Why boards appoint us
Getting one of these appointments wrong costs far more than the search: a strategy that does not get delivered, a state relationship that does not survive a change of minister, or a capital programme that loses its sponsor halfway through.
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| One sector | Natural resources only: mining and metals, critical minerals, the energy transition. The founder has worked in talent management since 1998 and in retained executive search in mining since 2007. |
| One point of contact | The person you brief runs the mandate and makes the assessment, start to finish. The mandate does not pass to an associate after the pitch. |
| Board-level record | Paul Templeton's appointments at this level span chair, non-executive, chief executive, financial, operating and technical officer roles across five continents. The founder's career record: two hundred and twenty-eight senior placements across forty-three countries. |
| Assessment | Every shortlisted candidate assessed by Paul Templeton, with references checked and psychometric testing where needed through specialist mining assessment firms. |
| Few conflicts | A small concurrent client list keeps most of the mining market open to your search. Ask every firm on your shortlist for its off-limits list before you sign; ours is short. |
| Retained only | Exclusive mandates, staged fees, a written replacement guarantee. No contingent work and no parallel agency competition. |
Appointment record at this level
Paul Templeton's appointments at this level include chairs in the United States and the United Kingdom, non-executive directors, and chief executives in gold, coal, steel, base metals and industrial minerals. Drawn from the mandate ledgers on the regional pages; client names are held in confidence. The founder's wider career record runs to two hundred and twenty-eight senior placements across forty-three countries.
| Level | Appointments | Where |
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| Chair | Coal; critical minerals & rare earths | United States, United Kingdom |
| Non-executive director | Gold (two); coal; critical minerals & rare earths | Canada, United States, United Kingdom |
| Chief executive officer | Gold (three); coal; steel; base metals (two); industrial minerals | Liberia, Canada, United States, Kazakhstan, United Kingdom |
| Chief financial officer | Group, regional and deputy CFO; group treasurer | Namibia, DR Congo, Chile, Switzerland, Liberia |
| Chief operating officer | Copper, zinc and gold; diversified operations | Sierra Leone, DR Congo, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia |
| Chief technical officer | Iron ore; regional CTO, base metals | United Kingdom, Canada |
| Vice president, operations | Base metals; smelting | Chile, Australia |
A representative selection of appointments at board and executive committee level. Full regional ledgers sit on the Africa, Americas, Australasia, Eurasia & FSU and Middle East & Europe pages.
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How we help
Board search: chair & non-executive director
Board composition work: building a longlist against a defined skills gap (operational, technical, capital markets, ESG, or judgement in a specific jurisdiction) and approaching directors confidentially long before a name reaches a board paper. Includes senior independent director and committee chair appointments.
Chief executive succession
Planned successions and unplanned ones. Internal slates assessed against the external market on identical criteria, so the committee can defend the decision either way. Run without a public brief while the incumbent remains in post.
Chief financial officer search
Group and regional chief financial officers, and the finance leadership beneath them, for companies moving between development, production and acquisition. Assessed for capital-markets credibility as much as for technical accounting depth.
Chief operating & technical officer search
The executives who carry the assets: chief operating officers, chief technical officers and vice presidents of operations, across single-asset producers and multi-country groups.
Executive committee build-out
Where the requirement is a whole team: a developer building its first full executive committee ahead of production, or a group replacing several functions after a change of control.
Governance context
Board briefs are written against the code the company actually reports under, whether that is the UK Corporate Governance Code, the ASX Corporate Governance Principles, Canadian NI 58-101 or the King Code, because the definition of independence and the expected committee composition follow from it.
Leadership assessment at board level
At board and executive committee level the technical question is usually settled early. What decides the appointment is judgement: how a person holds a relationship with a state, an investor or a joint-venture partner when the asset is not performing, and whether they can be disagreed with.
Paul Templeton assesses every shortlisted candidate against those questions himself and checks references on each. Where needed, psychometric testing is provided through several specialist mining assessment firms.
For non-executive appointments the same discipline applies to fit with the board that already exists. A director who duplicates the chair's strengths adds nothing to a composition gap.
How the mandate runs
| Stage | What happens |
|---|
| Brief | With the nomination committee or the chair. The composition gap or succession horizon is defined before any specification is written. |
| Longlist and shortlist | A longlist of the people doing the job today, including those who would never answer an advertisement, narrowed to a qualified shortlist for the committee. |
| Assessment | Every shortlisted candidate assessed by Paul Templeton, with references checked and psychometric testing where needed. Internal candidates assessed on identical criteria. |
| Close | Offer, negotiation, notice and transition support through to the first board meeting. |
| Timing | Qualified shortlist in five to six weeks; completion in three to four months. |
| Terms | Retained and exclusive, charged as a fixed fee agreed before the search starts and staged across it, with a written replacement guarantee. Board mandates are not priced as a percentage of compensation: non-executive remuneration is low relative to the work a board appointment takes, so a percentage would misprice it in both directions. |
The founder leads every stage. No associate takes over after the brief, and that is the first thing worth verifying about any firm you consider. Our buyer's guide covers the rest.
