NEIL SYLVESTER

23 years consulting and general management Led substantial and diverse projects for McKinsey, Mitchell Madison Tripled Everest Group's Asian consultancy business Delivered results throughout Asia, Europe and North America BSc Chemical Engineering  - University of Natal, MBA (distinction) - University of  Witwatersrand Speaks English and Afrikaans

During his 19 years as a consultant, Mr. Sylvester has focused on developing and implementing value creation for leading companies around the world. Mr. Sylvester is known for his ability to drive through complex issues to a simple set of directions, sharply focused on the high value opportunities in a business. With an emphasis on building strategic focus among the business units of complex organisations, he has assisted Australian, U.S., Asian and European companies in industries such as mining, manufacturing, utilities, telecommunications, automotive and consumer goods.

CAREER SNAPSHOT

Mr. Sylvester began his consulting career with McKinsey & Company in 1986 and was a founding partner of the Mitchell Madison Group. As CEO of Everest Asia & Australia, he was responsible for developing relationships between the region’s leading companies and outsourcing service providers.

He has had extensive experience working with mining clients, including:

• Identifying performance improvement opportunities at open cast and underground mining operations in Australia, Asia, Europe and Africa
• Developing driver tree models for numerous businesses (extensively for mining companies)
• Developing revenue improvement for base metals
• Developing strategies and policies to deal with commodity risk
• Commodities have included iron ore, steel, coal, salt, diamonds, gold, copper, tin, lead, zinc, oil and gas

He recently led a performance improvement program for an Australian base metals mine which identified $27m worth of improvement opportunities and delivered over $6m annualised improvements within 4 months.

He directed a groundbreaking IT infrastructure and applications development outsourcing initiative valued at US$230 million for a leading Thai bank as well as a transformational outsourcing project for a major Asian airline. Whilst living in the US, he led a US$170 million cost-reduction initiative for a technology company, during which he was involved in breaking a cartel of suppliers in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Rollout was projected to be worth more than US$3 billion.

At an Australian gas and electric utility, initial work on performance drivers led to a $750 million network infrastructure outsourcing initiative, generating a substantial amount of cash and creating a platform enabling considerable growth of the business.

His work has led him to develop sustainable improvement methodologies for service organisations, using strategically focused accountability and organisation designs. He has applied these methodologies in designing the organisation structure, accountabilities and performance measures for a fully integrated energy supplier, a diversified industrial corporation, a large telecommunications company and a major bank.

Prior to his consulting career, as Managing Director of Promex Ltd in South Africa, Mr Sylvester introduced fundamental changes that led the company to industry leadership for well over a decade. As a result of his initiatives.

EDUCATION

Mr. Sylvester earned a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Natal and a MBA from the University of Witwatersrand.