Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto has lined up Trudi Charles as its next chief legal officer, replacing incumbent Isabelle Deschamps at the start of August.
Charles is joining from BP, where she is deputy general counsel and senior vice president for legal, supply, trading and shipping. At Rio Tinto, Charles will be responsible for all legal, governance and corporate affairs-related matters.
London and Melbourne-headquartered Rio Tinto is one of the world’s largest mining companies, chiefly in the areas of iron ore, copper, aluminium and lithium.
Simon Trott, CEO of Rio Tinto, said: “Trudi brings deep legal experience and strong commercial insight. I look forward to having her join the executive team and lead our legal, governance and corporate affairs teams.”
Charles arrives after more than 20 years at BP across a number of legal roles in its downstream and supply, trading and shipping businesses. She previously worked at what is now Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer in London and Hong Kong.
Deschamps will step down as CLO after just over four and a half years with the company. She was previously GC at paints and coatings manufacturer AkzoNobel and GC for Europe at Unilever. Prior to that she spent more than 16 years at Nestle, almost a decade of them as head of legal and company secretary.
She started her career in private practice at Canadian firm Hudon Gendron Harris Thomas in Montreal.
In other extractives-related in-house moves, back in July 2024 Spanish oil and gas heavyweight Cepsa hired Virgina Beltramini as CLO from Atento, replacing Jörg Häring in the role.
In June that year, ExxonMobil hired Jeff Taylor as GC from Fox Corporation, succeeding Craig Morford who was retiring from the role.
That April, Haleon CLO Bjarne Philip Tellmann left to join Saudi Aramco – the world’s largest oil producer – as deputy GC. He has since left to start his own advisory and executive coaching business FjordStream Advisors.
And in December 2023, BP named Michael Sosso as its top lawyer, replacing Eric Nitcher. Sosso was previously senior vice president legal for its gas and low carbon energy, production and operations and regions, and corporates and solutions business lines.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
