Rio Tinto senior independent director John Varley has resigned as a non-executive director and will step down from the board with immediate effect. He joined the Rio Tinto board in September 2011 and was also the chair of the Remuneration Committee.
An announcement about the appo[ds_preview]intment of a new senior independent director and chair of the Remuneration Committee will be made in due course, the company said in a statement.
Before joining Rio Tinto, Varley, a British citizen, had spent 28 years with Barclays, most notably as chief executive of the Group from 2004 until 2010. During his career with Barclays, he held several senior positions, including chairman of the Asset Management division, group finance director and deputy chief executive. Prior to joining Barclays, John worked as a solicitor.
Varley also holds positions as non-executive director of BlackRock since 2009, and acted as non-executive director and senior independent director of AstraZeneca from 2006 and 2012 respectively until April 2015. He also is chairman of Marie Curie since 2011, chairman of Employment for Excluded Groups since 2006 and trustee of the Prince of Wales Charitable Foundation since 2011.
