Full Name: William Joughin

Position: South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) president, and SRK Consulting partner

Main Activity of the Company: The SAIMM’s mission is to render professional services to its members and to continually improve these services by keeping abreast of technological developments, while SRK is a firm of consulting engineers and scientists

Date and Place of Birth: 1967, Johannesburg

Schools and Tertiary Education: BSc Eng (Mining), University of the Witwatersrand (Wits); MSc Eng (Engineering Management), Wits; Graduate Diploma in Engineering (Rock Engineering), Wits

First Job: Mining graduate in Anglo American’s Gold Division

Career History Prior to Current Position: I moved from mining operations to consulting in 1998, joining SRK Consulting as a senior mining engineer

Size of First Pay Packet: R3 000 a month

First Job with Present Group: Senior mining engineer

Value of Assets under Your Control: Our assets consist entirely of our people, their skills and our historical knowledge of our clients and their operations

Number of People under Your Leadership: 25

Management Style: Technical leadership – which entails delivering highly technical good-quality work, empowering people to develop solutions on their own, and providing guidance

Personal Best Achievement: Receiving a gold medal for a paper at the SAIMM and co-writing two chapters on risk-based design in the book Ground Support in Underground Mines (Potvin and Hadjigeorgiou, 2020) produced by the Australian Centre for Geomechanics

Professional Best Achievement: Being elected the chairperson of SRK Consulting

Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Life: My father, Noel Joughin

Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Career: Dick Stacey, former chairperson for SRK Consulting and professor emeritus at the Wits School of Mining Engineering

Person You Would Most Like to Meet: Nelson Mandela

Businessperson Who Has Impressed You Most: Roger Dixon, former chairperson of SRK Consulting

Philosophy of Life: You never stop learning; there’s always something new to learn

Biggest Ever Opportunity: Being on the seismic review boards of El Teniente and LKAB

Biggest Ever Disappointment: I don’t think I have ever been terribly disappointed; there is no point in dwelling in the past – you can only learn from it

Hope for the Future: To keep growing technically, and that the mining industry grows – I am quite excited about technology in the industry and future developments

Favourite Reading: Fantasy novels

Favourite TV Programme: Tour de France

Favourite Food/Drink: Sashimi and beer

Favourite Music: Easily listening to classic rock, like Cat Stevens

Favourite Sport: Cycling

Favourite Website: Too many to choose from

Hobbies: Listening to podcasts and audiobooks, cycling, hiking, kayaking and birding

Car: Toyota Fortuner

Pets: A mad Jack Russell named Inky

Miscellaneous Dislikes: Arrogant people

Favourite Other South African Company: The Institute of Mine Seismology

Favourite Foreign Company: The Australian Centre of Geomechanics

Married: To Sharon, since 1999

Children: Michael, 22; Brandon, 20

Clubs: None