Full Name: Mark Rodney Davis
Position: CEO of Master Blaster
Main Activity of the Company: Offering innovative, alternative explosives solutions to the mining industry
Date and Place of Birth: November 12, 1957, Kitwe, Zambia
Education: Some schooling, some hockey, some army, some mining, lots of explosives engineering and then 20-odd years of continuous learning, doing what I love
First Job: Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
Size of First Pay Packet: Far too little, I am sure
Management Style: I do not know; you would have to ask my partners
Personal Best Achievement: Inventing what is still the safest shock tube initiation system in the world and then passing the 100-million holes blasted mark
Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Life: It would have to be my old man: father, mate, miner and Springbok hockey player
People Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Career: Drew Jarvis, Peter Wentworth, Rob Lindsay, my current partners (Brian Fitzgerald and Jeff Fenwick) and all the ‘haters’ who helped me to get better at my job
Person You Would Most Like to Meet: Harry Oppenheimer
Businessperson Who Has Impressed You Most: Anyone who started with nothing and still managed to do what is right for his or her family, mates and the industry in which he or she works
Philosophy of Life: Family first, mates second, third and fourth, and “you don’t have to do what the others do to succeed”
Biggest Ever Opportunity: Starting Master Blaster with two of my best mates, Brian Fitzgerald and Jeff Fenwick
Biggest Ever Disappointment: The continuous tactics employed by the supposed doyens of the South African explosives industry in attempting to maintain market share ‘at any cost’, despite the consequences to the underground work
Hope for the Future: That South Africa’s mining executives finally accept that resistance to change is their biggest impediment to success and realise that there are already options out there to make continuous mining a reality – now
Favourite Reading: Newspapers
Favourite TV Programme: Vikings or Banshee
Favourite Food/Drink: Because my office is basically my car, I tend to focus on all the healthy options: pies, sausage rolls and chocolate, washed down with a Diet Coke
Favourite Music: Anything where the singer’s voice sounds like his or her vocal chords have been sand-papered
Favourite Sport: International rugby
Hobbies: Watching all sport and news on television. I was going to say gym and mountain biking, but you have a picture of me – and it is my firm belief that men should not wear Lycra
Car: Lexus LS 460, eight years old and over 300 000 km, so not as larney as you think
Pets: My wife’s three cats – by executive order
Miscellaneous Dislikes: Donald Trump; bullying and lying, or, as I said, Donald Trump
Married: To Merrill, for 38 years
Children: Two of my best mates, Dustin, 33; Cassandra, 28
Clubs: Left them all behind in Zimbabwe, after somebody asked me, not so politely, to vacate my farm, so a friend of his who lives in the UK could take it over. This is a very small exclusive club, which, quite frankly, I wish I was not part of