Profile
“No matter how many clients I have, I make sure to call each one personally every quarter. It’s a chance to not only update them on their portfolio, but also check on how they’re doing personally”
Kelvin Rampersad,
Carte Wealth Management
Ben Mansour is head of people, capability and organisation for Anglo American’s Australian business, including it's steelmaking coal operations, and responsible for the company’s workforce of over 5,500 people.
With over two decades of experience, his collegial attitude and ability to deliver solutions that benefit multiple parties enables him to stand out. This perspective is especially novel in the mining industry.
“Mining organisations for a long time have taken a competitive view to relationships with peer organisations, unions and government and industry regulators,” says Mansour. “What we have shown is that it is possible to achieve great outcomes to wicked problems by working together, whether that be at industry level or by developing working forums as we have at Anglo with our tripartite forum of Anglo American, state government, industry regulator and the Mining and Energy Union (MEU) that allows for open and robust discussion to solve industry level challenges.”
Mansour’s positive approach demonstrated its value in the aftermath of the underground coal gas ignition incident at the Grosvenor mine in 2024, with 584 permanent staff affected.
“We redeployed all 584 of our permanent employees and over 150 contractors across both our sites, and other peer organisations sites to maintain continuous employment. This outcome could not have been achieved without the relationships built up via our people and external relations strategies that allowed us to work collaboratively with our employees, unions, both state and local government, the Queensland Resources Council and our peer industry organisations,” he explains.
Further displaying Mansour’s innovative style is how he has led Anglo American to collaborate with unions so successfully, that they completed seven enterprise agreement negotiations without any industrial action during 2024, a record in the Australian mining industry.
A clear passion for HR is also evident in how Mansour approaches his role.
He says, “My strengths are a high level of personal resilience combined with an ability to build strong relationships with my direct reports, team, executive peers and externals such as union leaders based on care and respect. Values-based leadership is critical – people don’t care what you know unless they know you care.”
Keen to remain at HR’s leading edge, Mansour monitors the changing landscape. He packages an amalgamation of societal, technological and work expectations into a resource/skills restrained environment.
“Contemporary HR focuses on improving people’s lives as much as the efficiency of the work being done by an organisation,” says Mansour. “The changing expectations on workplace behaviour, inclusion, ways of working, AI and technology and ESG requirements mean that a company needs to have a strong internal culture and excellent value proposition to retain people, as well as a positive and strong external brand to attract the best people.”
Thinking outside the box is a pillar of Mansour’s success. He avoids the narrative of not breaking from tradition.
He adds, “My approach is to challenge the status quo and empower your team to develop novel solutions that improve the HR function’s performance and the employee experience. Unique approaches can be a key competitive advantage for your business to differentiate you from others.”
201 Charlotte Street, Brisbane City, QLD 4000
02 9250 0999
ben.mansour@angloamerican.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-mansour-14571b16/
angloamerican.com
Ben Mansour
Head of People, Capability and Organisation
Anglo American Steelmaking Coal
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“I strongly believe in working smarter, not harder. I think it’s one of the keys to living a great life, and I want to share that with as many people as possible”
Kelvin Rampersad,
Carte Wealth Management
2001
2006
2016
2017
2021–present
Manager at Robert Walters
2001
HR Manager (Anglo American)
2006
Head of HR at Virgin Australia
2016
General manager Employee Relations & HR (Rio Tinto)
2017
Head of People, Capability and Organisation at Anglo American
2021–
present
Milestones
Milestones
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