Meet the Boss

Zoe Yujnovich has stepped into the very demanding role of president of IOC and the thirty-something-year-old says she didn't hesitate at all on the offer.

"No, it wasn't a difficult decision, not at all," she said while visiting Labrador West last week. "I guess I think it has a wonderful opportunity for me to be in a position where there has been a lot of hard work done to take the business to where it is. It's always nice to come to a place where you are working with people who are committed to achieve together and I really feel there's an opportunity here because people have done a lot of hard work and there's a lot of willingness to carry that forward. It's also a business where you have an opportunity to see the whole value chain from the mining through to the port. And there are all the stakeholders and customers that go with that. It's a large business but no so big that you can't put your arms around it."

And Yugnovich has had her arms full since joining Rio Tinto in 1996, right after she graduated with an engineering degree in Australia including most recently being president of Rio Tinto Brazil.

Background

She speaks proudly and without reservation of her family and her background.

"My mother is English and my father is Irish," she explained in an Australian accent. "But I was actually born in Hong Kong-my father was a part of the Royal Airforce in London and he was stationed there. But I spend most of my time, my school years, in Australia. I consider myself Australian."

The young Zoe (nee) Ryan then met and married an Australian with a Croatian heritage and the couple now have three children a son born in America, a daughter born in Australia and the youngest daughter born in Brazil.

It's no surprise that home is not really found on the map for the new IOC president who just moved to Montreal from Brazil.

"Home is where the heart is, so home is wherever we are living right now," she said with a broad smile.

Though the Yujnoviches will be living in Montreal, Zoe says her family will be spending some time in Labrador West as well.

"From a family perspective, it works for us," she said of the move to Montreal. "Having lived in both large and small communities I think it's a nice balance for us. We have a young family who are still quite adaptable. I like the languages and variances here. For me that's an advantage. I like the parks the outdoor life as well."

She knows, though, it won't all be a walk in the park and being at the helm of a mining company the caliber of IOC brings with it challenges and pressures to keep it on the top shelf.

Faith in the future

"I do think that there is a very strong future ahead at IOC, I say that because we have all the ingredients that are necessary for a very successful business in the future," she said. "I am certainly keen to sort of harvest that enthusiasm and to continue to build market share and be competitive so we are significant contributor to the Rio Tinto Group and the Rio Tinto Iron Ore Group."

When asked if there was one particular thing she'd like to accomplish in her presidency, she said it will be about the people.

"I think it has to be about the people here, that people come to work, enjoy their job and they are proud to be working for IOC," she said. "I want them to feel like they are contributing to a larger vision that they, themselves, had the opportunity to contribute to. It's about making sure people feel valued, rewarded. I do know that by people enjoying their work, the business does well. And, that means working with our key stakeholders to make sure we work productively to achieve that."

Her first impressions of the operations at IOC, she says, are very good and she is looking forward to meeting with more of the people.

Expansion

As for the expansion project that IOC put on hold last year in response to the global recession, the new president says she is looking forward to the day that the market will dictate a green light for it to reconvene and it's looking like that may happen this year.

"I am really hopeful and would love to see the expansion going ahead," she said. "At the moment there are still some approvals that we will need to go back through and there is a lot of people watching to make sure the market continues to improve. All those things going well, we need to continue to perform well as a business, then I will certainly be supporting the expansion to our Board and our shareholders.

This year, I think it's possible but, at the moment, we are working very hard to have everything in such a condition that we can go [ahead] quickly. So, if we really feel the market is appropriate, then we would really like to see some work happening in the summer."

In the meantime, she says, she wants to continue to ensure the mining company maintains a strong connection to the community.

"I know we are doing some great work in the community and I do encourage that," she said. "The community is very, very important to business. Pretty well all our employees here at IOC live here, so it's very important to have that connection."