Full Name: Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan (Venkat)

Position: CEO of AngloGold Ashanti since May 2013

Main Activity of the Company: Gold mining

Date and Place of Birth: March 29, 1965, Chennai (formerly Madras), India, where I grew up

Education: I was educated at Don Bosco Matriculation School (a Christian missionary school in India); did my university and chartered accountancy studies – BCom and ACA (ICAI) – simultaneously in Chennai; and was sent to London initially for work experience and employment

First Job: Articled clerk, Fraser & Ross, Chennai, which became Deloitte. I then moved over to Deloitte in London, where I gained invaluable experience in accounting and, importantly, restructuring, turnaround and workout experience. Ashanti was one such project where I was brought in to restructure the finances, after the hedgebook had turned bad. I was in Ghana for four years and then moved down to South Africa

Size of Your Pay Packet: It is still being discussed. I am not motivated by money

Value of Assets under Your Control: AngloGold Ashanti is the third-largest gold producer in the world. During the past year, AngloGold Ashanti’s market capitalisation fell from $18-billion to its current level of $8-billion, which is largely a function of gold price volatility

Number of People under Your Leadership: 60 000

Management Style: I value the team and I am highly consultative but, ultimately, very decisive

Personal Best Achievement: Removing Ashanti’s legacy hedgebook, and then doing the same at AngloGold Ashanti. I do not like smooth-sailing jobs. I like to be in the thick of a storm and try to see the ship through the storm, with the team intact

Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Career: My father, my mother, my sister and my wife

Person You Would Most Like to Meet: Nelson Mandela. I saw him at Sandton Intercontinental when I was still at Ashanti. My wife and I were just checking out of the hotel, en route from a Geita board meeting, when he walked through and looked at us and smiled. We did not get a chance to actually meet him, but my wife shook his hand and, on that day, something in me told me we were destined for South Africa

Businessperson Who Has Impressed You Most: Too many to single out any one

Philosophy of Life: Be honest, be direct and talk from the heart

Biggest Ever Opportunity: This one

Biggest Ever Disappointment: Not moving faster to remove AngloGold Ashanti’s legacy hedgebook when I joined, owing to shareholding constraints at that time

Hope for the Future: That we live to see a much brighter South Africa, to the envy of the outside world. I believe the country has huge potential

Favourite Reading: Short books with a big font

Favourite TV Programme: Suits – I think it’s brilliant

Favourite Food/Drink: Indian food, all the time, and salted lassi

Favourite Music: Bollywood music

Favourite Sport: Cricket

Hobbies: Watching Bollywood movies and action movies. I also quite like retreating to Umhlanga, which reminds me of my childhood days in Chennai

Car: A four-year-old Mitsubishi Pajero – I do not like flashy cars

Pets: No pets. My wife says she has three – our two children and myself, and that is quite enough

Miscellaneous Dislikes: When people are not straight and direct; you are far better off giving someone your view in the most constructive manner

Married: To AngloGold Ashanti!! Hamsa

Children: Two sons, Shyamkumar, a second-year BCom student at the University of the Witwatersrand, and Prashant, who is a year away from matric

Clubs: None