The 2025 Human Resources Director Hot List has recognised Ben Mansour, Anglo American’s Head of People, Capability and Organisation for his contributions to the industry and his forward-thinking strategies in the human resources sector.
Ben, who leads Human Resources for Anglo American’s steelmaking coal operations in Australia, has been selected as one of seven winners among 55 key leaders across Australia and New Zealand recognised for their leadership, innovation and contributions to the industry.
Human Resources Director’s 30+ strong Intelligence Unit determined the winners by following a rigorous five-month process, which included interviewing objective industry professionals and conducting extensive research.
Through this assessment, Ben emerged as one of the distinguished contributors to the industry.
Some of Ben’s key achievements during his role at Anglo American included successfully negotiating seven enterprise agreements without industrial action, understood to be a record in the Australian mining industry, during 2024.
Ben takes immense pride in being acknowledged as one of the industry’s finest within the HR domain.
“Some mining organisations for a long time have taken a competitive view to relationships with peer organisations, unions and government and industry regulators,” he said.
“What we have shown is that it is possible to achieve great outcomes to problems by working together, whether that be at industry level or by developing working forums.”
Anglo American’s people-first approach was also recognised when it received the Excellence in Diversity Programs and Performance at the 2024 Resources Awards for Women in Queensland, for a suite of programs designed to drive female leadership. The programs were also highly commended in the same category at the 2024 Women in Resources National Awards in Canberra.
“We set ourselves a task to create an innovative, inclusive and diverse people strategy that helped us create an equitable organisation for every employee.
“We created an environment where employees could easily connect with accessible mentors to propel their career goals, this has benefitted women and also a diverse range of employees from differing backgrounds.
“We designed a forward-thinking strategy to bring women into non-traditional technical and operational roles by building talent pipelines from graduate, apprenticeship and trainee programs.
“This has allowed the organisation to achieve an elevation of merit-based appointment of women into leadership roles, ensuring informed decision-making and equal representation at every stage.
“We’ve achieved significant milestones, including women now holding a third of key leadership roles at Anglo American’s Australian operations.
“We are focused on creating true gender equity and inclusion. It’s just the start, but we are committed to driving a values-driven culture where talent knows no gender and where every individual is given the opportunity to thrive.”
Chris Sweeney, Managing Editor for Special Reports at Human Resource Director Australia/New Zealand, shared his insights on the selection process.
“Ben fully deserves this recognition due to the groundbreaking initiatives he has introduced, his leadership skills and also how he has made HR a vital part of the organisation in Australia.”
