PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Evolution Mining has tapped CFO and FD Lawrie Conway as the company’s first CEO, and as MD, effective from January 1, 2023.

Evolution founder Jake Klein will continue on in the role as executive chairperson, and has agreed to a new contract which would see him remain in the role until at least the end of 2024.

“Evolution has transformed its portfolio of operations over the past few years and given the structure and scale of the business, now is the right time to appoint a CEO and Conway is the ideal candidate,” Klein told shareholders.

“The creation of this role will allow us to continue to deliver on both Evolution’s strategic ambitions and operational performance and establishes the organisational structure for the next chapter of growth and development. Conway will bring a necessary whole-of-business focus as we progress the implementation of our vision of building Evolution into a premier, global gold company.

“We have a very strong team and foundation in place and it is pleasing that we have started the new financial year well with our July and August operational performance in line with plan.”

Conway was initially appointed as a nonexecutive director of Evolution in November 2011 and later as the CFO and FD since August 2014.

“We have worked very effectively together and with the full support of the board and the leadership team, we are confident that this will continue into the future,” Klein said.

Conway said it was a privilege to be appointed to the role of CEO and MD as Evolution moved into the next phase of its journey to be a premier, global gold company.

“Evolution has a highly talented workforce committed to safely delivering our plans from a high-quality portfolio of assets.

“I have had the pleasure of working closely with Jake since Evolution was formed and look forward to continuing to work closely with him in his role as Executive Chair and with the leadership team moving forward,” he added

A search for a new CFO has commenced.