Constable Sasol on the beat!!

It's gone under the radar somewhat. Maybe the unions are too focused on the Massmart-Walmart deal and this is next on their agenda. I'm talking about Sasol's appointment of Canadian born David Constable who is currently Fluor Corporation's group president of operations, as their new CEO. His tenure starts on the 1st of July when Pat Davies steps down. Let's look at his credentials and whether this looks like a good decision bearing in mind that Sasol is a proud South African multinational and having a white male foreigner at the helm may not go down so well with the authorities.

Let's start with Fluor Corp and what he does there. Here's a little extract from Fluor's website 'Fluor is a FORTUNE 500 company that delivers engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance and project management to governments and clients in diverse industries around the world.' The company has a market cap of $12.35bn compared to Sasol's $33.5bn so Constable will definitely have his hands full.

At Fluor Corp he was responsible for a vast array of responsibilities in operations which included information technology, project execution, global procurement, construction, industrial relations and project risk management. Prior to this position he headed Flour's power business which involved global fossil fuels and nuclear generation. He also has experience in Flour's Energy and Chemicals group which included oil, gas, power and chemical industries. He has a degree in civil engineering and various management qualifications from prestigious business schools.

The experience is definitely there in the right divisions. Obviously the Board had the opportunity to meet and assess his personality vigorously. You can imagine that he was by far the best candidate if they chose a foreigner. He also has various seats on organisations which include the Institute of Petroleum and the United States Energy Association. This would put him in a good position for Sasol's global expansion aspirations especially in the US and Canada where gas is rife and fracking is being done all over the place. This coincides well with Sasol's shift to the cleaner Gas to Liquids process.

Does this mean there is not enough SA talent out there to manage one of South Africa's most prized assets? Sasol saves South Africa R40bn a year in foreign exchange through their locally produced oil. Hence the company has a lot of social responsibilities from oil production to chemical exports to environmental concerns. You'd imagine that Sasol's best interests are the country's best interests which would be Constables best interests. In fact the department of energy have welcomed his appointment and like his global affiliations and international experience.

I back the board to make the right decision and glad Sasol are showing signs of becoming a true global company. Like I said, the unions have been unusually quiet but I won't be surprised if they pick up on this at a later stage.