William Joughin

Full Name: William Joughin

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

Main Activity of the Company: SRK Consulting 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 people

Management Style: Technical leadership – I deliver highly technical good-quality work, empower people to develop solutions on their own, and provide guidance

Personal Best Achievement: Getting 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) published 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 of 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 for El Teniente and LKAB

Biggest Ever Disappointment: I don’t think I’ve ever been terribly disappointed. In any case, there is no point in dwelling on 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: Easy-listening classic rock, such as Cat Stevens’

Favourite Sport: Cycling

Favourite Website: There are too many great ones to choose just one

Hobbies: Listening to podcasts and audio books, cycling, hiking, kayaking, and birding

Car: Toyota Fortuner

Pets: A mad Jack Russell named Inky

Miscellaneous Dislikes: Arrogant people

Married: To Sharon, since 1999

Children: Michael, 23; Brandon, 21

Clubs: None