EXCLUSIVE: Deshnee Naidoo named Vale base metals director, finance & business development

Deshnee Naidoo has been appointed as director, finance & business development, base metals, at Brazilian miner Vale, Fastmarkets understands.

Her position is effective from January 1, 2021, and will see Naidoo lead and direct the Vale base metals finance team, responsible for financial strategy, planning, forecasts and supervising the investment cycles for the base metals division.

She will also be responsible for all financial management stewardship for Vale Canada Ltd and its subsidiaries, including management reporting, budgeting, forecasting and analysis of opportunities associated with the base metals business.

As well, Naidoo will lead the global business development agenda for Vale’s base metals covering transactions for mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and structured operations, from strategic origination to execution.

Naidoo, who will report to Luciano Sani, Vale chief financial officer, was most recently chief executive officer of the Zinc International business at Vedanta Resources from 2014 to 2020. She also took on the role of CEO Africa base metals during her tenure at Vedanta.

She had worked at Anglo American from 1998 to 2014, where she held a number of executive positions including in the CEO office as well as CFO for Anglo American’s thermal coal business.

Naidoo told Metal Market Magazine in an executive profile in April 2020 that she is focused on mining and the positive benefits that it can bring.

“I’m wholly driven by the impact, if channeled properly, that mining can have on local stakeholders, especially communities. I really want to continue doing that. I don’t have a specific end in mind but I’m just going to continue at the pace I’ve created,” she said in that interview.

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