Smallwood will replace former chairman Kelvin Dushnisky, who was appointed earlier this year but recently decided to step down from his role as CEO of AngloGold, thus no longer representing the member company.
“I am honoured to represent the World Gold Council as its new chair, especially in these times when the importance of gold is becoming ever more apparent. There is no better industry body to advocate the case for gold than the World Gold Council, who has worked tirelessly to grow gold’s recognition as an essential allocation within any investment portfolio, while at the same time nurturing the more traditional demand segments,” Smallwood stated in a media release.
“The World Gold Council is well-positioned to continue leading on landmark initiatives that support our industry, such as the development of the Responsible Gold Mining Principles. I look forward to working with David Tait and the rest of the team, and the entire board to further advance the invaluable work of the World Gold Council and deliver industry-leading standards that help set the bar,” he added.
Smallwood has been involved with the company since its founding and joined the Wheaton team on a full time basis in 2007 as executive vice president of corporate development, primarily focusing on growing the company through the evaluation and acquisition of streaming opportunities. He was then appointed president in 2010 and named CEO a year later.
He originally started as an exploration geologist with Wheaton River Minerals, and in 2001, was promoted to director of project development, a role he held through the 2005 merger with Goldcorp (now Newmont).
