Riaan van der Merwe

Mr Riaan van der Merwe, a "Mining Engineering graduate of the University of Pretoria, began his career in South Africa’s deep-level gold mining industry, with the last 19 years of his career spent in the South African coal industry with the Anglo American Group. He has held senior management positions in both opencast and underground mines and headed up Anglo Coal South Africa’s Eskom and later Export operations, responsible for delivering some 32 million and 19 million tonnes per annum respectively into those markets. His latest role was to lead that company’s growth projects and mining services, involving a project pipeline in excess of R15 billion.

"In addition to his mining qualification, Mr van der Merwe holds an MBA degree from the North-West University (formerly Potchefstroom University) and attended the Senior Executive Programme at Columbia Business School."

• Chief Operating Officer, Coal of Africa Limited