Australia’s Russell Mineral Equipment (RME Global) has appointed its global engineering manager for asset support, Simon Thompson, as its new general manager of engineering after a global recruitment process run by Korn Ferry.
Thompson will oversee RME’s product optimisation and prototype commercialisation activities.
The company, established in 1985 and now operating in 64 countries, is the world’s leading manufacturer of mineral grinding mill relining machines. RME last year shipped its 500th mill relining unit. The Toowoomba, Queensland, based company employs more than 450 people.
Thompson is said to bring more than a decade of experience in the mining machinery original equipment manufacturer sector. He received his bachelor of mechanical engineering with first class honours from the University of Southern Queensland, where he earned the Frederick Barnes Waldron Award for the highest overall achievement in the course.
“I joined RME to work with an ambitious, strategically-minded business with a passion for innovation and excellence,” Thompson said.
“It’s a company with both the willingness and capacity to cater for those that thrive on making positive change.
“In my new position I look forward to leveraging my team’s intrinsic motivations and continuing to unify RME’s global engineering cohort.”
RME founder and executive chair John Russell said Thompson was “an excellent engineer [and] also a dynamic, accessible and compelling leader”.
“These traits were key to his selection for this new role, in support of RME’s values and culture, as well as the role’s responsibility to develop the imaginations and careers of RME’s engineers,” Russell said.
“For 38 years RME has made enormous investments in the design, manufacture and supply of grinding mill relining technologies and services. We have an unwavering commitment to improving the safety and performance of our customers’ operations, the safety and development of our employees, the creation of local jobs, and the betterment of the communities in which we operate.”
