Different divisions were run almost like independent businesses.

"Under the banner 'One Anglo,' Ms. Carroll tried to instill a common sense of purpose, direction and values across the group. While Anglo's rivals indulged in merger mania, she made improving frayed relations with the South African government a top priority. Since she joined Anglo, it has signed a series of deals under South Africa's Black Economic Empowerment Scheme aimed at transferring ownership and management of companies to the black majority.

"Safety has also become a watchword at Anglo, one of the world's biggest producers of platinum, diamonds, nickel, coal and iron ore. In a presentation in April, Ms. Carroll said death and injuries at Anglo's mines remained 'shockingly high' and pledged to improve them.

"Observers say her outsider status has allowed her to tackle so many taboos at Anglo. She came to the company from Canadian aluminum producer Alcan Inc. Before that, she worked as a petroleum geologist for oil giant Amoco, now part of BP PLC.

"So far she's determined to sit out the M&A boom in mining. 'We are the eighth-largest company in the FTSE 100,' she said in one recent interview. 'How much larger do we have to be?'"