Kous Kirsten

B.Eng (Mining)

General Manager Leonora Operations

Kous was appointed General Manager - Leonora Operations in 2012. Kous leads the Leonora team in meeting safety, environment and production objectives and maximising the return on assets.

Prior to taking up his current role, Kous was the Company’s General Manager - Southern Cross Operations.  Kous joined the Company in 2007 to build internal capability in respect of technical systems and processes across Operations. Kous's prior roles have included Manager Mining Open Pits, Acting Manager Mining Gwalia and Principal Mining Engineer Operations.

Before joining St Barbara, Kous held technical and operational management roles with Anglogold-Ashanti. He has over 25 years of mining experience encompassing ultra deep underground mining in South Africa and open cut operations in various countries in Africa, with responsibilities ranging from strong operational contexts to pure technical roles.

Rowan Cole

B.Comm, CA, CIA, MBA, Dip Inv Rel

General Manager Corporate Services

Rowan joined St Barbara in 2010 and is responsible for internal reporting, the timely delivery of market information and overall corporate compliance.

Rowan has 25 years experience across chartered accounting, IT audit, retail banking, private companies and for the five years prior to joining St Barbara was the chief financial and risk officer of a diverse ASX top 300 company, where he was employed to create an effective internal audit and risk management function in a complex, acquisitive environment.  Rowan's responsibilities have varied between external and internal audit, risk management, customer service delivery, marketing, strategy formulation, execution and measurement process and business improvement, financial and business reporting in senior roles including general manager, chief audit executive and chief financial officer.

John de Vries

B.Eng (Mining), MSc (Min Econ), Grad Dip (Econ Geo), Grad Dip Fin Markets

MAusIMM, MAIME, FFINSIA

General Manager Technical Services

John joined St Barbara in 2011.  He is responsible for strategic mine planning, technical support of operations including life extension and productivity improvements, and delivery of major project studies including support of our growth projects.

John is a Mining Engineer with 30 years experience, including the last 15 years in significant technical leadership roles.  He has valuable operational and project experience in Australia, Fiji, the former Soviet Union, Africa and the USA.  His background includes underground and open pit mines across a range of base metals and bulk commodities, including gold.

John has previously worked with BHP Billiton, Orica Mining Services, AMC Consulting and WMC Resources.

Karen O'Neill

B.Compt, MBA, GAICD, ACIS

General Manager Commercial

Karen joined St Barbara in 2012 and is responsible for providing financial advice and services to the Operations Division.

Karen has over 20 years experience in finance and governance roles in a variety of industries including resources, investment banking and professional services.  For the four years prior to joining St Barbara,  Karen was the Commercial Manager/Manager Risk and Assurance of a dual listed copper mining company with market capitalisation of US$1.3billion.  In this role Karen was primarily responsible for all commercial issues, legal and financial, as they related to a US$400M development project in Africa. 

Karen has experience in financial reporting, business analysis and improvement, system development, strategic performance measurement and reporting, project management, audit and risk management.

Maurice Re

B.Sc Hons (Geology), MBA

General Manager Project Identification

Maurice joined St Barbara in 2011 and is accountable for generating and recommending gold prospects for acquisition.  He is instrumental in delivering a pipeline of growth opportunities to the company through a full range of activities from conceptual targeting to purchase of companies.

Maurice has 25 years experience in the resource industry having worked technical, commercial, planning and business development roles for BHP Billiton, WMC Resources and Renison Goldfields Consolidated.  Such organisations provided exposure to a range of commodities such as gold, nickel, copper, iron ore, manganese, uranium, coal, potash and diamonds in Australia and Internationally with his last role in Singapore.

Peter Simko

B.AppSci, Grad Dip (Computer Science), MBA, AIMM, MACS

General Manager IT & Business Systems

Peter joined St Barbara in December 2007 and is responsible for the delivery of IT services, and to lead continuous improvement in business systems capability across St Barbara.

Peter has 25 years experience in the mining, defence and engineering industries with 17 years experience working for mining companies including WMC and Wiluna Mines Limited, in addition to IT management roles with Tenix.

Peter has extensive operational experience working in Australia and overseas across a number of industries. 

Jeff Waddington

JP OMIEAust FLWA

General Manager Environment and Community

Jeff was appointed General Manager Environment & Community in 2012.  Jeff joined St Barbara in 2007 as Senior Environmental Coordinator at Leonora Operations before moving to Perth as Acting Manager, Environment and Rehabilitation and then Manager, Environment and Community. 

Prior to joining St Barbara, Jeff spent two years as State Manager for an Environmental contracting and consulting company. He has over 14 years experience in the mining industry, primarily diamonds and gold.  He spent 24 years in the Western Australian State Public Service, commencing as an Hydrographer in 1972 before reaching the position of Manager, Water Resource Management in the Goldfields and Agricultural region of the (then) Water Authority of Western Australia. Jeff is a Fellow of Leadership WA and a Justice of the Peace.

Lucas Welsh

B.Com CA MBA

General Manager Finance

Lucas joined St Barbara in 2007, and was appointed General Manager Finance in 2012.  Lucas is responsible for the financial reporting, consolidated management reporting, consolidated budgeting and forecasting, internal audit, external audit, treasury, taxation, accounts payable and payroll functions.

A Chartered Accountant with over 15 years experience, Lucas previously worked at PwC in their transaction services department, and in developing a Sarbanes-Oxley risk management compliance framework and tools at WMC Resources.  Lucas’s experience has predominantly been in the resources sector, however, he has also provided financial due diligence services for oil and gas companies, electricity generators and network operators in Australia and China.  Since joining St Barbara, Lucas has built the finance function, and developed the financial systems and process across all areas of his responsibility, with a focus on control and process improvement.