Who we serve
Mid-tier producers and private equity-owned junior miners
The centre of the practice. Companies large enough that a chief executive or chief operating officer appointment sets the plan for a decade, and small enough that there is no internal bench to promote from.
Developers moving into production
One of the hardest executive transitions in mining: a team that built a project has to become a team that runs a business. Usually an executive committee build-out rather than a single appointment.
State-owned and joint ventures
Appointments where the state is shareholder, regulator and partner at once, and the executive has to hold that relationship as part of the job rather than alongside it.
Junior explorers and developers
Chair and non-executive appointments that give a small board the technical, capital-markets or jurisdictional credibility it is missing, ahead of a raise or a listing.
What board and executive committee search is
Board and executive committee search is retained work on the roles at the top of a mining company: the chair, the senior independent director and the non-executive directors on the board, and the chief executive, chief financial and chief operating officers and their direct reports on the executive committee. It is commissioned by the nomination committee or the chair, and it runs confidentially.
The work divides into three things that are usually bought together: executive and board search for a defined appointment, succession planning for the roles that will turn over in the next two to three years, and leadership assessment: establishing what a candidate or an incumbent actually does under pressure, rather than what their record implies.
These appointments behave differently from the other searches a mining company runs. The brief is written against a gap in board composition or a succession horizon rather than a vacancy. The incumbent is frequently still in post. The internal candidates have to be assessed on the same basis as the external market, and be told so. And the circle of people who know the search exists is deliberately small, which is the practical reason a founder-led firm suits this work: the list stays with the person you brief.
Frequently asked questions
What is a board and executive committee search in mining?
It is a retained search for the roles that sit at the top of a mining company: the chair, the senior independent director and non-executive directors on the board, and the chief executive, chief financial and chief operating officers and their direct reports on the executive committee. The work is commissioned by the nomination committee or the chair, run confidentially, and assessed against board composition and succession needs rather than a job description alone.
Who appoints non-executive directors to a mining board?
The nomination committee leads the process and recommends to the full board; shareholders then vote on the appointment at the annual general meeting. A search firm is engaged by the committee to map the market against a defined skills gap (operational, technical, financial, capital-markets, ESG or jurisdictional) and to approach candidates confidentially before any name reaches the board paper.
How is a mining CEO succession run confidentially?
The incumbent is usually still in post, so the mandate runs without a public brief. Internal candidates are assessed on the same basis as the external market, approaches are made directly and confidentially rather than through advertising, and the shortlist exists only with the nomination committee. Templeton Global Search runs these mandates through the founder, which keeps the circle of knowledge small.
What board and C-suite appointments has Paul Templeton completed?
The regional mandate ledgers published on this site record chair appointments in coal and in critical minerals and rare earths; non-executive director appointments in gold, coal and critical minerals; chief executive appointments in gold, coal, steel, base metals and industrial minerals across Liberia, Canada, the United States, Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom; and chief financial, chief operating and chief technical officer appointments across Africa, the Americas, Eurasia and Europe. Client names are held in confidence.
How are candidates assessed at board level?
Paul Templeton assesses every shortlisted candidate himself and checks references on each, with psychometric testing provided where needed through several specialist mining assessment firms. At board level the deciding questions are behavioural and situational: how a person holds a relationship with a state, an investor or a joint-venture partner under pressure, and whether their judgement holds when the asset is not performing.
How is a board or non-executive search charged?
As a fixed fee, agreed before the search starts and staged across it, rather than as a percentage of the appointee's compensation. Non-executive remuneration is low relative to the work a board appointment takes, so a percentage of it would not reflect the search. Executive committee appointments are charged on the firm's usual retained basis. Expenses are agreed in advance and a written replacement guarantee applies either way.
How long does a board or executive committee search take?
A qualified shortlist within five to six weeks and completion in three to four months is the normal shape, governed by notice periods, relocation and family moves. Non-executive appointments are often faster; chief executive successions with an internal candidate slate can run longer because the assessment work precedes the external market.
What is a non-executive chief executive?
“Non-executive chief executive” is not a recognised governance role, because the chief executive is by definition an executive: the person who runs the company day to day, usually as an executive director. Non-executive directors, including a non-executive chair, oversee and challenge management without running the business. The phrase usually describes a non-executive director or chair who steps in as chief executive, interim or permanent, and so becomes an executive. Below the Surface looks at why mining boards are making these appointments more often.
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